I can’t believe how fast 2013 flew by! It seems like just yesterday I was being asked to do my first wedding and decided to become a Northern Virginia Photographer! Early on I wrote a list of goals that I wanted to achieve during my first year of business. -Side Note: I used to think writing down goals was overrated but I tried it anyway. I quickly realized that writing down your goals is one of the BEST things you can do to stay on track and get to where you are going. I HIGHLY recommend it!- The first quarter of the year I would review the goals and see how I was doing. But to be honest, by half way through the year I got caught up in the day-to-day tasks and didn’t really review the goals like I should have. Ouch! As the year began to wind down I eventually went back and added several things to the list! But even so, I was able to accomplish many things! So let’s take a look at the list I started last January…

2013 Goals

Write Up a Formal Business Plan
Get Liability and Equipment Insurance
Practice Off-Camera Flash
Get a 2nd & 3rd OCF
Buy a new Desktop
Create a Product Catalog
Complete Marketing and Client Forms
Design and Purchase all Studio Samples
Build & Launch Website
Book Weddings for 2014 (at least 5)
Refine Workflow
Clean Up Email
Offer One day of Mini Sessions
Blog More
Get a 3rd Camera
FILM! 
Second Shoot – a lot!
Rebranding (HUGE Project)
Redo Blog/Journal
End Portfolio Period
Redo Pricing and Offerings
Design and Organize a Styled Shoot
Work on SEO
Get Published
Get any/all Needed Gear

Not too bad, right?! Some of these goals were small and some were quite lofty. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do ALL of this in the first year, but I feel pretty good about what I was able to accomplish! Many of these goals I have started to work on, but they were put on hold and will be added to my 2014 Goals list (journal entry coming soon!). And of course I would not have been able to accomplish any of these things without the support of my family, friends, and amazing clients!!!