by Isa Maria Seminega of Noisette Marketing
{celebrate print by bunny dee}
When you are running a small business it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of it and the never ending daily tasks. If you are also juggling parenting, housework, hobbies, friendships it can be hard to find time to take a step back to see what you have achieved. It is important to recognise when you have accomplished something great or reached one of your goals. Marking special moments in your business journey can give you extra motivation to succeed and can help lift you into a positive mindset.
Celebrating your business successes can be as simple as taking time out to reflect on what you have achieved or treating yourself to something small, like fresh cut flowers in your studio or a cupcake from that new bakery down the road.
Reasons to celebrate include winning a new client, your first wholesale order or gaining a great press feature. Maybe you have launched a new project, collaborated with a colleague or won an award?
Whatever the milestone you can celebrate in a number of ways!
Share your success with your customers:
You customers are your biggest fans! They have loved what you do enough to pay for it. Customers like to hear you are doing well; it validates their decision to choose you and your products over those from your competitors. It also helps to engage them in conversation, establishing a deeper relationship with them.
You can share your news in your e-newsletter, on your website and across your social networks. You’ll be surprised how happy people will be for you.
{celebrate every day print by tenderbeasts}
Share your success with the press:
The press love a great success story, so share your achievements with them! Write a press release and distribute it to local papers, magazines and blogs making sure to highlight your triumphs. You can also consider sharing your news in an interview or editorial feature.
Share with family and friends:
If your family and friends are anything like mine, they may not entirely understand what you do. They know you have a business, you work on the computer a lot and you make things but sometimes there is the misconception that what you are doing is a hobby rather than a business.Share your success with them! Be proud of what you have achieved. Let them know you’ve reached an important milestone. 1 year of blogging? That’s amazing! 200 sales on Etsy? Brilliant! Use your successes and milestones to open up conversations with your loved ones who may not fully understand this creative online world you are thriving within.
Think you don’t have anything to celebrate?
Of course you do! Even if you don’t feel like you have achieved much you have. You have started a business, you make beautiful things with your own hands, you help others, raise a family, are good at what you do. Sometimes it’s the little things in life that are the most important and deserve a celebration.
Great post, I’m very guilty of charging along only really noticing when things don’t go perfectly and not paying attention to how far I’ve already come. Will make more of an effort in future!
bravo! I think this is a really great post
What a fantastic article and so well put.As a newbie to the business world – its sometimes a reality flash to think I’ve been in this business just over 6 months and to look back at how much I’ve achieved.Thanks so much.xx
Your article is so true. We forget to pat ourselves on the back for all the hours we put in organizing, deciding, watching out for every detail.
Friday I watched as the first press test was made of my product line that is about to launch …….soon. Watch for Cece Post!
Love, BEE
Wow! You mean, like, I actually have *permission* to brag a little? To toot my own horn?? To do a happy dance in – gasp – public?!?!?! Well, yippee skippee! Woo hoo! I shall proceed to do an enthusiastic happy dance complete with an exuberant pat on the back the very next time the occasion arrives!
Oh wait…why not do it NOW for all I’ve achieved so far???? A most sparkly excellent idea. Thanks!
Off to dance with a cupcake…
I LOVE this comment Janet-your sparkly exuberance made my day, I want to see you dancing with cupcakes-no, I want to JOIN you & dance with cupcakes. You go tooting that horn you awesome creatress!
Woo hoo! You had me at “cupcake” and I actually ate one as I read your post…
You ladies are amazing and this community rocks! I love this month’s theme!
Hugs all around!
Isa! This is so relevant for me. Like Jessika, I’m also celebrating my blogaversary this month + birthday’s for me are a bit bitter sweet. On one have I love the cupcakes + the party hats, but on another it placed a lot of pressure on me + how far I have to go. Your post is such a delightful reminder that we can always find a reason to party + celebrate. Cheers to this bonanza celebration 🙂
Such an uplifting article, I have just finished packaging up a big custom order and am off to treat myself to some pretty fresh flowers as a reward -thanks for the encouragement to celebrate 🙂 Catherine x
My husband told me last night that women have a struggle with society and upbringing–on one hand we need to celebrate our victories but on the other there will be folks that say you are bragging and it is unseemly.
I say tell the world!
Yay to celebrating everything we have achieved no matter how big or small! Glad you all enjoyed the post, you all have lots of things to celebrate. I’m so happy to be part of this wonderful community of inspiring women 🙂
Thanks so much for this gentle reminder to celebrate our achievements and that achievements come in many guises.
This is such a great post and reminder Isa! It is so much easier to focus on our failures than to celebrate our achievements. The more we celebrate our successes, the more successful we become. Cheers to all you amazing ladies!
YAY! Cheers to us all: )
hooray! what a lovely reminder 🙂
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up on what we still hope to achieve rather than what has already been accomplished. This post makes we want to bake some cupcakes & throw a little party today…celebrating it all!
Bravo and super claps all round! Great post and comments (I love you Janet W!).
My mini milestone: I have 10 bookings for my first social media course – runs next Thursday. Does that call for a cupcake (any excuse)?
I just can’t believe how much has happened in a year in my little business. Am loving it.
And this community has been a big part of it so keep it up ladies – here’s to another fab year (and another cupcake), Lucy x
Yay Lucy!!! I just made some super yummy peach cupcakes-I wish I could send you one & celebrate with you! Cheers to another awesome year with the OMHG crew!
Celebrating other’s successes is a great thing… but when you try to get others to celebrate your success with you and they just *don’t*, what do you do? Either through ignorance or apathy, they just don’t seem to care about your success, but still expect you to celebrate their’s?
(and sorry for being such a downer… it’s a situation that I’ve found myself in A LOT and I’m still not sure what to do)
This is a GREAT post. For a few months, my business wasn’t going anywhere. Then I decided to start asking around about trades to help get some visibility and to collaborate with some rockin’ indie handmade ladies I’ve found on Etsy. Since then, I’ve gotten some really great feedback and made a couple friends who really connect with my values as a seller and a person. For me, this is something to celebrate.
That is fantastic Kourtney! It’s it great to connect with other likeminded people, collaborations are so exciting and building a network of people who then become friends is the way I love to do business. Go you!
Stacey, sorry to hear you are struggling with getting others to celebrate and recognise your successes with you. It can be hard when people don’t understand how important their acknowledgment is to you. It’s easy to say just shrug it off but I understand it might not be that easy. Try to focus on how great you feel for achieving something. Concentrate on yourself then start small in sharing your success with others. Success is a personal thing that means different things to different people. If they are not reacting as you want them to you might need to try out other ways to involve them. I hope that helps a little bit. I’m happy to chat this over with you by email if you need to.
X
Such great advice Isa! I also suggest sharing with us or the #omhg crew-we’ll celebrate your successes with you: )