It’s early December and I just spent most of a windy, rainy morning addressing and writing out Christmas cards for my customers from the past year.
It’s an exercise in gratitude and appreciation and while I’m wrapping up my second year of full time business ownership, the feeling hasn’t waned. I hope it never does.
I’ve spoken on this before, but even with all of the hurdles, pivots, errors and learning curves involved in running a business, it is absolutely worth it.
I addressed over 40 cards. Over half of those were for my regular property maintenance customers, the rest were for everything from simple repairs to larger garden builds and consulting and education services. I’ve made the difficult decision not to offer mowing services next year and to focus fully on design, consulting and sustainable installations, including food forest layouts and pollinator and wildlife gardens.
It’s a bit scary to cut out my biggest revenue generator but I realized I was going to have to free up that time and energy to dedicate to other efforts. Even though I cut back on the number of yards from the year before, I was still ending every day exhausted with no energy left to promote the business or expand the homestead operations. As a single operator, playing catch up after a day or two of rain was rough too.
Looking forward, I am also planning out how to expand the homestead based business. I’ve been getting more content out via videos and posts regarding land assessment and the importance of understanding your land prior to implementing designs. I also will be offering a small number of wildflowers and locally adapted plants grown on the property here. We plan to hold some classes and ultimately want to create a membership based center for education, gathering, networking and spiritual work related to permaculture and biodynamic growing practices. I’ve got ideas aplenty, it’s the planning and implementation that’s being figured out over the wintertime. I have to strike that balance between picking up jobs that generate some cash while creating education opportunities and building community and the SRR brand.
I hope everyone is planning for a prosperous New Year. We’re all in charge of our lives and our outlook and attitude largely determines the direction our lives take. Be well and be in touch!