In all honesty, this post was actually scheduled for a few weeks ago, but life happens and I didn’t get around to writing it until last night. At 11:30. From my bed. Now that’s the life of an entrepreneur right there haha I have a feeling that this won’t be the only time something like that happens in 2017. And you know what? I’m perfectly okay with that. Successful businesses don’t just happen overnight, but they happen over several late nights of hard work. This life isn’t easy, but it is so incredibly worth it.

As I rounded out 2016, I I had a lot of dreams in my mind, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to put them on paper. This week, I finally did that and came up with 10 things that I’d like to accomplish this year. Now I’m sure there’s research that says you shouldn’t have more than a few goals, but I’ve always been the kind of person that goes above and beyond whenever I can. I like a challenge and I believe that sharing my goals with you will help keep me accountable to actually achieving them. This is an opportunity for me to be vulnerable with you for so many reasons. What if I don’t achieve them all? Some of these goals are very attainable, while others are way up in the clouds. What if I fail miserably? That’s okay because this is all a learning process and that’s what I love about my business.

Alright, enough with the fluff, let’s get down to business:

1. I’d like to pray regularly for my couples and my business. It’s by the grace of God that my business is where it is today and by grace He will carry it through 2017. I believe in the power of prayer and am so excited for how He uses this to change lives. If you are one of my couples, (or clients, or photography friends, or anyone really!) please let me know how I can be praying for you.
2. Be intentional within community. I’d love to meet other photographers more regularly and get to know others in the industry. I would also love to serve as a mentor or help other young photographers better understand their cameras. This is something that I would love to expand my business to eventually, possibly 2017 🙂 That is still TBD!
3. Enhance my client experience. As much as I want to share everything I have in the works for this, I don’t want to spoil it for my 2017 brides!
4. Rebrand Kelsie Lynn Photography. I’m so excited to start this project. It’s definitely on the top of the list for things that I would love to accomplish during the off season. I’ve already started bits and pieces, and I cannot wait for everything to all come together!
5. Shoot a total of 25 weddings. This is big, and it’s bold, but I think it is doable. I debated putting a number to this and even sharing it with all of you. But like I said, I believe in being vulnerable and I believe in the power of prayer. And I’m definitely going to need that!
6. Organize my workflows. In order for me to continue to grow this business, there has to be processes in place that can scale with the growth. The processes need to help me better manage my time, my clients, my editing, and so much more. as a photographer, we are only taking pictures about 10% of the time. The rest of our time is spent editing, blogging, accounting, planning, marketing, networking and so much more. You’d be amazed at how much work goes into actually keeping this business afloat! In order to deal with all of that craziness, I need to create workflows.
7. Double my Instagram following. I’ve done this one time before so I can do it again. Except this time it might take just a little bit more work! 🙂
8. Invest in my business. I would love to invest in more equipment as well as in my education, whether that’s hiring a mentor, going to a workshop or going to a conference.
9. Host a styled shoot for other photographers. As I mentioned in goal #2, I want to be intentional about cultivating community. One of the ways that I’m hoping to do that is by hosting a styled shoot as an opportunity for creatives to come together as a community. This one is lofty, so it might have to wait til 2018. Who knows!
10. Have FUN!! This is the second most important one! There wouldn’t be any point in running this business if I didn’t get any joy from it. I hope that my joy is spreading and that by being a part of my journey, your life has a little extra joy in it too.

If you made it to the end, thanks for bearing with me! You are so loved, and I am so thankful for you. Thank you for sharing parts of my journey with me.