There are goals and promises we make to ourselves that are hard to not break! This year, I wanted to make new rules for my business and myself. I knew it was going to be TOUGH, but it would be worth it. 🙂 I am SO excited to have reached my goal for 2014 weddings to just KNOW that I will be able to make it through another year. It is a scary concept … self employed with not a steady, consistent paycheck. This is exactly why I held on to every last breath I had with my graphic design job. I was scared to know whether or not I would succeed and be able to take care of my bills, my clients and taxes. God had a different plan for me and let me know back in October that it was time to take the leap of faith! I could not be more thankful for this push because I realized that in order to make my goals and promises for my business succeed, I needed a break away from the other job.
This year, I made a personal goal of mine to KNOW MY LIMITS. I can tell you that last year, I worked my tail off! In that time, I may have pushed my family, friends and church time off to the side to ensure my business and clients were happy. Sure, of COURSE I want to make sure my client are happy! However, I realized at the end of the year, I was not happy … there was more loss than gain. We all want to feel fulfilled in some way and I thought the more I was able to share with my couples the more happy my business would be. SO WRONG. It’s not about “take in as many sessions as you can cram into your schedule”. This is exactly what I was doing. I was overloading myself and my schedule without knowing my boundaries. How selfish of me to think this way?! I’ll admit, I’m not perfect but this was something I learned from last year and promise myself that I will MAKE time for church, Kyle, family and friends this year.
In order to ensure that I don’t overload my schedule and KNOW my boundaries, I made a few rules for myself. I’ll admit that there are a FEW exceptions with this rule, but so far I’m pretty good this year! I made a goal that I will only schedule 2 sessions per week (3 MAX). I remember last year, there was a time where I was doing 5-6 sessions in ONE WEEK. Really?! AND on top of that, I was still working full/part time graphic design job and moving into a new house. That wasn’t fair to anyone around me or even to my clients when I was taking on that many sessions in one week. Fortunately, I kept my momentum up through the entire time to make sure I was not shorting a session. I’m lucky that my passion kept me going through the hard work I took on last year and not burnt out for this year. That is a big scare for any business owner … to be burnt out of business. Many of us know that feeling, but if you know yourself, steer away from that threat. Make your schedule so you look FORWARD to every session you have in your calendar. I don’t want to get to the point where I’m thinking, “I have to work”. Instead, “I WANT to work!”.
Besides just taking on a limited amount of sessions per week in my calendar, I am not taking on Saturday/Sunday sessions (unless there is an exception). Since I am focusing on my scheduled weddings over the weekend, I should deserve a day off, right? 🙂 So when I have a Sunday wedding, I plan to take Sunday off. I did this last weekend after Matt & Esther’s wedding on Saturday! I took the day off! Do you know how marvelous that felt?! It was so reenergizing! It brightened my mood because I felt like I was able to take some time to spend with the people I love. I was able to backup all of the photos from the wedding, clean my equipment, recharge all of my flash and camera batteries, made homemade french toast for breakfast with my love, tour a new wedding venue, do some gardening in the front yard and make dinner. I did have a “Day After Session” with Matt & Esther on Sunday (that was an exception), but because I kept that date available and allowed myself to take the day off, it felt SO good! I was ready to jump into work this week with a new focus and a refreshed mind. 🙂 This is what I hope to keep as a promise to myself throughout the year. Yes, I’m a hard working businesswoman and I love sharing that, but I also know that I need these Sundays to take some time off for whats important in life. That is God, family and friends!
Because of this timeline I have set for myself (not going over 2/3 sessions per week, taking Sundays off, not working another job on top of business, knowing my limits), I have been able to stay on top of my goals! Of course though, it’s still the beginning of the year, but really this timeline has helped me out SO much!!! I’m able to post up my blog posts when I want to (maybe I would like to get them up a little earlier), package and ship out wedding/portrait packages in a week turnaround, interact more with my couples, stay on TOP of my daily weekday emails, monthly goals are always checked off … all of this has been a huge change from where I was a year ago! I’m thankful for these steps that have been taken. It has been a hard climb, but I’m in a place where I’m happy and I can see a difference in the people around me. 🙂
Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me this entire journey so far! I’m excited to see what the future holds. 🙂 XOXO
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