Hey, business owner.

If you’re anything like me, you started your business because you genuinely love what you do & you’ve got a knack for helping people. You love getting to use your creativity every day to solve your client’s problems, and it feels incredible to have a direct impact on people’s lives (that you can physically see)!

Buuuuuut, no matter how much you love your “thing”, trust me when I say that everyone goes through times where they just feel “meh” about their biz.

(And honestly, it’s a good thing, because it means that you’ve grown and you’re ready to level up & get even more specific. Tbh, I find this feeling happens to me once a year. And while some of it is related to burnout, some of it is just plain growing pains.)

Luckily, the beauty of being a freelancer or owning your own business means that you can change whatever you want, whenever you want. But in order to know what to change, you gotta know what’s working and what’s not.

So, without further ado, here are 6 areas of business to keep in mind while you’re doing this internal work, and some journal prompts I like to use to go along with each.

Brand

• One of many reasons you might be feeling “meh” about your biz is your brand itself. Does it still align with you?
• Are you excited to post a blog, post on IG, use your fonts, use your colors, drive traffic to your website? Or do you cringe away from it all and end up not posting anything?
• Does your brand align with your target audience? Are you getting inquiries from dream clients?
• Write down a list of the projects you’ve done in the last year, and cross out any projects you weren’t 100% obsessed with. With the remaining projects, scribble a few notes as to why you loved it so much. Does your brand align with those notes?

(If you answered no to any of these questions, you know where to find me 😉

Services

• Oooor, maybe you just don’t like some of the services you’re offering anymore. Be honest with yourself—are there any services for which you *sigh* when people book?
• On that same coin, are there any services for which you feel immense relief when people book?
• Are there any service models that you see other people in your industry doing that look interesting to you to add to your offerings?
• Do your prices align with the amount of time, work, and value it takes you complete said project?
• Are you attracting the kind of clients you want to attract given your offerings? Do your clients feel like a “hell yes”?

Capacity

• People are scared to go freelance because they think they won’t find enough clients, but that is hardly ever the case. Are you over-booking yourself?
• Do you over-estimate or under-estimate the amount of time it takes you to complete a project?
• Outside of client work, have you committed yourself to too many “CEO” tasks?
• In the future, do you desire to hire someone? Or do you intend to keep it pretty small?
• How might you restructure your week to better serve your time?

Internal Processes

• Are there any bottlenecks in your business that end up soaking up a lot of energy, bandwidth, or time?
• Are you finding leads, onboarding clients, and completing projects in the most efficient way possible?
• Are you leaving enough room for high-level thinking, personal development, growth, and learning new skills? (This one is alllllllwaysssssss my biggest culprit.)
• If you have a team, are they clear on what their jobs are? Are there any tasks you might shift around to make more sense for your business needs?
• Are there any tasks that you’re doing that you just simply don’t have to be doing?
• Do clients or outsiders feel like your business is organized, or a mess?

Client Experience

• Are there any bottlenecks in your client experience that end up extending projects well past their scheduled date?
• There’s always something to improve. How might you make things easier, faster, and more luxurious for your clients?
• Are you anticipating your clients needs, or responding to them?
• How might you make clients feel safer in your hands?
• Is the work you’re doing worth the price they’re paying? Do they feel like their money was well spent?

Content & Marketing Strategy

• Are you proud of the way you are showing up online? Do you feel good about the things you post, send, film, etc?
• Are you getting quality, qualified leads?
• Is your content & marketing consistent, or a little flaky?
• Are there any marketing channels that you’ve been waiting to start using but just haven’t yet? Is now the right time to implement them?
• Go through any statistics you can find within your analytics and see what’s performing the best. What are people most interested to learn from you?
• How might you use that data to create a new marketing strategy?

If these questions feel like a lot, that’s because they are. But trust me when I say that once you get clear on your problems & bottlenecks (and implement new policies to overcome them!), you’ll be soooo glad you did

(Also! If any of these questions led you to the discovery that you need a new ~website look~, I’d be honored to help you claim those new levels and new devils.) Inquire here!