It is hard to believe that we are just hours away from saying goodbye to 2014. What an absolutely INCREDIBLE year this has been for our families and our shops!
Last New Years Eve, my mom and I talked on the phone about our goals for ThePolkaDotPosie and the one thing we both agreed to do in 2014 was make the shop a priority. Since we opened in 2012, our shop has been more of a hobby. A place where we could display some of the things we enjoyed making in our free time. But thanks to the amazing support from our friends, family and loyal customers…word started to spread about our shops and suddenly we were getting a steady amount of orders. Filling these orders on our very little "free time" was not working out. We realized that if we were truly going to grow our business, we would have to make the shop a priority and dedicate time each day to filling orders and designing new products.
And so we did just that.
We scheduled "work time" in our planners and we spent every free moment we had in our office or sewing room. We sacrificed time on other things in our lives and gave up some of our other hobbies in order to grow our little business. But our dreams were coming true…ThePolkaDotPosie was GROWING and we were so overwhelmed with excitement…we didn't dare think of slowing down. We said "yes" to every custom order that came our way and we never turned down the opportunity to make someone the perfect planner or the perfect bridesmaid bags for their wedding. We were honored to be asked and we still beam with pride when we see pictures shared on our Facebook wall. This has been the most rewarding year for us in SO MANY ways and we have all of YOU to thank for it.
We hope that 2015 is just as successful and rewarding as this past year has been, but we also know that our priorities need a little adjusting again. The "work time" that we scheduled the beginning of this year was not supposed to cut into time with our family, time with our church, time with our hobbies, time with our other jobs and responsibilities and most importantly, time with ourselves. We were supposed to find a healthy balance of all those things and well…let's just say we did NOT find that balance. Ha! We worked tirelessly to keep up on emails and shop questions, fill regular orders, create new products AND complete custom orders. But in doing so, we had to cut into time on those other things that are important to us. And that, friends, is where our 2015 goal comes into the picture.
We realize that if we are going to find that balance in our lives, we are going to have to reassess how we use our scheduled "work time." As much as we love custom work and the one-on-one experience it gives us with our customers, it is an incredibly time consuming process. My mom and I both have a 2-page list of exciting and fun new projects we want to work on and complete for our shops. Also, we have big plans for our shop blog and Facebook page and BOTH need a serious makeover and reorganization. Our To Do list is quite long for the New Year and if we are going to make time for these things and continue to provide the kind of customer service we pride ourselves on, something has to give.
And so, after a LOT of thought and consideration, my mom and I have decided we will not be taking on any new custom projects for the time being. We do not have an exact "end date" in mind, but please know that we will eventually offer custom work again in the future. We just want to start 2015 with some necessary maintenance and find the time we need to work on new items and inventory. We just know you will LOVE everything we have in store for both shops this year. Many of these new items have been requested by you, and others have come from late-night inspiration. We hope to post a little teaser of these new items next week in our "Get Organized in 2015" post {so stay tuned}.
Thank you all again for making our dreams come true in 2014. It brings tears to our eyes when we think of how far our little shop has come. We owe it all to YOU!!
Wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy, BALANCED 2015 :) We encourage you to join us today in writing our your goals and resolutions for the new year. We have this free printable available in all 3 planner sizes and you can download your copy HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment