It's been 730 days since I made the big decision to do what I do professionally and I immediately started writing my business plan, followed by 2 intensive weeks creating my website. Strategic planning is so important when starting a business because it's all about business development, hitting your targets, reaching goals, learning from your mistakes, improving yourself, elevating your brand, working towards the long term picture and ultimately giving your niche market what they want to see and hear.
This was a path that I had many doubters at the time (not on Facebook, a different community), who all strongly advised me to not take this route until I gained experience in the horse world. That I was 100% destined to fail if I jumped right in (especially cold turkey), in a completely new industry that I had zero experience in.
Well despite what I was being told, I still pursued my dreams because it all came down to me believing in myself.
It's been a heck of a second year, reaching new milestones, meeting and working with so many wonderful new and familiar faces, getting more marketing pieces done, expanding my products and services, and the third year will be even busier, bigger and better. But bigger and better requires even more hard work and steeper challenges, I'm ready for it. I couldn't have done this without such a supportive group of friends.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, each and every time I work with someone, I learn something new to either manage or apply it moving forward. The learning experiences that I went through in my first year were instrumental but the ones that I went through in my second year are on a whole new level.
So what can you expect from me in year #3? Well, I'm going to continue with what's been working and as many of you have already figured it out, I am putting a lot of focus on the educational side, as there is one big product and one big service that I am working on for a 2020 release.
But it goes beyond that, I'm hoping to start hitting the road again but I just need to lay the foundation to my 2020 product first, as it will open up so many more pathways and doors for opportunities and growth.
If you told me at the start of this year, that Dubai would be the only destination that I would be travelling to in all of 2019, I would have disagreed. Getting ill and not being well enough to travel despite being given numerous invites throughout the year was definitely not the outcome that I was expecting at the time. But we live, we learn and we take the initiative to improve ourselves for next time so that we don't make the same mistakes.
With that being said, a return trip back to Dubai in my third year is a possibility but it hugely depends on many factors and how the timing goes.
I'm so grateful that so many people enjoy seeing my work. I'm a strong believer that if you don't put in the hard work, you won't see success and this includes stepping outside your boundaries when required. So expect to see some new impressive things in year #3.