As an entrepreneur, I know it’s important to recognize milestones. Many of us work alone, and we don’t have a team to celebrate accomplishments.
With July nearly here, I’ve been reflecting on the last six months. In honor of the year’s halfway point, I’m highlighting a few personal and professional wins.
SELFCARE
This was one of my most surprising recent discoveries!
I’ve always been into climbing and bouldering, so my hands have tended to be rough ‘n tough. With all the local climbing gyms closed for the past year, my hands had time to heal — and I’ve been pampering them with at-home manicures.
I recently discovered Static Nails, cruelty-free and vegan pop-on manicures. They’re super fun and easy to apply on the weekends. For a web designer who spends a lot of time on her computer and phone, it’s been fun to have pretty nails for a change!
Simple self-care FTW.
CRAFTSWOMANSHIP
I’ve officially embraced my love of crafting. It’s a joy to unplug in the evenings and focus my attention on art I can actually hold and feel. Plus, the more time I spend in creative offline pursuits, the more I feel my online designs improving.
In the past few months, I’ve started dedicating more time to crafts. My favorites lately are fabric dying and sketching — but my drawing skills are so rusty, it’s legit embarrassing.
I’ve finally decided to call on the experts. Aka I’m taking a summer class at High Low, Portland’s artist-run space. This will be my first official art class since college…queue the excitement and nerves.
GROWTH
Earlier this year, I finally decided it was time to take some work tasks off my plate. There were more projects than one person (yours truly) could complete. It was time to grow my team.
I interviewed several local creative professionals before bringing on a copywriter and graphic designer — hi, Kristin and Emily!
I’m so excited to have them on the Studio Anansi team. Since they joined, I’ve been able to focus more on the work that I love (designing and building websites) while still offering full-service packages to clients.
SKILLS
I also recently designed and launched two e-commerce stores from scratch.
I’ve worked on digital stores in the past — but in those instances, the store owners came to me with an online store that was already built. These were my first times designing and building stores myself…and there were a LOT of unexpected elements to cover.
I had ton of fun (yeah yeah, nerdy fun I know) setting up inventories, order emails, payment processing, shipping, and the other details of e-commerce. Now I have my online store setup checklist, the next ones will be even smoother and faster.
CONSISTENCY
At the start of this year, I committed to publishing one blog post and one email each week.
Sticking to this schedule has been tough at times, especially when weeks got busy and writing fell to the bottom of my to-do list. But I know that consistency is important for my business and SEO — and sharing information and resources is honestly something that I really enjoy!
I’ve finally figured out a schedule to keep me publishing regularly without reaching that dreaded state of Friday Overwhelm. With a few extra posts always kept in the wings *just in case*, I don’t feel pressure to write at all costs. Less pressure = better quality and more thoughtful topics.
Wondering how blogging can boost your business? Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming post on this very topic!
…
What are some things you’ve enjoyed from the past six months? Get in touch to let me know!
