Can you guys believe we are officially eleven days into 2017? I don’t know about you, but some months I feel like I blink and weeks go by! Fortunately, January hasn’t felt all that quick to me so far, and we’re soaking up the newness of the year still. I love the New Year because it feels like there are months stretching before you that are waiting to be filled with good things. There are new chances to grow, new chances to do things and travel, and a fresh start to evaluate and change things within your life. And hey, a new, pretty planner helps a little, too ???? (I’m using the Simplified Planner Weekly Edition this year!)
Last week, we went on a retreat to get away for a few days and plan the year ahead for our business! After taking a retreat for the first time, we honestly cannot recommend it enough. As I said last week, if you can’t get away for a few days, even taking an hour or an afternoon to intentionally set goals and plan the months ahead is so key to having a successful and intentional year. We talked a lot about our personal and our business goals for 2017, and while I won’t share our entire, massive lists (sometimes we get a little carried away!), I wanted to share a few from each with you guys! We aren’t really “resolutions” people… I think goals are a lot more realistic, measurable and attainable! So… here we go!
Personal Goals
- 8-8 social media: Back in November, our church did a Month of Margin and encouraged everyone to step away from certain things in life to make room for more of Jesus! We chose to commit to only being on social media from 8:00am to 8:00pm! So, starting at 8:00pm, we didn’t check any social media, and we couldn’t peek at it again until after 8:00am the next! It was the best, and we’re going to commit to that again!
- Routines: A lot of what would help us in 2017 is to set up some routines for things in our life! Whether it’s deciding upon certain days to run errands or complete certain business tasks or simply set a “normal” daily schedule, we’re excited to keep figuring these out in 2017.
- Finish Decorating: There are still a few little projects around our house that we want to get done! For example, I want to frame our handwritten wedding vows, find and refinish a coffee table, and add to our gallery wall… and if we don’t write it down, it won’t happen!
- Schedule with Boundaries: We booked ourselves way too much last year, and this year we’re being more strict with our schedules, especially during busy season! We have a plan for this and I’m slightly excited about it. #needed
Business Goals
- Relaunch Email Marketing & Newsletters: We’re totally revamping our email marketing and newsletters into three separate ones! More on that is coming soon, but we’re super excited to reorganize this!
- Expand our Social Media: Alright, stay with me here! We do NOT want to grow our social media following just for the sake of the numbers. Instead, we’re going to be intentional about growing it so that we can reach more people, encourage more business owners, and teach more photographers! We can’t wait to see where this takes us.
- Grow Photographer Relationships: In 2016, we made it a point to meet up with photographers in our area, and it was AMAZING! Y’all, it feels like we have coworkers now! You can learn so much from other photographers, and it’s amazing to have dear friends in the industry to cheer on and to cheer you on. We’re going to focus on that again in 2017!
- Pray for our Business: We want to get serious about praying over our business more this year. From praying for the strong marriages of our couples, direction for our business, or wisdom as business-owners, we’ve committed to praying more for C&L in 2017!
- Launch and Grow: We have some super fun secret projects, announcements and additions to our business to tell you guys about soon, and we cannot WAIT to roll out the things we’re planning in 2017!
What are you going to be intentional about in 2017? We want to be inspired by you… leave us a comment below! Happy 2017, friends!
