30 Day Small Business Cleanse: Day 30+1

Yesterday: Yay! You made it! Take a look at the list of goals you made on Day 2. Where have you succeeded and where have you come up short? What 3 steps can you undertake to maintain this momentum or what can you do to help you reach your goals if you weren’t able to within these 30 days.

It's hard to believe that we've only been working on this project for thirty days! We've learned so much over the past month, both about our business and about ourselves. We have a much better understanding of where we were, where we are, and where we're going.

Looking back over our list of goals for this cleanse, we've definitely made some headway on all of them. We're much better organized than we were, we've cleaned out a lot of the dead wood and identified other areas that we weren't aware of that need a good airing out. We have a much better understanding of where we are, and a clearer idea of where we want to be. And we are putting our new mantra into practice, asking ourselves before we start a task, are we working smarter, or just harder.

All in all, it's been a very successful exercise. We feel much more responsible about how we're running our business, we've gone back to better work habits and we're incredibly excited about the future.

Thank you so much for tagging along, we can't wait to show you what we have in store over the next few months, so stay tuned!

Best,
Rosemary+Robin

30 Day Small Business Cleanse: Day 22

Yesterday: Review your business plan. Does it need some polishing? I bet it does! If you don’t have a business plan, now is the time to write one down!

This was a hard one. Not only because it's a big project to undertake, but because it's been a very long very draining week.

Over the years, we've had various business plans for Ink+Smog Editions. As our vision of the company has grown and changed, we've updated our plan to include our new directions and ideas. After three years, we decided it was time to start over and create a new business plan for this new chapter of our business. We've followed different models over the years, but we decided to give this one a try this time. It's one of the links we've been pinning on our Professional Practices board on Pinterest lately. We didn't follow it exactly, but customized it to fit our business and our objectives.

In the interest of full disclosure, we did not fully complete the task today. We got the broad strokes filled in but still need some time to finesse the finer points. This is not the sort of project that you complete in one day. Or even really in one week. It takes a lot of thoughtful conversation and careful consideration. It's a process and not one that should be rushed. We're still ironing out some of the details about our dream client, our promotional strategies and our continuing education, but we're pretty happy with our brand summary and our operations.

We're going to keep working on our new business plan over the next few weeks, we're hoping to have it fully fleshed out by the end of this 30 day project. It is so incredibly helpful to set deadlines for your goals, especially on days when all you want to do at the end of the day is crash out on the couch after putting the baby down to sleep!

Today: Create a customized checklist of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks for your business.

30 Day Small Business Cleanse: Day 21

A snapshot of a corner of the studio this morning.

Yesterday: Make a list of the business goals you would like to accomplish by this time next year. For each goal, list 3 concrete steps you can take. One in the next few days, one in the next few weeks and one in the next few months.

For this assignment, we tried to keep the scope narrow. It's so easy to come up with a gargantuan list of goals that exist somewhere in the future. But, since we're trying to keep this project firmly rooted in the possible rather than the fantastical, we thought it best to start small.

Over the course of the day, we came up with a list of goals that we would like to accomplish by this time next year. We started off by each thinking independently about what we would like our goals to be and then we started discussing our ideas together. As our discussions progressed, it became clear that we had five objectives that we could agree should be our priority for the coming year.

Our next task was to decide on three concrete steps to take for each goal. It was really helpful to break down the exercise into three temporal levels. By creating a plan for the next few days, the next few weeks and the next few months we were able to each take on specific responsibilities as well as make a more detailed plan for overseeing the project over the next year. We both feel very confident that we will at least make great progress in these areas over the next year if not reach our goals entirely.

Today: Review your business plan. Does it need some polishing? I bet it does! If you don’t have a business plan, now is the time to write one down!

30 Day Small Business Cleanse: Day 3

As we get to work on day 3 of our 30 day small business cleanse, we're starting to settle into a pretty good routine. Happily, this is one of the project goals that we worked out as part of yesterday's assignment.

Yesterday's undertaking was to assess your overall situation. Where is your business now and what are you trying to achieve with this cleanse? Make a list of goals for this project.

Our list of goals for this project, but first coffee...

In many ways, this gets at the crux of why we've embarked on this project in the first place. The past year has been erratic at best. Many of the work habits we had gave way to stealing moments here and there to get things done. This has led to a certain level of chaos. The first order of business then, is to get ourselves organized.

Our second goal for this project, is to clean out the dead wood. It's an opportunity to examine what we do and how we do it in an effort to figure out what is working and what isn't. To pinpoint our weaknesses and come up with strategies for dealing with them.

Third, to create healthy habits. Constantly working on the go is the obvious outcome of not having much of a set schedule for the past year. It was very difficult to plan very far in advance, and as a result, we were often flying by the seat of our pants. Working this way all of a sudden meant that things got missed, or forgotten, or done twice. By getting back to healthy work habits, we will be able to get more done in less time. The obvious and immediate reward will be more baby cuddles!

The fourth goal may seem the most obvious but important to mention nevertheless. Our main objective is to figure out the lay of the land. Where are we now and where do we want to be. This includes a year from now, two years from now, five years from now...

And lastly, our intent is to learn how to work smarter and not harder. We've been doing a lot of reading lately, and one of the things we've found the most helpful are the creative business blog posts by Sycamore Street Press. Their post 10 Steps to Working Smarter (not Harder) has been especially helpful since we find ourselves in a very similar situation. We're not able to maintain the crazy, all-out work schedules we once had. This last goal may sound a lot easier than it is.

All in all, yesterday's task was a good early step. It led to some really great discussions and has allowed us to chart a path that we both feel comfortable with. And most importantly, it's getting the creative juices flowing!

Today''s goal: Clean up your computer. Start with your desktop then move on to your files. Choose a file structure then implement it. You’ll be amazed at what you find lurking in unexplored corners of your hard drive.

Ugh! Wish us luck!

getting back to work: the year ahead for RDesignsLA

As we get back to work, we have been reflecting on the year that has been and the year to come. 2012 was a pretty crazy year for us. It saw a lot of change, both good and bad. We lost some close friends and family members, we made new friends, changed jobs, and finally started our company RDesignsLA. We're really proud of the road we've traveled in the past year and are equally scared and excited to see what 2013 has in store for us. We hope that you all have a very happy, healthy and peaceful year!