I am finally back to work after a wonderfully long holiday break. I had a fabulous time over the holidays spending a lot of time with my family and traveling a little bit also. My favorite part was spending time with my 4 babies, they are the light and joy in my life and I love, love, love being with them! But now that things are back on schedule I am glad to be back in the swing of things to keep moving my business forward for the upcoming year.
The majority of my blog posts are “How to’s” for business marketing and social media but since this is my first post of the new year I wanted to share a few things I learned over the past year and also few little tips on life that come straight from my heart. My company and my personal life went through a lot of growth this past year and with everything in life growth can sometimes come with bumps in the road … and I learned a lot from my bumps that I wanted to share with you. I love sharing my mistakes and ups and downs with my readers so that hopefully it will help you avoid making some of the same mistakes … because inevitably we all will make mistakes (we are only human) but if there is a way to avoid them I am all for it!
6 Tips for this New Year
- In life and in business always stick to what’s true in your heart and push towards your goals till you reach them. There will always be someone out there to tell you that you can’t do it. There will always be someone who will give you the negative side of things. But don’t let them hold you back … dream big, work hard, and stay true to what’s in your heart and you will be amazed at what you can achieve!
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined -Henry David Thoreau
- Always have a backup plan! Things don’t always work out the way we plan. But that does not mean you give up, it means you move on to plan B, and even Plan C and D if needed till you get where you want to be. There are always other options you just have to keep an open mind and keep working towards your goals.
Those who plan do better than those who do not plan even thou they rarely stick to their plans – Winston Churchill
- Don’t’ let other people dictate how you will run “your” business. One of the reasons I started my own business was to be my own boss. If I wanted to have someone else tell me how I should do my job I would have a “Job” not “own my own business”. Be careful to not let your clients or people who contract work out to you dictate how you run your business. They hired you for your expertise and if they don’t trust you enough to do the job they hired you for … then maybe they aren’t the type of clients you want to be working with. Don’t get me wrong … I absolutely think we should do the best we possible can to make our clients happy and go above and beyond to do a good job for them … but there are some things that just aren’t for others to dictate when it comes to how you run your business. Stay firm to the guidelines you set up within your business and don’t let others take advantage of you. Have contracts in place and remember to use them to their full terms or otherwise they are useless for you. Remember we started our businesses to make money … there is a time and place for charity (even within our business) but that place is not with the clients that hire us to do a job.
Your real boss is the one who walks around under your hat. – Napoleon Hill
- Don’t waste one precious moment of this awesome thing we call life on negativity. Unfortunately there is a lot of negative things in the world and it is very easy to get caught up in them. But one thing I realized over this past year is that life is so short, and we only get one chance at it, and every second we spend being negative or focusing on someone else’s negativity is one second less that we get to be happy and enjoy all that was given to us by our Almighty God. So enjoy it, be happy, have faith, and love lots! (And ride a roller coaster every chance you get …. I found out it is absolutely impossible to be grumpy when you are screaming at the top of your lungs with fun!)
– No matter what happens, life goes on … so be happy and let it be –
- Share what you learn! I have learned a lot over the past few years when it comes to using social media effectively to get your message out there. Social Media has been a great way for me to make money and I am so excited at the possibilities it has brought to me … but when I started using it to help others I realized the true power it really has! One of my favorite things to do is teach my clients what I know to help them grow their business, it is such a great feeling to be able to help others by using the hard work I have put into learning something and then sharing it with them to help them succeed.
The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises. – Leo F Buscaglia
- Give back every chance you get! We all have times in our life that are hard … That’s Life right?? Up and Down and round and round we go. The way the world is today you never know when it might be you that will need a little help, the economy has put strains on families that never had to worry about those types of things before, it has effected people who worked hard all of their life to save and then have nothing to show for it because the stock market failed, people get sick and the way the health insurance industry is it may not cover everything…. You just don’t know what life will bring you. So don’t be afraid to help someone if they need it, even if it is something little … you never know how much it might mean to them and you never know when it might be you that needs the same.
You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.
– Winston Churchill
I recently saw a blog post on creating 3 words to live by at the start of every New Year. I thought this was a great way to start the new year out in a positive goal driven way. My 3 words are ones I want to live by everyday for the upcoming year and every year thereafter.
Faith, Hope, and Love
I started a Facebook Page to help spread that message everyday to all who will join me! Please stop by the page https://www.facebook.com/GraceWithHim and feel free to share your 3 words below in the comments along with how you plan to follow through with your 3 words!~ but remember no negativity allowed!🙂
To Your Success!
Kate Wilber
The Marketing Momma