Tomorrow is my birthday. I don’t normally have this new-year feel about my birthday. Other than maybe the year I got married, I never stop to think about “man last year I was doing bla bla.” But this year, I’m stopping to think. In a way, this venture feels like the biggest thing in my life, second only to getting married (or giving my life to Christ but I did that when I was so young, it shaped my whole life, there wasn’t a big before/after). A year ago, I was the SAD at ICG. I have tried really hard to remember what I was working on then but I don’t, other than “fall stuff” for clients. I can guarantee you, though, I will remember right now a year from now!

Right Now: I’m ready to land that next client and I have one of the white boards at the office covered in prospective clients and to-do lists. I just finished a large project for my BFC, CherryBerry (which is why I haven’t posted in a while) and have even bigger ones on the way. I have Nichole with me Mon-Thurs, an awesome intern and overall fun gal. I am always working. Even when relaxing, I check my phone for emails like a mad woman, and I check twitter for tips/news that I need to email myself so that I will have it in the morning. If I see a client email, it’s like I get twitchy if I don’t answer it right away. I don’t let myself do that though, because the habit of answering within the minute is bad for myself and my business. It’s still hard not to! Even though my office hours are flexible, I almost always work in the evenings. I am already mentally gearing up for the addys and tax season … it’s October. The addys are in February and taxes are in March/April. Taxes are probably going to warrant a few posts of their own, get soooo excited for that.

Moving on, what do I hope my 29th birthday looks like?  I hope to have 2 new franchises, plus CherryBerry, on the Lever client roster. I hope to have at least 1 full time employee and 1 intern. I hope that Lever will have won a couple awards and that I will have been a speaker at a few events around the city. I hope to have written many posts on this blog to help other young entrepreneurs like myself. I hope to have paved the way for someone else who has the courage to build something of their own (no matter what that is). ……I also hope to be on the way to starting a family. That doesn’t mean pregnant, that just means that it can be on the table. I’ve never been really into having kids, as all of my friends will attest. But I’m not getting any younger, either. Right now, my business is my baby. A very exciting, rewarding, baby. Real babies? Off the table. Also, they’re terrifying, vomitty and weird. But someday, I will want to think about it and I hope next year we can start thinking. Something to consider if you’re a woman entrepreneur without a sugar daddy, or vice versa.

That last bit was kinda hard to post, but I want to be transparent because only true transparency in my journey helps others with their journey. Here’s to a great year!