2013 Goal Recap

Business

December 12, 2013

It’s that time of year again! Time to reflect on how I did and prepare for the new year:) This year was pretty great…we went from a “me” to a “we” as John joined the business as my full time second shooter, and had SO many adventures together along the way. This Fall alone, I ate my weight in Sheetz hashbrown sandwiches and in a little over four months of our busiest season we put a bajillion miles on our car! I had the opportunity to go to WPPI (something I always dreamed of doing!!), to Michigan for the Turning Tides Retreat (where I learned to swim in a 30 ft lake among other things), I ate Korean food for the first time, shot a wedding on the steps of the Supreme Court, and ran a half freaking marathon. This year was so incredible that I’m not sure how 2014 is going to measure up!

Virginia Lifestyle Photographer_0269My goals:

 

  • Develop client gifts. Done. Mostly. I’ve been tweaking things as I go, but I’m 99.8 percent happy with my current gifts:)
  • Implement PASS. Done. But I may be switching to something else in 2014. I really love the cloud storage, and online downloads of high res files though so whatever I use next will likely have similar features.
  • Tweak my workflow. Done. I’m not going to say I’m a beast at my workflow, but let’s just say, I’m a beast at my workflow. I’m going to go ahead and dust my shoulders off on this one;)
  • Start a monthly duty day. HAVEN’T STARTED. I need to do this! Soon!
  • Simplify bookkeeping. DONE. Mint.com is the best!
  • Invest in new gear. INCOMPLETE. Well technically I did buy some new gear. I bought flashes, triggers, a camera body, cf cards, and a new monitor. I didn’t buy some of the things I intended to though, so I’m leaving this one incomplete for now.
  • Better work/life balance. In progress. Right now I’ll say I’m doing a lot better with this one! But it is off season so that helps:)
  • SECRET PROJECTS. DONE. I started a wedding blog, and hosted a workshop! I never could have imagined I would be doing either of those things this year, but I did! So crazy!
A couple of goals I added at some point in the year:
  • Book ten 2014 weddings. Done! I would actually love to exceed this goal, so if you know anyone who is engaged…holla atcha girl!
  • Plan a honeymoon/getaway with John. Didn’t happen. But we did travel a lot for weddings, and we managed to make time for fun things surrounding the weddings!
  • Experiment with film on the side. Uh somewhat?? I did experiment with VSCO film presets on my personal images if that counts 😉 Haha.
  • Give the blog a facelift. Krista freshened up the blog earlier this year, but I’m honestly ready for another change!! When I first started blogging a couple years ago, I didn’t really know any other photographers with a sidebar…now everyone has them and I think I’m going to go in a more unique direction so it sticks out more to potential clients!
  • Volunteer. I feel terrible about this, but it never happened. I hope to make it happen over the holidays.
  • Utilize social media better. I’m still working on this one. I think I’m realizing this is just not one of my strengths!
  • Finally make and order a sample album. I have yet to order that sample, but I ordered one for clients from Madera and it was absolutely gorgeous! I can’t wait to have my own to show off!
  • Host a client party. Didn’t happen. This one was really hard to wrap my head around because I travel pretty frequently for weddings so my clients aren’t really central to one particular area. I have some ideas about how to go about this, but I’m not sure how to make them happen, so this one is unfortunately incomplete.

It’s crazy to look back at this list and realize that 2013 is pretty much over! This year wasn’t perfect (no year ever is), but overall when I look at this list, I feel pretty accomplished. I got a lot of what I wanted to do done and I’m really proud of that! I’m looking forward to reflecting on both my successes and failures and sitting down to write out my 2014 goals.

 

Leave a Comment

  1. Brea says:

    Way to rock out your goals! I’m shocked that you don’t consider that upgrading enough gear – THAT’S A LOT!! Haha

    So proud of your secret projects!

  2. Justin says:

    Way to knock out your goals Katie! Keep pushing yourself for greater things!

  3. Isabelle says:

    Wow, that’s a long list!! Great having them goals and to keep pushing forward!!

  4. Urška Majer says:

    You did pretty good with these! I’m never good with goals but i set a goal to make a goal list for next year haha 😀

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