WOW - what a year! I launched Crescent Digital Marketing on 2 January 2024, after several months of planning and strategising, and I am so, incredibly happy with (and grateful for) how well the first year has gone.
So - happy birthday Crescent! Let's explore just how our first year in business has been...
There was plenty of self-doubt and worry in the first few weeks and months, but I had made a conscious decision right at the beginning to give this business everything I could. So, I stepped far away from my comfort area, and began networking relentlessly from day one. This actually resulted in me booking my first client after my very first online networking session! I had already completed several projects for friends and acquaintances, but this was a completely brand-new client - and a whole website redesign. I enjoyed every second of it, and my client was thrilled with the final result.
My biggest project was, undoubtedly, the new website I designed and built for my local parish council, after they approached me about the project. As well as having to upload countless historical documents that needed to be included, I also suggested creating a community gallery and a business directory. The gallery would be for local people to upload and view photos of the village and surrounding area, and the business directory would be for local businesses to advertise their services and local people to find trades and services they may need. The parish council loved both ideas, and it gave me the opportunity to be really creative and explore different ways to include both features in the new website. They were very pleased with the final website, and in their review of Crescent Digital Marketing, they stated that, 'we would not hesitate to recommend her'!
My biggest challenge this year was definitely an unfortunate incident which occurred with a client who accidentally deleted their entire website (and the back-up!) the day before it was due to go live, after I had been working on it for two months. It meant starting again from scratch, but as I still had most of the content saved in documents, it was not as difficult a re-build as it could have been. When it was finished, the client was very happy (and relieved!) to finally launch it and share it far and wide on social media.
I have also had the privilege of working with numerous social media clients this year, and as I have chosen to focus on and support local businesses, it has meant that there is quite a variety of business types for me to learn about. However, instead of this hindering me, I have found it to be beneficial, because it has meant that I have really taken the time to get to know my clients, their businesses and industries, and so I feel that the content I create is more genuine and authentic - hopefully my clients do too!
My main hopes for my first year in business were to:
expand my network with useful and interesting connections
work on at least two websites
gain at least three social media clients
These might not seem like big goals, but at the beginning of 2024, my anxiety was sky-high and my impostor syndrome was even higher.
I am incredibly proud to say that I have worked on eight websites and currently have six social media clients, and I already have a new client for a website refresh and social media management lined up for the new year!
I have no intention of being the biggest business by any means, and I am more than happy being a one-woman band. Having said that, I've still got some things in mind, plans in motion and something special coming in January as Crescent Digital Marketing expands in a way I did NOT see coming a year ago!
I'm very excited to see what else 2025 brings! What are your aspirations for the coming year?
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