BLOG

My 2020 business goals

by | Jan 28, 2020 | Business | 0 comments

Today I want to share my 2020 business goals for Angela Pickett Copywriting. At the end of last year, I shared a review of my first year in business. It was a great exercise, and if you haven’t already sat down and looked your 2019, I’d really encourage you to do it.

So often in small business, we forget how far we have come. We’re so busy looking at our forward plans (good) or comparing ourselves to our competitors (bad) that we don’t celebrate enough.

While I started looking at copywriting as a freelance career in 2018, it wasn’t until the start of 2019 that I starting taking it seriously. Hard work, and some great contacts meant that I could resign from my casual job and be a full-time copywriter from June.

I didn’t really have a business plan when I started. I was happy for my business to evolve. But in 2020 I’m taking more of a structured, planned approach and I’ve set some big scary goals.

At the end of last year, I shared some questions that people could use to review 2019 and share their plans for 2020.

So I thought I should have a go at answering these questions about my plans and business goals for 2020, which will give me a good starting point to review my achievements later in the year.

Angela Pickett Copywriter 2020 goals

What are your plans for Angela Pickett Copywriter in 2020?

My plan is to grow my business, so it provides a consistent income. I want to continue to build up my network of clients and ideally have a couple of regular retainer clients.

While having a copywriting niche is something I’ll work towards, in 2020 I’ll still be working with a range of small business, government, tourism and not-for-profit clients.

Continuing to work on my website and building organic traffic will be a big focus. But in the meantime, I’ll continue to show up in the networks I am in and build referrals that way.

Is there anything you plan to do differently?

In my first year, I just lurched from project to project. I didn’t have a consistent marketing plan, and I was uncomfortable with setting my pricing.

In 2020, my goal is to have a steady flow of clients. Ideally that would be one or two big website clients a month, some smaller projects like blogs, product descriptions and press releases and a couple of retainer clients.

For marketing, I have a content plan that involves a regular blog (like this one) and regular social media content including videos on my Facebook page and Instagram.

Are you planning on expanding?

I definitely want to increase the number of clients I work with and my earnings. But I’m coming off a fairly low base in 2019 as I only started mid-way through the year and only did a few projects.

While I don’t want to employ staff, one of the big advantages of The Clever Copywriting School is the fantastic network of copywriters I can engage if I need to sub-contract work.

Are you planning to do any study, skills development in 2020?

Am I going to study? No. This might seem a strange answer but the reality is that I did a lot of training in 2019. It’s now it is time to apply the lessons. This is a trap many freelancers fall into. We get caught on the training treadmill when we’re doubting our skills.

But I’ll continue to hone my skills thanks to my memberships of The Clever Copywriting School and Digital Masterchefs. And I now have an amazing network (not to mention bank of resources) when I need to learn something new.

What are the biggest challenges for your industry?

I think one of the biggest challenges for copywriting is being able to demonstrate our value and charging appropriately. There are options out there to have someone write a blog for $50. But chances are, they’re not doing the research nor do they have the SEO skills to optimise the blog so it gets found online. 

What is one thing, personal or professional, that you hope to achieve in 2020?

My professional goal is to build my business so that at the end of the year, I can take a month off knowing I have money in the bank and worked booked into the new year.

My personal goal, and one that I really need to focus on, is to run a half-marathon (21.1km) in Canberra in early April. This one is a little crazy as I haven’t properly trained for a half-marathon in five years. But I did one with minimal training (and a lot of walking in 2018) so I know I’ll survive it.

What’s one fun thing you’re planning to do in 2020?

While we haven’t made any firm plans, one of the fun goals that is encouraging me to work harder is the goal of taking my family somewhere warm to escape the cold Barossa winter.

So that’s my 2020 business goals in a nutshell.

But to achieve them takes more than just writing them down. For each of these broad goals, I’ll be setting SMART goals.

Then breaking them down further so I have specific tasks to achieve each week. And of course, tracking and measurement will be the key.

2020 Business Goals

In 2020, I am carving out more time to work on my business, rather than just working in my business.

What are your 2020 business goals?

What will you do differently this year?

What’s your one big, scary goal?

Hi, I’m Angela Pickett, an approachable copywriter with stellar communication and organisational skills. 

I’ll help you transform your ideas into logical arguments and engaging copy, creating straight-talking sales pages and winning websites.

I acknowledge the Ngadjuri, Peramangk and Kaurna people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I work with people from all backgrounds, beliefs and experiences. I believe everyone should have the freedom to be themselves and be valued for their differences. It’s what makes our world go around.