Reflecting on 2023

Personal

…but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Rewind time…

I’ve been reflecting.

Not only on what the studio has accomplished in the past year, but also how things felt (to me, success is an equal blend of financial health AND feeling good in life).

And I’ve come to a main conclusion that I wanted to share with you guys.

It’s ok to learn as you go.

This year, I hired on my amazing team (hi, Lauren and Aleigh!), and it was a totally “dive in head first and figure out the details later” type of decision (guided of course by my intuition that has truly never led me wrong).

This meant that I was experimenting with increasing the studio’s workload while maintaining my typical 25ish hour work week, and it was a doozy!

I learned SO much about my ideal cadence, my company’s work speed (insanely fast and nimble but not limitless), and what truly being the head honcho of an entity separate from just my own brain really looked like.

I made a lot of mistakes in this transition period:

  • I overbooked the studio in Oct./Nov. (all with amazing projects so I don’t regret a thing!)
  • I miscalculated some payrolls
  • I had some shocking tax liabilities that I wasn’t mentally prepared for (but my business was prepared, thank God for my amazing CPA)
  • I filled out paperwork incorrectly
  • I missed some business expenses that costed me more than I needed to pay
  • I didn’t give certain parts of my process enough time and that put pressure on us
  • I stayed up late working after bedtime some days (not ideal!)
  • Some of my offers weren’t that profitable, and some I undercharged on

But you know what?

All of those things let to some major changes in the studio that I know will impact me, my team, and my clients so positively.

Things like:

  • A really profitable project cadence planned out for 2024
  • An automated payroll that (hopefully) will feel like a breeze (looking at you, Gusto 👀)
  • A robust understanding of my tax structure so I won’t be surprised again (just defeated and sad at how high taxes are, haha)
  • Cutting out expenses I don’t need for a lean operating expenses category in my books (a big goal for 2024!)
  • An airtight process that allows the team to be on the same page at all times
  • A refreshed, standardized timeline that gives us breathing room and delivers projects efficiently
  • An updated offer suite designed to provide insane value for our clients and insane profitability for HJC

The key here?

Learning as you go should be CELEBRATED.

Don’t be ashamed at messing up. Because that’s exactly how you figure things out.

Anyone else make the mistakes I did this year? Did this resonate? Hit reply to let me know!