Milestones, Rewards, and a 6-Month Biz Check-In

Back in the day (ahem. January), when I first started my web design journey, I created a Milestones and Rewards program to keep me motivated in reaching business milestones. You can see my milestones and rewards blog post here.

Now that it’s been six months, I thought I’d do a lil’ biz check-in and update.

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New Web Designer Business Thoughts and Reflections

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To be completely transparent here, I’m not as far along as I’d like to be with client work. I was hoping to be booked out solid by now, a steady stream of clients eager to work with me. Perhaps a bit unrealistic? 😉🤔

But I also recognize that starting a new business and doing all of the marketing, sales, client work, strategy and more is a BIG task, and one that takes time to develop.

Here are a few initial thoughts:

One of my primary struggles remains using my own voice, values and ethos in building a business. This is hard in a world where internet gurus are everywhere and prescribe a very specific methodology for marketing and sales.

As someone relatively new to this industry and still learning every day, I’m pretty much constantly teetering between: ‘follow your own path and do things your own way’ vs ‘follow the ways that work, even if it feels off or icky — maybe I’m selling myself short and limiting what’s possible??’

EXAMPLE 1: There are proven methods in copywriting of addressing your ideal clients' pain points, and then showing how you can solve them. And this works! I’ve bought courses and followed people who identified and promised to solve my own biz pain points.

But whenever I personally write it out, it feels off. It feels like I’m trying to SELL, not trying to HELP. How much of this is my own limiting beliefs in regards to money and selling? I dunno! Hence the tightrope.

EXAMPLE 2: Same with website pop-ups — a lot of people in online biz have pop-ups to gather email addresses. It’s proven to work, and work well. But I personally am annoyed by them, so I want to keep my website pop-up free. Yay! That feels good! But then I struggle with building my email list. 🤷‍♀️

It’s all a learning lesson, I tell ya!

I haven’t found any magic solutions to make this easier, but I think I’m getting closer every month. I’m finding intelligent, thoughtful, and successful people and groups that resonate with me. People who run their businesses with integrity, transparency, and joy. My kinda people.

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Milestone Updates

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Now here’s the BTS deets on how my business is actually doing!

Here’s a snippet of my Milestones and Rewards chart:

Here are the numbers and a few highlights to call out:

• Current website packages sold: 4 (almost to 5, and I CANNOT WAIT. Going to take my mom for a pedicure date 💅)

• Current email subscribers: 25 (I’d love to get to 50 subscribers by the end of this month, but it’s a slow journey. Holding hope and working hard on it though!)

• 1st additional offering sold: I’ve tried creating and offering a few different services, including a website audit, Design In A Day, and SEO services, but no dice yet. I’m regularly refining my offerings and trying new things to see what sticks. A bonus of working for myself — I can be as chaotic as I choose 😜

• Let’s talk $$ - Comparing apples and oranges here, but so far I’ve made the same total amount of money year-to-date in my new business as I did in just one month last year working in corporate events.

• Fun note - I just completely revamped my web design packages last week. I still have a few behind-the-scenes things to complete (like URL mapping) but I’m excited about these new packages! There are more options and more price points now than I had before.

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Final Thoughts

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In full transparency, I’ve had some low moments, especially in July, after I completed my last booked client project and before I got out into nature and hit that reset button.

But as I told myself in the beginning of this ol’ journey of mine: Acknowledge the thoughts, but don’t give in to them.

Sometimes I think to myself things like ‘The AUDACITY that you think you can just pivot to a new business and be successful at it. Stay in your lane, Janessa.” (Side note: why are our brains so hard on us sometimes??) But I just acknowledge that that’s a thought I have, it’s not reality. I am riding the wave, but I didn’t create the ocean. Keep going.

One of the books I picked up recently was Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. It didn’t sit well with me and I gave up pretty early (and that was before I looked him up and discovered - unsurprisingly - what an absolute scammer he was), but there was one nugget in there that stuck with me. It was about a gold miner who stopped three feet before striking gold, only to lose his fortune to another. (He went on to take that lesson to excel in sales, so he was fine.)

Here’s a summary of the story, if you’re interested — Napoleon Hill’s Three Feet From Gold.

My takeaway is basically, KEEP GOING. Sometimes success lies just beyond our breaking point. I plan to keep plugging along through this slow season, and keep growing, learning, and serving.