02/01/2025
🤩2024 Reflections: Life as a Small Business Owner 🍾
Running a small business while juggling multiple roles was a challenge. This year, besides growing Inner Child Creations, I was a video producer, editor, social enterprise owner, and chicken 🐓 and quail keeper. It wasn’t easy, but I made it through with the best partner by my side.
Here are 8 key lessons I’ve learned:
1. Great partners make all the difference. I’m so lucky to do this with an amazing partner and friends who believe in our little creations. They made pop-ups much more fun and meaningful.
2. Spend on ads. Early 2024 was rough—sales dipped, but we invested in ads and pop-ups, which helped us bounce back. Visibility matters.
3. Be selective with pop-ups. Prep takes so much time and energy. Ask the right questions, and choose the events that make sense.
4. Upgrade your tools. Investing in better machines saved hours and improved product quality while reducing waste.
5. Hire slowly. Scaling manpower is tough and costly. We focus on sustainable growth without compromising quality.
6. Expand wisely. Adding quirky Japanese stationery was a fun experiment, but not all products work. Learn what resonates with your market.
7. Keep learning and embrace challenges. A sewing project had me Googling and organizing workshops with seniors. I may not sew beautifully, but I’ve learned to sew creatively. The process taught me so much about meaningful connections.
8. Trust the process and manifest your goals. During tough times, I focused on what I wanted and worked hard for it. Things fell into place in ways I didn’t expect.
2024 was filled with ups and downs, but every challenge taught me something valuable. Here’s to growth, learning, and trusting the process in 2025!
