How To Make 2015 Your Year

Hi, Lisa here.
I shut my business down until January 1st and am completely attacking my own business. Yes, attacking. I’m building more worksheet packets for clients, reshooting the Wheelie portfolio, dialing in our project management software, and building some kickass incentive packages for my crew. (Yes, Pete, it involves helicopters.)

You see, 2014 was uh-maze-ing. I upgraded to an office with its own rooftop patio, hired three people, worked with almost 40 local clients and 25 clients in other parts of the USA, hosted 2 FVCC interns, and via The Wheelie Local Project, donated nearly 300 hours to local non-profits in need of design. Fist pump.  

Thank you to my clients and my team for making me love my job. You guys are so important to me as people, and as businesses. Thanks for that.

Whitefish is an amazing place to run a business. I’m extremely happy to live in a town where I can snowboard a few hours every morning and still make it back to the office for 8 hours of work. Best of all, I get to use design to positively impact the community and help other local businesses succeed, too. It’s pretty great.

However, it hasn’t been all powder days and high fives. I made mistakes. I missed a deadline, which I can’t stand admitting. I politely declined work when I thought it was a bad fit for us. I worked insane hours, missed meals, turned down dates, and one time, I sat in my office and cried like a sissy. I really care about my business and my clients. The lows have been just as important as the highs, though, because every time something went wrong (I listened to Shake It Off as loudly as my speakers could go, and then), I successfully figured out how to make it right. I learned where we have weak spots, how to fill them, and how to be a stronger, better, more efficient company while staying true to our wheelie widiculous sense of humor and adventure. 

Our digital strategy for 2014 was tremendously successful, and our digital strategy for 2015 is going to be even better because I can build upon what worked and drop what didn’t. It’s kind of a fire-then-aim way to do things, but sometimes, that’s what it takes. It seems to be working.

And that’s my challenge to you— think about your business and what worked for you and what didn’t this year. Think about your branding and digital strategy and what worked, what milestones you hit, and which ones you missed. 

Our biggest success by far this year was the addition of The Wheelie Local Project. It’s a year-long digital strategy program to launch your business into an oblivion of awesome. If you join it, we rock your business world for a year, and you even get to pick a local non-profit of your choice to receive 10 hours per month of free design, thanks to an internship program I built for FVCC students. Read more about it here.

This program is for you if you think things like: "I need help year-round with design, marketing, and digital strategy. I don't want to deal with any of this on my own, and I just want it done for me so my business grows. I want it done right so I don't have to think about it and can spend my time running my business."  If that's you, then check out The Wheelie Local Project. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome, and it works. And it’s fun. (You love fun.)

Congrats on another year in business, and think about how you can use design, branding, and digital strategy to make your 2015 rock even harder. 

If you’re not totally sure, feel free to contact us. (I’ll answer my emails a few times before January 1st and get back to you.)

Happy Snow Days, Happy Holidays, and thanks for a great year.
-Lisa