December 11, 2023 • 8 mins
In this episode of "How You Pictured It," we walk through a comprehensive end-of-year reflection process, designed specifically for creative solopreneurs. As 2023 draws to a close, it's the perfect time to look back on your projects, client interactions, and personal growth to help set the stage for a successful 2024. I discuss the importance of reviewing the past year, understanding customer feedback, analyzing returning clients, and finding the right balance between work and life. We also delve into optimizing your systems, financial review, and the role of education and development in your business growth.
In This Episode, You'll Learn:
- How to conduct a meaningful review of the past year's projects, including what worked and what didn’t.
- Strategies for gathering and using customer feedback to improve your services.
- The value of analyzing returning clients to understand successful client relationships.
- Practical tips for achieving work-life coexistence and setting effective boundaries.
- Ways to review and update your business systems and processes.
- The importance of a financial review and budget adjustment for the coming year.
- How to identify areas for personal and professional development.
- The role of networking and collaboration in business growth.
Resources Mentioned:
- Downloadable list of reflective questions.
- Tools for surveys and client feedback: JotForm, Typeform.
- CRM systems for improving business workflows: Dubsado.
Connect with Us:
- Share your reflections and insights with Kate on Instagram @dearkatebrandstrategy.
- Visit the Dear Kate Brand Strategy website for more resources and support.
Closing Thoughts:
Your journey through 2023 has been unique, and reflecting on it is key to moving forward with purpose and clarity. Use the insights from this episode and the downloadable questions to craft a strategic and successful path for the coming year. Id love to hear about your key takeaways and any surprises you encountered during your reflection. Send me a DM over on Instagram @dearkatebrandstrategy Join us next week for more insights and strategies tailored for creative solopreneurs like you.
Follow Dear Kate Brand Strategy on Instagram
Learn more at Howyoupicturedit.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kate (00:00):
Welcome back to How You Pictured It.
(00:02):
As we near the end of the year.
It's so easy to jump ahead andstart thinking about goals for
2024.
But before we do that, let's goahead and do some closing duties
on our business for 2023, let'sput a recap on what went well,
what needs to go better, whatchanges you could make, and kind
of figure out what those goalsneed to be going forward.
(00:22):
It's always best to look back,to see where you've come from to
help you guide where you'regoing.
ATR2100x-USB Microphone & 108 (00:27):
I created a downloadable list of
questions that you can look atto recap your year.
You can findthat@howyoupicturedit.com or in
the show notes of whateverpodcast player you're listening
to.
Let's get started.
First, I want you to look backover all of the projects that
you had this year.
Maybe make a list of everythingthat you worked on and go
through and find, which wereyour top favorite projects that
(00:49):
you worked on.
And let's review why those weregreat.
Did we love the scope of thework?
Did we love the project itself,the actual work, their
creativity that was involved?
Did we love the client?
What were the winds of each ofthose favorite projects?
And how can we think aboutgetting more of that in the new
year?
While we're at it.
(01:10):
Let's also look at.
The things that not go so well.
Which projects do you never wantto do again?
Where they, because of theclient where they, because of
scope creep.
The nature of the work itself.
What was it that you did notlike about those projects and
how can we make sure to changethat in the new year as well?
While you're going through thoseprojects from the year, it would
be a great idea to pull outfavorite images.
(01:32):
Favorite.
Portfolio pieces that you canadd to update your portfolio.
We get so in the weeds ofworking throughout the year,
that it can be hard to update aswe go now is a great time to
update your website with freshwork and stories of that work as
well.
You can also use that to createsome social media posts and.
(01:53):
Fill out your social mediacalendar for the coming year.
With that.
We also get into our next tip,which is to look at customer
feedback.
If you have received feedbackfrom customers already this
year, That's great.
If you haven't, it's a greattime to send out a end of year
client survey.
You can use something like jotforms or type forms to send out
(02:13):
a survey to clients, asking themjust a few basic questions.
I would say keep it to 10 orless.
Um, this will be so helpful foryou going forward.
Questions to include, could bethings like, why did you choose
me to work with, for thisservice?
What, sent you looking for myservice in the first place.
Um, you could ask things aboutwhat did you think of the
process?
(02:34):
What were your favorite parts ofthe process?
Is there anything that you wouldwish had changed?
These are all really great.
Um, questions to ask to helpyou.
Not only like, figure out.
Where to go in the new year, butto use to influence your copy,
writing your messaging and howyou talk to future clients.
It also suggests asking for areview in these surveys, ask
(02:56):
them what they would say to afriend that was looking for a
service similar to yours.
You can then also ask them tocopy and paste that to your
Facebook or your Google reviews,but it's nice to have a.
Um, hard copy of it, yourselfthat you can, uh, use to update
your website.
Um, use in social media posts,things like that.
Always nice to have testimonialsto share.
(03:17):
Using client words.
And how they speak and thinkabout you is great for your
copywriting going forward.
Another thing we can do is lookat returning clients.
Did you have clients come backto you?
What made them come back?
That's good information toinform you for the coming year.
And how to retain more clients.
(03:37):
It's so much easier to keep aclient than to gain a brand new
one.
So anytime we can get peopleback in the door is so valuable.
Looking at those clients thatdid return gives us an idea of
what a successful clientinteraction was and how we can
repeat that process to get moreof those types of clients.
Next, we're going to talk aboutwork-life coexistence.
(04:00):
Not work life balance.
I don't really think that is athing.
Work in life have to existtogether.
There's never going to be anequal balance of working and
life.
So finding the kind ofcoexistence, um, is what's
important.
I'd like for you to look back atthe year and think about times
where you thought I should beworking.
And times where you thought Ishould be at home and try to
(04:22):
figure out how we can make surewe feel less of that, um, pull
in the new year.
What boundaries can we put inplace?
Where can we get help at home tomake work easier?
Where can we get help at work tomake home easier?
What things can we do to makethat feel better?.
This leads perfectly into ournext topic, which is systems.
(04:43):
We're going to look at thosethings that we do, um,
repeatedly and regularly.
And they can be automated thingsor they can be a manual tasks
that we do and look at whatneeds to change.
If you've got something like aCRM, like Dubsado.
Um, is that working for you?
Do you need to update workflows?
Do you need to change emails?
(05:05):
I have written canned emails andgo to send them, or have found
with them.
Like in my sent folder, talkingabout my kids being seven years
old and they're definitely notanymore.
So those are things that I needto update and change at the end
of the year.
Um, But also just looking at, amI still doing things the same
way as when I set up thosesystems in the first place?
(05:28):
What has changed, what needs tochange to make that work-life
coexistence happen?
Along with this, we're going toget into finances.
Here's a good time to stop andlook back at the year and see
where you've spent money thatmaybe you're not using the
things that you're spendingmoney on any longer.
What subscriptions do you have?
Are you.
(05:48):
Paying for a CRM or a gallerysystem or some other software
that you're no longer using.
Do you need to add in to yourbudget for next year to allow
for those things?
Let's look at our finances andfind the expenses that have
gotten out of hand and how wecan bring more income in to kind
of balance that.
Our next topic is going to beeducation and development.
(06:10):
We're going to look back at theyear now and think about the
times when you maybe didn't takeon a project because you didn't
feel like you had the skills forit.
So what did you need to learn orgrow in to be able to take on
the work that you wanted to do.
Another thing we can look athere is what we maybe hired out.
But wish we could've doneourselves.
Is that something you wouldrather learn in the new year
(06:31):
then continue to hire out?
If, so, where are you going tolearn that?
Do you have an educator in mind?
Do you have a way to learn that?
So start thinking about thosekinds of things.
What ways do you want to grow inthe new year in your skills and
in your education?
And then the last thing thatwe're going to cover today is
networking and collaboration.
Let's take a look at the peoplethat we worked with this year.
(06:51):
Be it clients that we actuallyhad, or just people that we met.
Um, or people that we hired.
Think back to the people in yourbusiness this year.
And look at how they've helpedyou or maybe not so much and see
how you want to continue ordiscontinue those kinds of
relationships in the future.
Other ways that you can havesimilar relationships to the
ones that have gone well, otherways that you can collaborate
(07:14):
with other business owners.
Think about the who to solveyour problems and not the how
for a little bit.
Kate (07:20):
If You're feeling overwhelmed by all of that, I
totally understand.
It was a lot of questions and alot to think about, which is why
I made you a downloadableworksheet with all of these
questions and a few more to helpyou think through your past
year?
Like I said in the beginning ofthe episode, having a clear view
of the past and where you'recoming from, makes it so much
easier to know where you'regoing and how to get there in
(07:41):
the future.
I want you to take all of thisinformation and make sure that
you are setting good boundariesand good intentional goals for
yourself for 2024.
Having all of this data andexperience is one of the
benefits of being in businessfor more than one year.
You can use this data to informyour decisions going forward.
And it will make it so mucheasier to make smart decisions.
(08:04):
So tell me what was one thingthat stood out from you from
your reflection?
Was there anything that justcaught you off guard as you were
answering these questions?
Was there something that maybeyou didn't realize was a win,
but really was.
Or that you didn't celebrateenough?
Tell me about it in DMS.
Over on Instagram at dear Katebrand strategy.
I'd love to continue theconversation there and I will
(08:24):
talk to you next week.
Have a good one.
Welcome back to How You Pictured It.
(00:02):
As we near the end of the year.
It's so easy to jump ahead andstart thinking about goals for
2024.
But before we do that, let's goahead and do some closing duties
on our business for 2023, let'sput a recap on what went well,
what needs to go better, whatchanges you could make, and kind
of figure out what those goalsneed to be going forward.
(00:22):
It's always best to look back,to see where you've come from to
help you guide where you'regoing.
ATR2100x-USB Microphone & 108 (00:27):
I created a downloadable list of
questions that you can look atto recap your year.
You can findthat@howyoupicturedit.com or in
the show notes of whateverpodcast player you're listening
to.
Let's get started.
First, I want you to look backover all of the projects that
you had this year.
Maybe make a list of everythingthat you worked on and go
through and find, which wereyour top favorite projects that
(00:49):
you worked on.
And let's review why those weregreat.
Did we love the scope of thework?
Did we love the project itself,the actual work, their
creativity that was involved?
Did we love the client?
What were the winds of each ofthose favorite projects?
And how can we think aboutgetting more of that in the new
year?
While we're at it.
(01:10):
Let's also look at.
The things that not go so well.
Which projects do you never wantto do again?
Where they, because of theclient where they, because of
scope creep.
The nature of the work itself.
What was it that you did notlike about those projects and
how can we make sure to changethat in the new year as well?
While you're going through thoseprojects from the year, it would
be a great idea to pull outfavorite images.
(01:32):
Favorite.
Portfolio pieces that you canadd to update your portfolio.
We get so in the weeds ofworking throughout the year,
that it can be hard to update aswe go now is a great time to
update your website with freshwork and stories of that work as
well.
You can also use that to createsome social media posts and.
(01:53):
Fill out your social mediacalendar for the coming year.
With that.
We also get into our next tip,which is to look at customer
feedback.
If you have received feedbackfrom customers already this
year, That's great.
If you haven't, it's a greattime to send out a end of year
client survey.
You can use something like jotforms or type forms to send out
(02:13):
a survey to clients, asking themjust a few basic questions.
I would say keep it to 10 orless.
Um, this will be so helpful foryou going forward.
Questions to include, could bethings like, why did you choose
me to work with, for thisservice?
What, sent you looking for myservice in the first place.
Um, you could ask things aboutwhat did you think of the
process?
(02:34):
What were your favorite parts ofthe process?
Is there anything that you wouldwish had changed?
These are all really great.
Um, questions to ask to helpyou.
Not only like, figure out.
Where to go in the new year, butto use to influence your copy,
writing your messaging and howyou talk to future clients.
It also suggests asking for areview in these surveys, ask
(02:56):
them what they would say to afriend that was looking for a
service similar to yours.
You can then also ask them tocopy and paste that to your
Facebook or your Google reviews,but it's nice to have a.
Um, hard copy of it, yourselfthat you can, uh, use to update
your website.
Um, use in social media posts,things like that.
Always nice to have testimonialsto share.
(03:17):
Using client words.
And how they speak and thinkabout you is great for your
copywriting going forward.
Another thing we can do is lookat returning clients.
Did you have clients come backto you?
What made them come back?
That's good information toinform you for the coming year.
And how to retain more clients.
(03:37):
It's so much easier to keep aclient than to gain a brand new
one.
So anytime we can get peopleback in the door is so valuable.
Looking at those clients thatdid return gives us an idea of
what a successful clientinteraction was and how we can
repeat that process to get moreof those types of clients.
Next, we're going to talk aboutwork-life coexistence.
(04:00):
Not work life balance.
I don't really think that is athing.
Work in life have to existtogether.
There's never going to be anequal balance of working and
life.
So finding the kind ofcoexistence, um, is what's
important.
I'd like for you to look back atthe year and think about times
where you thought I should beworking.
And times where you thought Ishould be at home and try to
(04:22):
figure out how we can make surewe feel less of that, um, pull
in the new year.
What boundaries can we put inplace?
Where can we get help at home tomake work easier?
Where can we get help at work tomake home easier?
What things can we do to makethat feel better?.
This leads perfectly into ournext topic, which is systems.
(04:43):
We're going to look at thosethings that we do, um,
repeatedly and regularly.
And they can be automated thingsor they can be a manual tasks
that we do and look at whatneeds to change.
If you've got something like aCRM, like Dubsado.
Um, is that working for you?
Do you need to update workflows?
Do you need to change emails?
(05:05):
I have written canned emails andgo to send them, or have found
with them.
Like in my sent folder, talkingabout my kids being seven years
old and they're definitely notanymore.
So those are things that I needto update and change at the end
of the year.
Um, But also just looking at, amI still doing things the same
way as when I set up thosesystems in the first place?
(05:28):
What has changed, what needs tochange to make that work-life
coexistence happen?
Along with this, we're going toget into finances.
Here's a good time to stop andlook back at the year and see
where you've spent money thatmaybe you're not using the
things that you're spendingmoney on any longer.
What subscriptions do you have?
Are you.
(05:48):
Paying for a CRM or a gallerysystem or some other software
that you're no longer using.
Do you need to add in to yourbudget for next year to allow
for those things?
Let's look at our finances andfind the expenses that have
gotten out of hand and how wecan bring more income in to kind
of balance that.
Our next topic is going to beeducation and development.
(06:10):
We're going to look back at theyear now and think about the
times when you maybe didn't takeon a project because you didn't
feel like you had the skills forit.
So what did you need to learn orgrow in to be able to take on
the work that you wanted to do.
Another thing we can look athere is what we maybe hired out.
But wish we could've doneourselves.
Is that something you wouldrather learn in the new year
(06:31):
then continue to hire out?
If, so, where are you going tolearn that?
Do you have an educator in mind?
Do you have a way to learn that?
So start thinking about thosekinds of things.
What ways do you want to grow inthe new year in your skills and
in your education?
And then the last thing thatwe're going to cover today is
networking and collaboration.
Let's take a look at the peoplethat we worked with this year.
(06:51):
Be it clients that we actuallyhad, or just people that we met.
Um, or people that we hired.
Think back to the people in yourbusiness this year.
And look at how they've helpedyou or maybe not so much and see
how you want to continue ordiscontinue those kinds of
relationships in the future.
Other ways that you can havesimilar relationships to the
ones that have gone well, otherways that you can collaborate
(07:14):
with other business owners.
Think about the who to solveyour problems and not the how
for a little bit.
Kate (07:20):
If You're feeling overwhelmed by all of that, I
totally understand.
It was a lot of questions and alot to think about, which is why
I made you a downloadableworksheet with all of these
questions and a few more to helpyou think through your past
year?
Like I said in the beginning ofthe episode, having a clear view
of the past and where you'recoming from, makes it so much
easier to know where you'regoing and how to get there in
(07:41):
the future.
I want you to take all of thisinformation and make sure that
you are setting good boundariesand good intentional goals for
yourself for 2024.
Having all of this data andexperience is one of the
benefits of being in businessfor more than one year.
You can use this data to informyour decisions going forward.
And it will make it so mucheasier to make smart decisions.
(08:04):
So tell me what was one thingthat stood out from you from
your reflection?
Was there anything that justcaught you off guard as you were
answering these questions?
Was there something that maybeyou didn't realize was a win,
but really was.
Or that you didn't celebrateenough?
Tell me about it in DMS.
Over on Instagram at dear Katebrand strategy.
I'd love to continue theconversation there and I will
(08:24):
talk to you next week.
Have a good one.
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