3 Strategic Changes to Transform Your Business in 2025: A Candid Entrepreneur's thoughts
As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves at crossroads where reflection meets action. After a challenging year of navigating business complexities, I'm sharing the three pivotal changes that will redefine my professional journey in 2025 – strategies that might just inspire your own business transformation.
1. Crafting a Strategic Marketing Plan: Rediscovering Your Passion
Marketing shouldn't feel like a chore. Yet, for many entrepreneurs, it becomes just that – a task to check off rather than an opportunity to connect and grow.
My Marketing Struggle
For years, marketing was the heart of why I started my business. The excitement of crafting compelling narratives, connecting with potential clients, and sharing my unique value proposition was exciting. I loved getting in front of my camera and speaking candidly to my audience about how they can improve their brand, or sharing behind the scenes work. As time past and things changed I slowly lost that spark I had for creating content. Somewhere along the way, tough experiences eroded my confidence and I fell out of love with marketing.
The Turning Point
I realized that a haphazard approach – posting sporadically or only when inspiration strikes – isn't a strategy. It's time to:
Develop a consistent content calendar
Define clear marketing objectives
Reconnect with the joy that initially drove my marketing efforts
2. Niching Down: The Power of a Specific Audience
The Myth of Serving Everyone
Contrary to popular belief, trying to appeal to everyone often means appealing to no one. My journey of audience identification has been a winding road of self-discovery. I love to use the analogy of throwing darts. It’s harder to win if you don’t know exactly what you’re aiming for, a bullseye. Understanding and defining your target audience is your bullseye. You may not always hit it spot on, but you’ll still earn points for landing on the board. Your brand may appeal to others who aren’t your exact target audience and that’s okay because it still gets you to where you want to go. But not if you don’t have something to aim for.
Finding My Ideal Client
After years of exploration, I've gained clarity on exactly who I want to work with. This isn't about limiting opportunities – it's about deepening impact and creating more meaningful client relationships. I want to work with clients that one, I have great experiences with. I didn’t start my own business from the ground up just to be unhappy about who I’m working with. And two, I want to work with people who are equally excited to work with me. I find that this provides a more equal power balance rather than one where the client feels like they are driving the ship and I’m just taking orders. I’m not the person for you if that’s what you’re looking for. I want an equal project collaborator to make magic with.
Now that I’ve got a few years of Odd Poppy under my belt, I’ve been able to track patterns and make observations about who I’ve enjoyed working with and who I can leave in the past. More on this soon, I’m keeping it a secret until I’m ready to announce my new audience.
Pro Tip: True specialization isn't restricting; it's about becoming the go-to expert in your specific domain.
3. Setting Firmer Boundaries: Protecting Your Business and Sanity
The Cost of Flexibility
In 2024, a harsh reality check revealed a critical issue: not a single project completed on schedule. We're not talking minor delays – we're discussing months-long extensions that disrupted my entire business ecosystem. This may not seem like a big deal from a clients perspective so I understand why these things happen. Running a business can be busy and chaotic and it can be hard to prioritize the internal things that are required to keep the business running.
Follow me for a minute. On my end, when clients don’t prioritize their projects with me (i.e. the internal things I just mentioned) it devalues the work that I do, and the level of respect toward the expertise I’m bringing to the table. It also majorly messes up my timelines because I’ve often got more than one project happening at a time and another (hopefully) scheduled to start shortly after the current ones end. When projects go weeks and months beyond their original wrap date or feedback lags longer than what we’ve contractually agreed to, it drastically affects my ability to keep booking clients and ultimately my livelihood.
I’ll admit, I’m a softie when it comes to sending reminders and I’m pretty passive about upholding these boundaries, but no more.
Implementing Safeguards
Moving forward, I'm implementing:
Clearly defined project timelines
Penalty clauses for significant delays
More robust initial project scoping
Upfront communication about expectations
Why These Changes Matter
Growth isn't about working harder – it's about working smarter. These strategic shifts aren't just personal improvements; they're a blueprint for sustainable business success. I’ve definitely been feeling discouraged after all of the challenges I’ve faced this year and I’d be lying if I said that closing my doors didn’t cross my mind once or twice. But ultimately I knew this wasn’t the solution and I needed to make some changes to take my business back. I need to grow through these challenges rather than walking away from them. It’s a bit of a guess and check game but it’s worth it to keep doing what I love.
Tags: #BusinessGrowth #EntrepreneurLife #BusinessStrategy #SmallBusinessTips
Disclaimer: These insights are based on personal experience and should be adapted to your unique business context.
