Can you believe it’s 2018?? So many opportunities to make great things happen are ahead of us and I think that’s incredibly exciting! For me, this year is going to be one of big changes and lots of growth, both personally and professionally. With that in mind, I put a lot of thought into what I wanted to put on my to-do list for the year.

Here are a few of my business and personal goals for 2018!

• Return to blogging on a regular frequency. I took a step back from blogging much besides most of my recent work, but in 2018 I’d like to return to blogging at least 2-3 times a week. I noticed that blogging consistently actually did make a big impact on the business, especially when it came to booking new clients. I love writing blog posts, so I’m going to make this a priority again this year!
• Work outside of the home 1-2 times a week. I work from home Monday-Friday and I’m always looking for ways to be more productive. I’ve found in the past that I can get more work done in 2-3 hours spent working at a coffee shop where I’m truly focused (without the distractions of wanting to get a snack, do a chore, or whatever else might grab my attention at home) than I can at my desk. I’d like to incorporate working outside of the home into my regular routine to see if it helps speed up parts of my workflow!
• Get creative with my marketing budget. Last year my big experiment was spending a little bit of money (less than a couple hundred dollars a month) on real deal online advertising. I’ll have to blog my thoughts on this at some point, but the gist of what happened is that I learned that traditional forms of advertising are not for me. I’m glad I tried it, but I’m looking forward to taking that same amount of money and seeing what I can do with it each month to build the business. If you’re interested in hearing about how that goes, let me know and maybe I will share more!
• Meet my booking goal (obviously!). Not much else you can say about this one, right? I’ve lowered my booking goal from years past to allow an even more personalized experience for my clients and also create more of a work/life balance than I had in years past and also give myself a little bit more freedom to work on separate projects…like a book I want to write! See more on that under my personal goal list 🙂
• Create new ways to streamline client experience. Client experience is something that I prioritize when it comes to the business and I think this should be something that continues to evolve over the years. I’m going to sit down and write down each step of what my clients experience from initial inquiry response to final delivery and analyze what can be done better and more efficiently.
• Create an album site. I’ve had a pricing website that’s super easy to update for a few years now and I’ve realized that it’s time to convert my album PDF into an online site too!
• Re-do my pricing website. Again, I’ve had this site a few years, so I’d like to give it a refresh! I’ll also be re-examining my pricing structure and deciding if it’s still working the way I want it to.
• Update my main website to Showit 5. When I updated my site in 2015, it was only a few weeks later when Showit moved over to HTML5…which made me so sad, since I loved the site as it was and wasn’t ready to make changes just yet!!! The time has come to finally migrate, with the help of Three Fifteen Design…who I have been working with for SIX years now!!!

• Read 2 books a month. At first, I thought I’d like to make it a goal to read 100 books a year…until I realized that meant I’d have to read a little more than two books per week. That’s probably doable in off season, but I couldn’t keep up with that in busy season! 2 books a month is way more manageable and still a decent amount of reading!
• Run my second marathon. Four years ago when I ran my first marathon, the experience changed my life. Since the start of that training,  I’ve gone from someone who was a complete couch potato to becoming someone who genuinely loves fitness. I’m excited to see how the marathon goes this time around!
• Begin writing my book. I’ve been saying I’d love to write a book since I was a teenager and I think it’s finally time to make it a reality! I’m still working on ideas, but I’m committed to making this project a priority for myself. There’s no time like the present to bring a dream you’ve had for years to life!
• Incorporate more regular stretching into my fitness routine. I’m terrible when it comes to making time to stretch, but I know that more stretching can only be a positive addition to my life!
• Finish the incomplete items on my 30 Before 30. I wrote a list of 30 things I wanted to do before I turned 30 last July in an effort to push myself out of my comfort zone and do all kinds of things I’ve always wanted to do or try. I made it through about 13ish of the things on the list before my 30th birthday, but I’ve realized that just because I didn’t meet my deadline it doesn’t mean that I can’t finish the list…the purpose of the list still holds up, so I’m going to work on finishing it!
• Pay off my car.Pretty self-explanatory, boring, grown-up stuff.
• Travel to two new places. I love traveling. Like deep down in my soul love it. I can’t imagine a year without it, so this is obviously on the list.