A Decade in Business: Reflection and Refocus

This month Strawberry Communications turns 10. I had been freelancing on and off for six years before I started working for myself full time, but once my eldest son was born I knew I didn’t want to be working for someone else five days a week. My work experience and entrepreneurial spirit drove me to go it alone and I registered the business in October 2006.

My business has gone through many iterations in that 10 years: from being a purely freelance writing business initially, to combining my own clients with freelancing for other PR businesses. From there Strawberry Communications was predominantly operating as a PR consultancy with two additional consultants supporting me and it’s now back to mostly writing, with just me at the helm.

A fluid business

There have been many reasons for these changes: responding to industry demand, working around my family and my own desire for change. During the past 10 years I’ve worked around one, and then two, small children, after which I ran the business full time while my partner become a stay-at-home dad. Next I combined running Strawberry Communications with baking business, Stanley & Nelson, and then with studying part-time. For the past two years I’ve been studying full time and working in the business part time. I expect to be finished my PhD within the next six months and so now I’m starting to think about what I’ll do post study.

With this in mind I jumped at the chance to join a HerBusiness online roundtable last week. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to refocus on where Strawberry Communications is headed and giving my book, Business & Baby on Board, a marketing push. I’ve set myself some goals to work towards while winding up my PhD. Goals and deadlines have always been big motivators for me, as I’ve written about previously here and here. And making those goals public just adds a little extra push because it means I’m not only accountable to myself, but to you too.

Goal setting

So, here are the goals I set for the next three months during the roundtable:

1. Research affiliate programs and, if relevant, set up a program for Business & Baby on Board
2. Establish a better sales process around Business & Baby on Board by offering a free chapter as an incentive and creating content around it to increase book sales
3. Update the Strawberry Communications website to reflect the change in business direction back to more writing and storytelling and less PR, plus the above sales process for my book.

I’ve already started making incremental changes to my social media platforms by updating profiles and pages names and I contacted four organisations that work with business mums (AusMumpreneur, Motivating Mum, She Will Shine and Busy Business Mums) to see if they would be interested in joining an affiliate program for Business & Baby on Board. There will be lots of activity for me before the end of the year, so watch this space!

What motivates you in your business?