chriswoodartist

Planning. . .

In my experience, whatever business you are in, it can be all too easy to lose track of goals – we become reactive rather than proactive.

I trained as an artist over 50 years ago and have had a fine art practice ever since. During that time I have worked hard but not necessarily smarter and leaner so I have been working to address that.

To succeed in any business (and art is business) you need a PLAN. Some might argue that as an established artist you don’t need a plan but I still have plenty of goals and I have decided to formulate not one but three components to a business plan.

Whenever I do any planning I try to establish the WHAT WHERE & HOW – the WHEN is linked to the WHAT. WHEN : 3 months, 1 Year and 3 Years

My plan will all be what’s known as “SMART plan”or a SMART goal, which is a structured, strategic framework that will be used to facilitate my objectives.

SMART : The acronym stands for:

• Specific: Your objectives are detailed, clear, and focused. (e.g., Instead of “I want to get fit,” it’s “I want to run a 5K.”)
• Measurable: You can quantify your progress and know exactly when it is accomplished. (e.g., “I will run 5 miles without stopping.”)
• Achievable (or Attainable): The objective is realistic, given your current resources, abilities, and constraints.
• Relevant: The plan matters to you and aligns with your broader personal, career, or business goals.
• Time-bound (or Timely): There is a specific deadline or timeframe to keep you accountable and prevent delays. 

In my former life, I was a teacher and I used to set my students SMART PLANS for completing coursework etc, I wrote PLANS in the back of their sketchbooks and the OFFSTED inspectors loved it ! Now it’s my turn to write myself a PLAN.

Goals

Writing a plan is relatively straightforward once you have an established a definitive GOAL but defining just what the goal is can be challenging !

I will reveal a bit more in a subsequent post but if you have any thoughts about career PLANNING please leave a comment