As the year winds down, it is important to sit down and reflect on all your business experiences, both good and bad. Sometimes we get caught up in the day to day operations of our farm's and fiber product sales and it easy to lose sight of the big picture. Once the holiday's wind down, brainstorming goals for the upcoming year are a great way to wait out the cold weather.

We all measure success in different ways, so it is important to outline at the beginning of the year what you want to accomplish. As we sit down and reflect on the previous year, and list goals for the upcoming year, we also outline strategies to obtain these goals.

Example:
Long Term Goal - Gain more exposure in my Local Community for my Animals and Fiber Products.

Goal Strategy - Plan an Open House Day on the Farm, and advertise in local paper/bulletin boards. Invite local art and school groups for farm visits. Attend the Local Farmer's Market. Write an article about Alpaca Farming for the Local Paper.

As you can see, you can quickly get a good sense of what needs to be done to achieve your goals. Reviewing your strategies, you can determine what is time sensitive and needs to be accomplished in the short term, and what can be put off until later in the year.

If you would like, you can even break down your Goal strategies further.

Example:
Goal Strategy - Invite Local Art and School Groups out to the Farm for educational and recreational visits.

Step 1 - List out Possible Groups and Schools with contact information
Step 2 - Plan a tour / Information for the intended group. This could be as easy as letting a painting group loose on your property for the day, allowing them to capture the lifestyle in their art form.
Step 3 - Contact Groups and Schools and provide them with the idea and any key information they would need.
Step 4 - Confirm and Schedule visits, prepare as needed.

By defining our business goals and strategically mapping out how to achieve them, our upcoming year begins to shape into a new and exciting one. It is a new oppurtunity to learn from our mistakes and continue to grow our farms and fiber product sales, the true way of all aspiring entrepreneurs.

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own." --Mark Victor Hansen

This Christmas season we at Lazy Acre Alpacas felt a strong need to give back to Rochester, NY community. We recently opened a new clothing store called Alpaca Country Clothing and Gifts, offering a wide spectrum of alpaca products from the beautiful warm and stylish clothing to housewares including coffee and chocolates made from alpaca coffee beans harvested in Peru. The new Alpaca Country Clothing and Gift shop is located in a quaint upscale village of Pittsford NY. This village has been known for years as an up scale shopping area made up of stylish boutiques and unique shops and spas that offer a different shopping experience that you don't get from shopping at a mall or on line.

The products that we offer come from many sources. We first are a farm raising both Haucayas and Suri Alpacas and are members of both the New England Alpaca Fiber Pool and AFCNA fiber co-op. Every year after sending in our clip to the fiber pool and co-op, we get back products and sell it at our farm gift shop to people visiting the farm. These visitors loved our product and through word of mouth our business has flourished. This fall we decided to look for a retail location close enough to manage and hit our target market, Pittsford NY. was our choice. The shop has only been opened for a month and we have had an overwhelming amount of people visit, shop, and really experience the alpaca clothing from Alpaca Country.

To this success we wanted to give back to the area some how .We came up with an idea to assemble a Winter Survival Kit to give to the homeless in Rochester NY. Several of our suppliers donated Alpaca products and we were able to assemble 25 sets of all Alpaca hats, scarves, gloves, and socks to help the homeless get through the cold ruthless winters here in the Northeast. We are planning to publicly donate this package just before Christmas on TV during a morning news show watched by thousands here and around the surrounding Rochester area.

Contributions
Alpaca Gloves - NEAFP
Alpaca Scarves - NEAFP
Alpaca Hats - Everything Alpaca
Alpaca Socks - Peruvian Link

We would like to thank the companies that have helped us make this idea a reality, and to also thank our customers in the Rochester area that have continued to make our Alpaca Retail store a success. Happy Holidays!

By Mark Gilbride - Lazy Acre Alpacas