6 Things I am working on to improve my business in 2024

I am not usually a goal-setter, in fact every time I have set goals for myself and for my business usually, I forget about them a few weeks in. I get busy and at the end of the year it is just a disappointment to realise I didn’t achieve the things I wanted to achieve. This year I am reframing it and I have things I am working on; they are not goals they are more like guidelines for how I want to run my business and my life this year. So let’s dive right in…

1. Adventure and Play

This year I decided to choose a word of the year, I have never done that before. I think I have never been clear enough about what I wanted to achieve and picking just one word felt hard and scary. This year it just came to me, my word is Adventure. This applies to my non-work life in regards to wanting to get out and about more, get into nature more and just generally take roads that I wouldn’t normally choose and see what happens. That same theory applies to my creative work, it is something I started doing in 2023 and want to continue with. It is so easy to get stuck going down the same path over and over again but you never learn anything new that way. A different road may be scary but it could also produce the best work I have ever created (no pressure). It is more about trying new things and seeing where they lead, going with the flow and not forcing ideas to work if they have hit a dead end. I want to bring back that same kind of enthusiasm you have as a kid, so curious, everything is a fun new adventure and that is going to be the basis of my work this year. That also means working more of my own personal ideas and letting my creativity flow without the restriction of a client brief, this is something I have always had in the back of my mind but never made a priority but it’s time for that to change.

2. Being more present with email marketing and on my blog

Ok if I’m being honest this is something that I say to myself every year, so what makes 2024 the year that I am finally going to commit to these things? I already have SO many ideas about what I want to write about on my blog, I have revisited ideas I came up with in the past and reframed them to fit where my head is at currently. The reason the ideas never came to life on my blog was because they weren’t me, they were things that I thought I SHOULD write about and what I thought other people wanted to see. I want to write from a much more honest space and on subjects that mean something to me personally and that I have experience with. With my newsletter, keeping it simple is key – no over thinking required.

3. Working with brands that share my values and vibe

This has always been something that I have focused on but this year I want to take it to another level. It took me a long time to realise that not every brand that walks through the door is going to be the right fit for me, who knew that I actually had the option to say no? Working with brands that share similar values to me is very important, working with products that I love and would use myself is also key – if you already love them from experience those creative ideas are going to flow much easier and that is why this is important to me. It is a way of my protecting my creativity, the thing that fills my day, makes me money and makes me feel alive. Why would I want to jeopardise that to work with a brand that I wasn’t inspired by… I wouldn’t.

4. Stepping out of my comfort zone

This one is similar to going on an adventure. I have never been one to step out of my comfort zone, especially as I have got older. Last year I took a few steps in the right direction, a new direction and even though doing those things freaked me out I did them anyway because I knew deep down they were the right thing for me, and how do you think it felt afterwards? SO damn good!!! Having that feeling a few times was enough to encourage me to take more steps out of my comfort zone and this year I plan to continue doing that, it is where all the important learning lies.

5. Creating personal habits that nurture my creativity

Another lesson that I have learned the hard way is that you can be doing all the right things in your business but if you are not looking after yourself and nurturing your body and mind you are going to be no good to anyone. Over the past few years I have started to build habits into my day that help to improve my mindset and reduce all that anxious energy that was pretty common for me. Yoga and meditation have been my go-to tools for a number of years now. They are not a quick fix but as time goes by you realise that you’re not as nervous as you would have been, you can handle a little bit of stress and not lose it, you have the stamina physically and mentally to get through a full day of shooting without getting tired, you have the determination to stand in the discomfort and work through it, all things that not only benefit my personal life but obviously have a major effect on my work life as well.  Anyway, I feel like this could be a whole other blog post but the key is to allocate time for your good habits then work around that – look after yourself first.

6. Sharing more honestly about being creative

Let’s be honest, sometimes this creative biz is hard, especially when it is just you doing all the things. I feel like there is so much focus on the pretty pictures, BTS and fun stuff that the harder stuff gets pushed to the side sometimes. I never really speak about the harder stuff as often because it is not the exciting thing and you never want to be consistently bringing those negative vibes, by being honest I just mean sharing more of the boring stuff, the real-life stuff, the stuff that gets in the way of me having a great day at work. Don’t get me wrong this job is fun, it is often throwing confetti and eating snacks afterwards, but not everything goes to plan and I want to be more honest about that as it feels authentic to me.

I hope this has in some way inspired you to think about what you are working on this year.

Have a lovely day xo