Merry Christmas Fellow Small Business Owners!
WOW. It’s the end of the year already. I hope you are enjoying the festive season and hopefully having some down time after the busy Christmas period.
It’s time to have a review of the year. I made a blog post about my Business Goals for 2024 so I will be reviewing what has happened. The good and the bad.
So grab a mince pie, a festive drink of any description and let’s get started.
Financial Goals:
As with all businesses of any size, having a bit of a profit is always a goal. For the past 2 years I have turned a good profit, especially at Christmas. Sadly this year has not been as profitable. Most likely down to the cost of living crisis, resulting in not many customers having the funds to support small businesses.
Which is very fair. I am very grateful for those who have decided to spend some of their pay money in my little store. What has been successful was advertising. I have managed to increase visibility on Etsy, especially at Christmas and get quite a few sales, favourites and followers. So the year hasn’t been all bad.
Lifestyle Goals:
Now that my son has started school I have had more chances to expand my business. But also balancing it with the school run and various school events. While we are still hoping to expand our family I believe I have achieved a good work and life balance.
Impact Goals:
The website was launched this year. One of my goals was to give back and use the blog page to share various articles about starting a small business and basic sublimation tutorials.
I have written 3 tutorials (along with 2 videos). 7 articles about starting and running a small business as a busy mum. It is hard to stand out from the crowd with many sublimation tutorials out there but in my first year I don’t think I have done OK.
Creative Goals:
Despite not achieving getting back into watercolours or other creative outlets; I have tried new sublimation materials and laser cutter designs.
We started offering laser cut and etched items during the autumn. I also started sublimating onto tea towels over Christmas and it was a learning curve and received a lot of help on the Blanks Sublimation community page on Facebook and is now an item to buy for my store.
I did try a makeup bag but the design needs a bit of refining but hoping to add it to my store in 2025.
Optimization Goals:
SEO is not a strong point for me so this was a goal I really did need to focus on. I started using the free version of EHunt which has helped me optimize my Etsy listings and identify potential issues with my listing. I am regularly updating my listings keywords depending on the time of year and most popular search terms on Esty to help increase visibility and sales.
The blog has also been a challenge in this as I tend to write how I talk so I often have to review and change my sentences in order to add in keywords. It’s hard but I think I may be getting there.
Reputation Goals:
I have been focussing on my brand this year a bit more. As I have said previously, my son started school in September so I have had more time to focus on various details of my brand look and feel. Giving my social pages more of a flow and ease of reading.
I have also made sure my customers have had a good experience while shopping with me and I have had very few requests for returns or issues with missing items resulting in a lot more 5 star reviews on Etsy compared to the previous year.
Other Goals:
It took me a while to get brave enough to show my face and voice more on social media and I did a few Instagram stories and tutorial videos with my face in front of the camera. I am still not 100% comfortable with this but I am happy with the amount I have done so far.
Conclusion
So that is my year in review. And although I didn’t reach all of my goals I think I have done well so far in my little business.
As the year comes to an end I will be reviewing my goals and what I want to achieve in 2025 for myself and my business.
Thank you if you have visited my website to read my blog, buy from me or follow me on social media. Your support is greatly appreciated in whatever form.
If you have any questions please use the comment section below or use one of my social media channels. If you have any goal recommendations to make them comment below.
Until then, have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2025.
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