Let's start back in January ... I went to my tradeshow for my business and grew my business by about 30% in one month. I have more than doubled the size of my business in the past year (almost tripled in the last 18 months). It’s been a huge blessing but a lot of work. I did upgrade to a new much faster printer and switch to mailing all my postcards and letters with a postal permit instead of stamps, which was a huge time savings. The first couple of months with all the new clients is a lot of extra work… getting them all setup, answering their questions until they get used to our services plus the increased amount of work each month. It made February and March pretty crazy.
At the end of March, things started to settle down. I spent April cleaning up from the chaos in February and March. And then I realized that I needed to hire a new assistant by May 1st. We posted an ad on KSL for a new assistant and in 2 weeks got about 80 applicants. I spent a lot of time reviewing resumes, responding to resumes and analyzing what I really needed in a new assistant. While we were driving home from California during spring break, Steve and I analyzed what I really needed in a new assistant and narrowed down the resumes to just 9 to interview. We got those scheduled and hired my new assistant the last week of April.May came and we had to do twice as many mailers as we had done in April due to a contest Mary Kay had run. It was INSANE. We printed 20,000 mailers (thank goodness for that new printer and the permit mailing) plus geared up for what is traditionally our busiest month of the year for custom projects. Steve also started a new job (wahoo!). It is technically a part time job/income but it helps make ends meet and takes a lot of stress off of both of us. He is really enjoying it and there is potential for the company he works for to really grow including his position growing. It allows him to be able to do things on the side with audioShare and still help me. With my business growth has come the need for more automation and IT support … so Steve has been very instrumental in allowing our growth.
June brought the end of the school year, my busiest month for custom projects (close to 100 hours worth of work) on top of my regular work, a wedding for my assistant (and thus her absence in my office for more than half the month), birthdays for two kids (parties with family and parties with friends), swim meets, a block party, my sister visiting, a business trip for Steve, getting ready for a baptism and the normal summer fun.
July has been equally busy with Taylor’s baptism, Fourth of July activities, another growth spurt in my business, new fiscal year for my business (which includes creating about 30 new designs and preparing a packet with about 15 things in it for each of my clients... we've taken over my dining room), about 15 custom projects, more swim meets, regular work, another business trip for Steve and summer fun. Plus throw in getting the house ready for a house guest and then having our exchange student for 15 days. And if you’ve read the posts I’ve already done about the first week Nao was here, you know we didn’t have a single moment of spare time.
Phew…. That’s what I’ve been up to!! So, yes, I have a LOT of blogging to do and I’ll do my best to catch up on things but I’m making no promises. With a new month starting, a camping trip coming up this week, work continuing to be very busy and getting ready for the girls to go back to school … well, you all understand how busy August is as a mom. Maybe once the kids are back in school, life will settle down a little bit. ... I can dream right? Hope you are all having a good summer.
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