It’s not quite the end of 2012, but as far as my business is concerned, I’ve been nearly on holidays since last week. “Nearly on holidays” is as good as it’s going to get because this holiday season is actually a great time to fit in some preparation for 2013, having an extra babysitter at home for a fortnight! And that’s fine by me, since I actually love what I do – having a bit of time to do some work is quite a pleasure, and I can always interrupt it by going out for a splash in the pool if my office gets too hot. Or just indulge on the chocolate gifts I hope Santa is bringing me (I promise I’ve been good).
For the first time, I’ve been trying to do some more serious reflection on the business year that was, and think harder about the business year ahead. Given that my business kind of started itself back in 2010, and that since then I’ve been juggling two lives as the mother of a toddler and a small business owner, I’ve never really stopped to think about these things and it’s been a really valuable exercise. Especially in an area like social media which changes just SO rapidly, it’s probably important to do it even more than once a year.
I’ve had lots of favourite bits of 2012, but some of the highlights were probably being asked to speak at the Media140 conference (especially because the venue, outdoors at the Northbridge Piazza, was pretty cool!), starting up my Kitchen Table Social Media workshops and having all the courses fill up quickly (thanks gang!), and continuing to meet new bunches of beginner bloggers at my UWA Extension Becoming a Blogger courses (and I’m very proud that each of these sold out. Go blogging!!).
So, what’s in store for 2013?
If I knew the exact answer to this I’d be a squillionaire but I figure a bit of daydreaming doesn’t hurt (and I dare my clients to do it too – go on!).
One of the things that I know is happening that I’m really excited about is almost more back in my freelancer days but is still definitely in the training field and that’s the Globejotting: Learn to travel write course that I’m teaching from January. Also at UWA Extension I’ll be running my regular Becoming a Blogger courses, some social media for business, and my advanced blogging course will get an outing too (one of my favourites!).
I’ve been thinking about how to focus my business on the parts of it that I love the most, and face-to-face training keeps coming to mind and because of that I’ll definitely be running some more Kitchen Table workshops. Particularly since it’s another great excuse to eat cake (see a new possibility for workshop cake below – I trialled it today and my not-particularly-cake-mad mother asked for a second piece!). My absolute favourite of these courses so far was “Writing Better Blog Posts” because I got to combine my love of blogging and social media with my love of writing, so I’m going to look at some more of these kinds of workshops in the future too.
What else? Well, since I’m heading to Europe for a month (yay!!) I’m going to need to figure out some more “location independent” ways to operate my business and taking off on a trip gives me excellent motivation to do this. And yes, there’s a contradiction there in wanting to do lots of face-to-face training and then be location independent to travel but I figure it’s all just a continuation of the juggling act of life.
I would love a kitchen table course that looked at moving from blogging to (paid) writing and publishing or blogging to books, even if it just focussed on the similarities and differences between the two types of writing and what pitfalls to avoid.
Merry Christmas to you Amanda, your family and all your other blogging buddies. I hope your 2013 dreams come true.
Ooh that does sound like a good idea Shan, I will add that to the list – thank you! And I hope you and yours also have a wonderful 2013.