Even as we’re in the thick of holiday sales and the general slam of holiday life with family commitments, hectic day job schedules, and the partying of the season, I can’t help but think about the New Year.

Planning is one of my favorite things to do. I’m an INTJ. I love the big picture. I love the “what if.” I love milestones and opportunities to reflect on the past and plan for the future.

I can’t help but think about next year and how I want to do some things differently.

Let me tell you about September 2009. I got a call early one evening in mid-September. There was a medical emergency in the family and I needed to get to Florida to stay with my Dad the next day. I had no idea how long I’d be at Dad’s.

The good news is that I telecommute full time for my day job. As long as I have my cell phone and a fast internet connection, I’m good.

But I wasn’t taking my studio with me. I’d have my camera, but I wouldn’t have my flat files, my printer, my papers, my shipping supplies. I put my etsy shop on vacation mode.

I ended up staying in Florida a little over 2 weeks. It was sort-of a forced etsy vacation. And I loved it.

My etsy sales are up and down. Some months are busier that other months. I had been thinking that the slow times were sort-of time off. But minding a slow shop is a very different thing than closing shop and taking a vacation. The vacation was a real break. Some days I didn’t even look for convos. I didn’t worry about staying on top of emails. It was heaven.

My epiphany was that a slow shop is not a vacation. One of my goals for 2010 is to schedule a few vacations from my indie business activities.

I’m going to identify a few weeks to take off and get them in my calendar in January. I find that if I schedule things ahead of time and put them in my calendar, they seem like a done deal and I’m less likely to think of all the reasons I shouldn’t take the time off.

Do you schedule vacations from your business? How far in advance do you schedule your time?

Imagine this: You wake up tomorrow morning. Get some coffee. Log in to your laptop. Sales have been hopping in your online shop! More than a usual good sales day. Woot! A few more sales come in. Your email inbox is filling up with enquiries. Can your item can be made bigger, smaller, more blue, in sets of four, yada yada yada.

Your wildest dreams have come true. Your shop has been featured on a popular website. (I write from experience, see Photojojo’s 20 Photographers Whose Work You Can Actually Afford.)

This is the break you’ve been wishing for. But are you ready? The time to get ready for your big break is before it happens!

Get ready for your dreams to come true. Now.

1. Pick a number. How many of your widgets would you like to be ready to sell in a week? Planning for a “large” number of sales without a number in mind just doesn’t work so well, in my opinion. How many widgets do you need to have ready to sell? How many mailing boxes do you need? Pick a number.

I’ll tell you how I pulled a number out of my hat. Your mileage may vary. For me, as a photographer on etsy, I looked at the Etsy Featured Sellers who were photographers and counted the number of prints they sold in the few days they were featured. It wasn’t an exact count, more of a guideline. In the end, I came up with 100. I always want to have the supplies on hand and systems in place to be ready to get 100 orders out the door within a week.

2. Inventory your supplies. Make a list of consumables that are depleted with each sale. For photographic prints, the list might be: paper, ink, postcards that I include as freebies with each order, cello sleeves, packaging supplies, mailing boxes, bubble wrap, tubes, printer labels. Then take inventory and note how long it takes to get more.

This is where that number you picked in #1 comes in handy. Now decide how many/much of each thing you want to have on hand and when to re-order. Bubble wrap I can buy locally; USPS priority mail boxes take a week or two to arrive after I order them online. Since it may take a while to get mailing boxes, when I’m down to 150 boxes, I order more.

3. Capture the opportunity to build your email list. Folks are curious about your shop when the feature is fresh in their minds– don’t let them forget you! Email list sign-ups are the acorns for your big oaks later. Make it easy for shop visitors to sign up; encourage folks to sign up to your email list with a link in your shop announcement. Put a link to sign up in your email signature.

If you don’t already have an email list started, sign up for one now! Some email marketing services: Mailchimp, Bravenet, Aweber

(Update: Check out How to Market Your Etsy Shop with Mailchimp)

4. Anticipate your buyers’ questions. You know the questions you get in emails from buyers. Maybe the questions are answered on your website or in your shop, but you still get the same enquiries. Be ready to quickly respond. Have answers typed up and ready to copy, paste and customize.

This is a start on getting ready for getting your socks blown off. More tips will be on the way. How are you getting ready for the spotlight?

Calendars! I was just looking at the lovely calendar round-up on Decor8 and I was reminded of a missed opportunity.

I had a passing thought about making a calendar for my photography shop earlier in the year. It was Spring & I figured had months to think about it– the format, design, printing options, costs, … So now it’s October & the design blogs are featuring 2010 calendars. If I wanted to create a calendar with my photography, it would have been nice to have done it already & get in on the seasonal buzz.

I keep to do lists, but I don’t have a business calendar. I’m talking about a different kind of calendar– I mean a seasonal schedule, something to remind me in July to get busy on designing & printing calendars for the next year. A reminder in December to get busy on Valentine’s Day cards & promotions would be helpful. You might include your schedule for sending email newsletters. If you’re a blogger, you might make an editorial calendar.

The format of your business calendar could be a spreadsheet or to-do lists for each month or season. Reminders in your electronic calendar (google, ical, …) would be handy.

Do it. Make a calendar for your business. I’m getting started on mine. What tasks are you adding to your biz calendar?