Before looking forward I like to revisit the personal and professional goals I set at the end of 2010 and see how I went. If you look at my post When the Head and Heart Collide I wrote at the same time last year, you can see I set the following goals:

• Write and publish my business book for mums – I am about to finish writing the first draft of Business & Baby on Board to publish around Easter next year

• Find a property for our hazelnut farm – we haven’t bought a farm yet, but have found a property we’re happy to live in indefinitely, so the farm search has changed to include land as we no longer need a property with a house

• Hire another virtual PR consultant to work with me – I started 2011 with Josh and finished with Josh, Emma and Anne all helping to generate amazing publicity for clients

• Treat my business as a valued client and generate some publicity for Strawberry Communications – I became an ABN blogger, was interviewed for the Business Success Podcast, spoke at several events including the Mumpreneurs Conference, was a finalist in the Tasmanian Women’s Entrepreneur Awards, was listed in Ross Dawson’s Top Australian Twitter Influencers, contributed to a book, guest posted on Anita Heiss’s blog and received publicity in news.com.au and The Mercury’s magazine.

• Find peace with my body – this is an ongoing battle for me and I’m definitely not there yet.

I think I did OK with that list. So here’s my combination personal and professional list for 2012.

• Become an author

• Be on track to growing Strawberry Communications’ income by 25 per cent in the 2012-13 financial year

• Be fitter

• Again – find peace with my body

What are your goals for 2012? Meet me back here this time next year to see how I went.

Until recently Wiley was considering publishing the book, but decided the fit wasn’t right so I am now self publishing it. I plan to launch the book around Easter next year.

I have interviewed some amazingly inspiring women about how they make businesses work around their family. These interviews are now finished and I’m about to get stuck into the writing phase with a vengeance.

While that is happening I wanted to share the list of women who have been generous enough to share their stories with me:

• Janine Allis, Boost Juice

• Rebecca Mezzino, Clear Space Organising Services

• Naomi Simson, Red Balloon

• Polly McGee, StartUp Tasmania

• Alycia Edgar, Roaly Group

• Alli Price, Motivating Mum

• Sarah Allen, Sarah Allen Consulting

• Sara Redman, BodyZen

• Celine Egan, TCY Coaching & Training

• Janet Beckers, Wonderful Web Women

• Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment

• Annalisa Holmes, The Transcription People

• Amanda Cox, Real Mums

• Anita Lincolne-Lomax, Babes in Arms

• Amanda Gonzalez, Untangle the Web

• Renee Mayne, Bra Queen

• Susan Pearse, Mind Gardener

• Kaz Cooke, Women’s Stuff author

• Carolyn Cresswell, Carman’s Muesli

• And me!

There will soon be a website dedicated to the Business & Baby on Board book, blog and workshops so stay tuned.

MyColourCups

Mums are pretty simple creatures – we want to see a smile on our kids’ faces, know the family is well and keep everyone happy.

Business mum Shelly Zimmerman has the perfect solution for mums in MyColourCups personalised cups for the whole family.

We have a set of these cups and the kids LOVE them. If you get in by tomorrow Shelly is generously giving 10 per cent off a set of cups.

Just go to www.mycolourcup.com.au enter “4mum” in the friendship code on the order page.

Now sharing cups is more sustainable, hygienic and manageable for the whole family.

Click here to vote for me:

Thanks in advance, Johanna

The Power of 100 eBook

Janet Beckers from Wonderful Web Women honoured the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day last month by producing a book telling the stories of successful business women. I was thrilled to be invited to be one of those women and join 104 fellow authors to create an amazing and inspiring digital and printed book.

Women from around the world shared their stories on how to stay focused on their dreams and achieve their goals. The content includes more than 300 action steps you can use to stay focused on your dreams.

As well as inspiring stories, The Power of 100 includes more than $5000 value of gifts donated by all the authors to you so download your copy of the eBook now here.

Please grab your copy today as my gift to you and let me know which stories resonated with you the most.

I suffered a head injury in April which left me struggling to work for three months, but after some enforced recuperation time I was able to look back at those events and reflect on what – and who – were really important to me.

I would have to say that accident in April has been a defining moment for me and I’m almost (I say almost) grateful it happened. I say this because I’m not certain we would have made the decision to sell our home and follow our dream to be hazelnut farmers unless faced with something as big and life-changing as my head injury.

This accident made me realise life is short and I need to live it now, not some time in the vague future.

So I started weeding out clients and projects that didn’t fit with my vision for Strawberry Communications. I also started systemising the business operations and accounting practices. Not working properly for three months meant everything fell in a big heap because I was the one who made it all happen. This had to change.

I started delegating tasks I didn’t need to perform so I could concentrate on the work I was really good at. And moving interstate meant I had to establish a whole new network, so my communication skills got a work out. The bump on the head could have almost been good for business!

On a personal level, we would probably have still been talking about our dream to set up and run a hazelnut farm this Christmas if something hadn’t prodded us. This year’s events made us really question what we wanted in life – and then act on those goals.

So here is what I want to achieve in the next year:

• Write and publish my business book for mums

• Find a property for our hazelnut farm

• Hire another virtual PR consultant to work with me

• Treat my business as a valued client and generate some publicity for Strawberry Communications

• Find peace with my body

Have you thought about your personal and business achievements for this year and set goals for 2011?

Mahei’s partner Bridget Davis (@Bridget_CooKs) set the scene with her fabulous canape menu, matched with wines from Robert Oatley Vineyards. The event kicked off with lots of passionate Sydney foodies enjoying the flavours and networking before listening to views from food writers, bloggers and a restauranteur.

I wrote a guest blog for Bridget’s website The Internet Chef: http://www.theinternetchef.biz/2010/05/the-internet-chef-stars-at-media140-for-foodies/

And also write five live-blogs for Media140: http://media140.org/?p=2896

It was great to be able to work at such a classy event and produce six blogs in real time, as well as meet some of Sydney’s foodie enthusiasts.

Now we’re right in the swing of saving for FebuSave and thinking more frugally, my husband and I thought we’d forget about the flowers, chocolate and restaurants for Valentine’s Day and concentrate on spending some time together instead, which costs us nothing!

Last year he had a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered on our wedding anniversary, which falls in January, and then followed this with a beautiful charm for my Sabo bracelet for Valentine’s Day. Between these two presents hundreds of dollars were spent – and that doesn’t even include the gifts I bought for him.

This year we decided our present to each other for Valentine’s Day was time together. As parents of two young boys this is a gift that was exceptionally meaningful. Like many parents, we are usually so exhausted by the end of the day that an in-depth conversation right into the night like we used to indulge in is completely out of the question.

My husband prepared a special dinner in for the night, instead of us eating out, saving on the meal, wine and babysitting. He did spend more than he would on an everyday meal, but it was a fraction of the cost of going out to a restaurant. We indulged in Peterson’s House Blush, which had been bought a while ago for a special occasion, so we didn’t even need to worry about a wine list. Our evening together started once the boys had gone to bed, so there was no need organise anyone to babysit.

We spent hours talking about our hopes, dreams, plans, worries, ideas and children, leaving the TV off for the night. Our conversation, the wonderful meal and the chance to being together as a couple was the best present we could have given each other – and it was a fraction of the cost of an expensive meal and long-stemmed roses. Of course I love both of those as much as the next girl, but concentrating on saving during ANZ’s FebuSave campaign has made us more aware of where we are spending money. It will be a present I cherish for years to come.

What savings have you made this month?

Whether you agree with the Federal Government’s calculation that is costs $384,543 to raise a child until they turn 18, or go with social researcher Mark McCrindle’s more alarming figure topping $1 million, raising children costs money.

From kitting out the nursery with a cot and change table, to the first ‘big bed’, clothing, sport, childcare, presents, food, school and the list goes on and on.

The top 10 items attracting costs for bringing up a child are:

• housing

• childcare

• food

• utilities such as electricity and gas

• clothing and footwear

• household goods and services (including education)

• leisure

• personal care

• transport

• health

So how do we save for all of these items, especially if one parent leaves full-time employment to care for the child/ren?

This is something my partner and I have had to consider. We have two young boys – aged 3 and 1 – and want to provide everything we can for them; what parent doesn’t?

We have a number of ways where we save for our children’s (and our own) needs:

• we grow some of our own fruit and vegetables in our back yard

• our youngest son wears many of the clothes his brother grew out of (some of them are almost new he grew so quickly!) and we ask for clothing as gifts from their grandparents

• we put money aside into a scholarship fund to help contribute to their tertiary education

• we run one car and one of us uses public transport when the car is needed by the other parent

Like all families we have good months and bad months when it comes to money, but saving and knowing how to tighten the belt a bit when needed is what has got us through when the funds have been a bit short.

When I was asked to be involved in ANZ’s FebuSave campaign I thought it was a great chance to spread the word to help women save more – whether for themselves, their families or both – but also a good chance for me to pick up some tips myself. Please check out FebuSave and ANZ’s Be Money Confident website to see where you can find great savings tips this month.

My pledge for FebuSave is to save two per cent of what I earn in the month instead of putting it all into our join household account. What is yours? Sign up now and make your pledge.

When I look back at this list I can see I have achieved most of what I set out to do, but also much more than I imagined possible. Here is what I aspired to:

1. Lose weight – I still weigh the same as this time last year, so I haven’t completely failed that goal.

2. Become better organised – I have improved my time management skills and become more disciplined in my work.

3. Build an office – I am writing this newsletter from my office, The Patch.

4. Educate myself – when I wrote this blog last year I was considering enrolling in some professional courses, however instead I completed six months of business and life coaching, attended the Media140 conference as a professional blogger (but also a wide-eyed student) and learnt via webinars and online research.

I think I can say I have achieved most of my goals for 2009, and add to those, with my other achievements including:

• Giving birth to a healthy baby boy, our second son.

• Launching Strawberry Communications as a full-time operation and relinquishing my role as full-time carer for my two children to my husband

• Reaching the finalist stage of the Central Coast Business Achiever Awards

• Writing an eBook, The 21st Century Guide to Promoting Your Small Business

• Growing my business income by an extra 50 per cent on the 2007/08 financial year

• Building my profile as an expert through book contributions and speaking engagements.

So with only two weeks left of 2009, I am now thinking about what I want to achieve in 2010. As you can see, 2009 was a very big year for me, but I expect bigger things next year. Here is my list:

1. Continue to grow Strawberry Communications – I look forward to working with current clients to build their businesses, but also have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline for next year.

2. Delegate – this is not one of my strong points, however to achieve the growth goal I must pass some work on to others (who knows they might have a better and/or quicker way!)

3. Start writing my book – I’ve been planning a book for a number of years and if I leave it too much longer someone else will jump on the idea

4. Lose weight – as I said last year this is my perennial goal, but if I can end 2010 weighing less than 2009 I will be happy. I have started looking after my diet better under the guidance of a nutritionist and been speaking to a personal trainer so I am arming myself with the tools I need to make this happen.

What would you like to achieve in 2010? I’d love to hear your list and we can compare notes in a year!