Well, 2015 feels good so far.  I always look forward to the holidays.  I start getting excited, starting with Halloween, when I turn my front lawn into a graveyard.  I’m itching to decorate our home for Christmas by November (so sorry about that, Thanksgiving, you never get any recognition…), and by New Years Eve I’m reflecting, soul searching, evaluating, planning strategizing for the new year.  I’m always excited for what the new year will bring and how I will grow both personally and professionally.  2014 was mostly a year of strategic planning for me.  I didn’t take on quite as many clients as I normally due and I didn’t plan as many photo shoots as I normally would.  A high-risk pregnancy kept me off my feet and on the couch which was hard for my go-go-go do-do-do personality, but it gave me a lot of time to think and plan for the future of my company.

Here’s how I plan and evaluate for my future.

1 // IDENTIFY & CELEBRATE THE GOOD STUFF

Pop the champagne, baby, let’s celebrate!  I can easily get caught up in the negative, so I usually need to see the a visual of the great things I’ve done throughout the year.  I have to take time to reflect and give myself a high five for all the awesome things I accomplished.  It’s always a “pinch me!” moment because really?  Did I do this?!  WOW!

In 2014, I: Designed a new personalized rubber stamp collection, designed a new water color wedding collection + worked with my favorite people + was featured on Style Me Pretty, worked with a lot of amazing brides, was interviewed by Pretty Living PR, collaborated on two additional photo shoots, my She Leaves a Little Sparkle Wherever She Goes™ print went viral thanks to Better Homes and Garden, and met sweet Charlotte Mae.
 

2 // IDENTIFY WHAT WE CAN CHANGE
I also spent time what didn’t work for me over the last year.  What caused the most amount of stress?  What can I improve on?  What can be streamlined or eliminated?  I’m constantly refining my process and streamlining to make my day flow seamlessly, my work flow more efficiently, and my home-work life more balanced.

Some things in 2014 that could have been improved upon:
Time management (having a rough time balancing family + business), working late and on weekends, inconsistent marketing strategy, spending time designing products that weren’t the core and heart of my business, not saying yes to a few projects that spoke to my heart (like a speaking engagement that I was dying to do, but didn’t think I could pull off).   I also started to notice a really, really big trend:  My company name included the word ‘Printables’ which was really starting to confuse my wedding clients since I exclusively offered printed wedding invitation suites.

3 // BRAINSTORM & IMPLEMENT CHANGES
2015 started off with a bang.  Before 2014 came to a close, I was had identified all my business goals and started putting a lot of them into effect.  This part came pretty easy though I did have to spend some time bouncing ideas off a friend and my husband.  I had to refine my goals and make sure they were attainable, and then it was time to prioritize:  The heart and soul of our company focuses on weddings, which means it’s time to retire a lot of our non-wedding stationery from Etsy (but it’s a great seller on other sites, like Zazzle), and it’s time to create a sister company to focus solely on our wedding paper goods (but more on that later!). 

How do you identify strengths and weaknesses?  How do you implement changes?