Think about how far you have come, before you get lost in Christmas and come out the other side full tilt on plans for 2027!
New photos by Carrie Bugg!
This time last year…
I'd left my job, and it had left me quite poorly with burnout and high blood pressure. I'd started on some medication to help, and despite the stress, I was feeling much calmer about life and my future.
I had done some work with somatic therapist, Yolanda Brooks, and we talked a lot about boundaries and foundations. What base was I building my business on? It needed to be strong. I wanted to work out where my priorities were, as well as my boundaries.
I decided to make this work, I needed to accept that it could take time and stop thinking about quick successes. Take the time to work out where my business strategy was coming from.
I created some worksheets at that time to help other people do something similar, because I realised how much it was helping me.
A lot of people come to me at the beginning of their business idea, thinking the website is the first thing they need. I end up going quite deep into the strategy behind their business, their reason for doing what they do, and asking what they want to achieve* because I believe the website really does need to provide an income.
*The strategy behind this goal needs to be fully laid out.
What this year has held
January begins
Talking about money
I started to talk more openly about money on social media. A lot of my clients forget that making money is their website's main purpose. When you're a woman on your own, you need financial independence. This was where I had found myself. I decided to inject that philosophy into everything I do, for myself and for my clients and for all women. Talking about money would no longer be a taboo subject..
I started to use Claude and AI to design new products and services based on all that I could offer. I wanted to also make sure I had time and energy to provide them. I made sure they were affordable, and that I made enough money to provide for my needs. It's important to invest in yourself, I was teaching myself about this at the same time as passing it on to my clients.
The talk
I got asked to speak at the Prosper in Private Practice Summit in June, with my talk "Visible and Trusted: SEO for Therapists in Private Practice". I created a YouTube video and assets to go alongside it. It helped me really zoom in on SEO from a therapist's point of view, because therapists have their own needs when it comes to Google. They come under "your money or your life", so therapist websites need their proper qualifications listed, and need to do things like recommend helplines if someone is in crisis alongside other important aspects such as providing a safeguarding policy.
My talk on SEO is now on YouTube. It's the world's most boring video on SEO, but everyone who saw it said it was really insightful.
The blueprint
I recreated my blueprint product. I use AI to help me build website blueprints based on my marketing background and my knowledge of Google and the E-E-A-T guidelines. It uses my technique of interviewing people and using their responses as copy, without losing their voice and without relying on AI for the copy itself. AI guides us through what is needed rather than supplying it. That is now how I create all of my blogs and posts.
A lifetime of noticing
I now use the blueprint for my bespoke builds too, here I add my design skills and my knowledge of colour psychology for the bespoke build. Colour psychology works on a physical level as well as a psychological level. Some colours don't work well together and can make your eyeballs vibrate (that's my term not a technical one!). Using Adobe Color, I make sure text is legible on any background, in any format, and that everything works together.
I know more about colour than I can quantify in a simple statement. It's from a lifetime of noticing. I wrote my dissertation on colour psychology for my graphic design degree. Its connotations are deep in social signs and signifiers, but it's also a personal thing.
Colours can say something about a person's personality. I pick colours based on my clients' favourite colours to wear, the colours they're drawn to as well as the industry connected colours other designers will gravitate to without thinking.
I have learned that I have a very good way of listening to people empathising and understanding why they feel compelled to do what they do. I work with heart-led businesses. The unique feel and tone of the websites I create come from my years of experience as a graphic designer who studied art, has worked in marketing, knows SEO, and creative people- and that is something no AI can bring to the table.
Write blogs for discovery share in a newlsetter
The Monthly Edit
I wanted to understand why a lot of my clients were afraid to invest in themselves. I've heard all the excuses over the years, so I looked into each excuse and found ways around them. I came up with The Monthly Edit: an email newsletter and a blog, interlinked, to bring traffic to your site and more references from Google.
My quota of 10 clients is now full, with clients seeing results that are quantifiable and undeniable: an increase in income, readership, subscribers and traffic. One artist's website visits have more than doubled this year, and her newsletter list has grown from 587 to over 2,300 since we started. A flower farm's list has more than tripled since June, and one October newsletter brought in £170 of workshop bookings. Ideally, clients commit to 6 months, because I believe it takes this time of continuous effort to really start working. Currently nobody has decided to discontinue, which leaves me with a little bit of a supply problem!
Being found
This year I also started offering free 30 minute chats through Acuity, so people from further afield can talk to me and ask website questions. Many of them have then signed up for websites. I'm now appearing in ChatGPT searches too. My latest client, in Buxton, found me that way. The energy I've been pouring in has started to bring results.
What I nearly didn't notice
What I nearly didn't notice was the intangible: the things that improved that we weren't expecting to improve. Clients getting unexpectedly enthusiastic about their work again. It seems to be helping people bloom and blossom in confidence, and it's giving them fresh ideas for direction in their own creativity. This is just the best thing ever!
Real connection for small business happening in real life…
I brought my clients together, IRL! Something I'd been thinking about for years. I don't want to call it networking. It was a ‘get together’ at the Mill at Gordleton at the end of September, for my clients who had heard about each other, but never met. There were 14 of us.
I noticed just how happy everyone was to meet each other. Social gatherings can be hard for me, and I find it really hard to talk in front of people, but because I know everyone there really well, I didn't feel nervous. I introduced everybody one at a time in a big circle, and everyone had a chance to say something about themselves. There were no expectations on anyone. It felt like a safe space.
It's only been about 5 weeks, but already there have been stories of workshop attendee crossovers!
Questions to sit with
It's a really good time to look back and see how far you've come. We get caught up in the rush of Christmas and move straight on to what we'll do differently next year, but it's important to think about where we've been, as well as where we're going.
Foundations: Foundations can change. What are the foundations of your business built on, going into 2027?
Boundaries: Deciding what you can and can’t achieve within a given time frame comes with boundaries that you need to make that happen- what are yours?
Money: Money is always a sticky subject for creatives, because it feels like we're trying to sell our children. But if you suddenly needed to be financially independent, how would you pay your bills and feed your family? Are you relying on other people, and is that a good place to put all your eggs?
The intangible: Was there anything this year where, by doing one thing, something else unexpectedly improved?
Connection: Who have you enjoyed connecting with this year? What new connections have you made by stepping out of the digital world and into real life?
Noticing: What was your attention drawn to this year more than any other year, that you've started to be curious about? Being curious can often lead to seeds of ideas ideas that grow into blooming oak trees.
Before the busy season
For most of my clients, this is the busy season: selling products and running workshops before Christmas. They've done the foundations, and now they're doing the work. So I'm starting to slow down, making sure everyone is up to date and knows when the Christmas break is, so we can slowly start thinking about January.
Going into 2027, I'm going to continue with my introspection and with tarot on Substack, which was my inspiration from Saxon Su. I often find the lines blurring between Jaggerdesign and what's just creativity, but what I'm doing creatively does still relate to Jaggerdesign: making connections, looking at the threads between ideas, sowing seeds and growing them into ideas. And I'm writing more about my own business journey, because I often disregard that people might be interested in it. That's exactly what I tell my clients not to do.
My next move for next year is developing The Creative Boost, a seasonal programme for keeping your website active through blogging, with The Monthly Edit as part of it. I understand that £80 a month might be too much when you're starting off with nothing, so there are lower levels, with the idea that you move up as you start to see improvements.
These questions could be used to write your own blog and summary of the year. People are really interested in how we got to where we are, and our own experiences can help others to succeed too. Sharing is caring, remember!
