NEW YEAR. NEW GOALS // 2014 Edition
Business Goals for the New Year

Happy New Year Friends! Everybody’s talking about their resolutions/goals for 2014 and I wanted to chime in with mine, but first I wanted to revisit last year’s goal to see how well I did with sticking to them.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

• Personal Posts: I didn’t do as well with this goal as I hoped. Nor did I take as many personal pictures for that matter! But I did follow through (for the most part!) with the monthly Creativity Project themes. So this goal is definitely going back on the list for 2014 – I want to do better!

• Tips + Tutorial Posts:  I actually really enjoyed doing these posts over the year! It helped me be a better photographer because I was constantly stopping to think about what I was doing and why I was doing it to better explain the concepts in my posts. Hopefully, you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Expect more of these posts in the new year!

• Going USB:  We went USB  – and we loved it! But more importantly, so did our clients. We are so glad we made the switch.

• New Site:  Make that two makeovers! We started 2013 with a new look, but by the tail end we made another switch. There’s a purpose to this madness, I swear!  But I’ll share more of that a further down in this post.

• Social Media: As promised, we pretty much kicked Twitter to the curb. I went back to check it out a few times, but just didn’t feel compelled to keep going.  Instagram and Facebook is where you’ll mostly find me.

Even though there were some misses, looking back I have to say I fared pretty well with sticking to my goals in 2013. That’s why I love writing stuff like this down because I feel that it makes me more accountable – or at least I’d like to think so. Now on to the new goals for 2014:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

• Take more personal pictures: Not only for blog fodder, but because as much as I love Instagram and taking pictures with my iPhone, it doesn’t compare to having “real” pictures.  When I gave my office a makeover, I also purchased a nice little photo printer to make it easier to print my personal photos and put them in albums. I’m ashamed to say it’s been collecting dust, but hopefully, I plan to get more use out of it in the new year.

• OCF:  I mentioned wanting to delve more into off camera flash last year, but it didn’t really “click” until finally got around to purchasing remote triggers for my flashes for a wedding in December.  After experimenting a little at the wedding and getting some great results, I’m looking forward to really getting creative with flash photography this year!

• Add traditional portraiture to my portfolio: I don’t want to say goodbye to lifestyle photography altogether, but I find myself drawn to traditional/fine art portraiture more and more these days. I look forward to focusing on photographing faces in 2014.

•Rebrand my business:  I think one thing I was very good at doing  in 2013 was branding my business. Whenever someone described Mad Hearts, the following words always came up : colorful, fun and young .  My packaging, site, content and images all worked cohesively to portray this youthful brand.  However, I want to go in a slightly different direction in my photography business and focus on traditional portraiture, glamour sessions, couples and weddings.  So I want my site, logo, packaging, blog content and overall brand to reflect this more “grown up” direction. So that’s my biggest goal in 2014 – to change Mad Hearts from “cute” to “chic”.

Ok!  That about sums up where I want to see my photography/business go in 2014. Hopefully, to some new and exciting places! Now your turn: do you have resolutions or goals for the new year?