Business Journal: a place to celebrate wins & reflect - 48th Edition

December’s highlights included spending extra time with family and friends, booking some travel for early 2024, gifting stickers to a favorite local business owner, and making some wedding planning progress.

NEW POSTCARDS:

The Big Wins

• Gifted Omar of Omarcito’s Chicago a custom illustration and fun stickers. I am obsessed with is food, energy, and kindness and am so grateful that he is a fellow small business owner in Logan Square.

• Added new four stickers and eleven new postcards to Faire. While these are currently only available wholesale, reach out if you’re interested in purchasing some.

General Updates + Accomplishments:

• Spent time with family and friends. This included a trip to Denver to visit my brother (and hang out with my parents, too) as well as trips to Decatur and Milwaukee for more family time. We also hosted my friend Amanda from England.

• Booked trips to Mexico City and Portland for early 2024. I continue to live by the mantra of “always be planning your next trip” and look forward to 2024 being filled with some fun travel and adventure.

• Selected a healthcare plan for 2024, which is one of the most unglamorous parts of owning my own small business. To share transparency around this topic for my fellow freelancers and small business owners, I spent over $10,000 on healthcare this year, which included my monthly premium (~$640/month), weekly telehealth therapy sessions, one MRI of my kidneys, and my regular, annual appointments.

• Filed the annual report for Lettering Works’ LLC status, worked on wrapping up 2023 books, and reflected on a year of growth. While client work was rather quiet over November and December, I made time for helpful reflection and planning.

• Turned down a project that wasn’t a good fit. I consider this a celebration because while I had the availability, it wasn’t an opportunity that aligns with my goals. I am currently open for new projects, especially logo and branding projects, custom merchandise, and new wholesale opportunities.

• Fulfilled orders and sent a little extra happy mail although didn’t send holiday cards this year. I’ve finally gotten better at doing less and prioritizing rest, which sometimes means things simply don’t make the cut.

• Purchased a wedding dress from Wish Upon a Dress and a wedding band from Mineralogy! The wedding planning is moving along slowly, but surely. I’m also coming to terms with the fact that I’m in a season of needing to dedicate more time to personal tasks.

December was filled with rest, family and friend time, and a little work and reflection, too. I would have liked to have more exciting projects to work on but I know being well-rested for the start of 2024 will be beneficial. If you are interested in working together, I’d be happy to start the conversation and share more about how I can help you with your branding, design, and custom merchandise needs.

In 2024, I am most looking forward to revisiting opportunities in the airport space, continuing to work with more museums, and getting some new branding projects on the calendar so I can help translate creative passions into strong and impactful visual brands.

Thank you for being here, for supporting me, and for following along with my entrepreneurial journey.

PS - Have a project you’d like to chat about? Send me the details now to ensure your project gets on my calendar in 2023 or 2024. Bring on all the logos, branded merchandise, + brand identity projects… let’s make some beautiful + impactful things together.

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