Lettering Works Business Journal - December in Review
~ NOW BOOKING PROJECTS FOR JANUARY & BEYOND ~ 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.
BUSINESS JOURNAL: A PLACE TO CELEBRATE WINS & REFLECT - 60TH EDITION
December’s highlights included being selected for the She Was An Inspiration Contest, sharing a blog post about my journey into aviation, doing end-of-year business tasks, spending time with family and friends, and painting more.
Steph’s Stickers logo by Lettering Works
Contest award notice
Steph of Steph’s Stickers
Lettering Works in Airports - read the full blog post on my journey into the aviation space here.
The Big Wins
My submission for the She Was An Inspiration Contest was selected to be featured in the 2025 Women's History Magazine, which highlights Steph of Steph’s Stickers.
Shared a blog post about my journey in the aviation space, which shares highlights from getting my products into the Peoria Airport in 2016 to O’Hare Airport today.
December means yearly reflection and next year planning
Design for the Design Museum of Chicago
Hand-painted friendship books from my artist residency in Peoria
Friendship book from my artist residency in Peoria, collaboration with Barbie, Jaci, & Peggy
New Chicago skyline button
We always love passing through Union Station during the holidays
General Updates + Accomplishments:
Filed the annual report for Lettering Works’ LLC status, submitted my Beneficial Ownership Report, selected a healthcare plan for 2025, worked on wrapping up 2024 books, and reflected on the year. End of year tasks usually take up a good bit of December. I enjoyed using YearCompass this year for some reflection and 2025 planning.
Spent time with family and friends. From a Friendsgiving to early Christmas celebrations with Daniel’s family to a girls’ night holiday party to Christmas in Milwaukee with my family, our month was filled with quality time with loved ones.
Booked trips to Tampa, Florida and Mexico City and Oaxaca for early 2025. It’s always a good feeling to have some trips to look forward to!
Attended the Design Museum of Chicago t-shirt launch party. You can find my design alongside many others who were selected to participate in the campaign here.
Onboarded a new logo client. If you are a successful solopreneur looking to level up, a small-to-midsize company ready for a refresh, or a non-profit looking to rebrand any of your signature programs or initiatives, I’d love to connect and see how I can best support you.
Painted nearly every day of the month. One of my goals for December was recentering creativity and I enjoyed painting fun, abstract pages in my sketchbook. This was inspired by my artist residency in Peoria. Barbie Perry, Jaci Musec, and Peggy West collaborated with me to create five, hand-painted books about friendship.
Wrapped up wedding thank-you’s. Getting married took a *lot* of time and energy this year. Being able to personally thank everyone involved was a meaningful way to wrap up this very personal year.
Added two new buttons and restocked some stickers. I took advantage of some holiday and end-of-the-year sales to restock items, including envelopes.
Fulfilled 10 wholesale orders via Faire and restocked the Milwaukee Art Museum. Even though sales are down from last year, wholesale has been a huge part of my business this year. The wholesale arm of my business probably the main reason I’ve been able to survive the year that has been so tough for countless small businesses.
December was pretty quiet business wise. I enjoyed taking things easy, spending extra time with family and friends, and working to wrap up the year. I’ve seen countless small businesses announcing that they will be closing their doors for good before the new year. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to hang on this year and am hopeful that next year will be better for all the businesses who have made it this far.
In January, I’m most excited to start some new client projects and decide how I can best share some personal projects that I’ve been working on behind-the-scenes. Reach out if you’d like to work together, I am continuing to prioritize new branding and logo projects as well as custom merchandise and wholesale. I also have a few spots open as part of my Artist Trade Program.
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 2024 or 2025. Bring on all the logos, branded merchandise, + brand identity projects… let’s make some beautiful + impactful things together.
———————————————
Want access to the exact journal prompts that I use to write these recaps? Grab them here. Or get this monthly update straight to your inbox by joining the Lettering Works email list here.
