5 things my small business is grateful for this january….

It’s the end of January, so I said I would write another blog post today focusing on how this month has been from a small business perspective.

January is not an easy month for online retailers (I say that like I’ve been a retailer for years rather than months), but seriously, after the flurry of Christmas orders and the busyness of the run up to the big day, January can be a bit barren. So to counteract that, I wanted to write a blog post about the things I am grateful for this January.

Firstly, I did my first Donation Day on 6th January. This was a huge milestone for me and my Wrapped in Kindness journey. I will be doing Donation Day once a quarter, to pay over the donation amount for the previous quarters sales. So when I did the first one this month, I genuinely felt so much pride donating the relevant amounts to each of the 11 charity partners (https://wrappedinkindness.ie/charity-partners/). As this was only my first Donation Day, the amounts were not huge, but they were something. It was a start. It allowed me to really see how Wrapped in Kindness and it’s amazing customers, can truly make a difference to these charity partners. It showed me the potential to reach a level of giving back that has rarely been done by a small business in Ireland, especially at the start, when costs are high and volumes are low.

The second thing I am really grateful for this January is starting to wrap my head around the whole world of search engine optimisation (SEO). I had a really good one-to-one phone call with a mentor from the Waterford LEO www.localenterprise.ie/waterford and he really helped to de-mystify the whole process of SEO and show me the path forward to be able to work on this myself in the background. I still have a very long way to go in order to actually implement what I’ve learned, but I really feel like it’s do-able now, which I didn’t 2 weeks ago. For any other Irish small business owners, I would urge you to have a look at the training offered by your Local Enterprise Office and speak to them about what resources are available to help you and your small business.

Thirdly, I am grateful for the major shout out I got from a lovely lady called Katrina on her Instagram account @vintageirishkat – she has 43k followers and it really gave Wrapped in Kindness some great exposure and led to a big boost in our Instagram followers. She is a great supporter of Irish small business. It really makes a difference to small businesses when people like, comment and share on social media and it costs nothing.

Fourthly, I have been doing some work with a lovely visibility coach called Kate O’Dwyer. I am working on getting more comfortable with my own voice and being seen. It is slow and sometimes frustrating work but I feel I had a couple of small breakthroughs in the month, thanks to Kate’s guidance, and the way she creates a safe environment of gentle encouragement.

small business

And lastly, such a simple thing, but I am so grateful for all the beautiful sunrises I managed to see in January.

I am not an early bird. I could or would never get up early enough to see a Summer sunrise but in January, I see them nearly every morning and I genuinely appreciate that. I focus on this rather than the dark evenings that people like to complain about so much at this time of the year.

So that’s it – my January gratitude round up done. There is always something positive to appreciate in being a small business owner, even if it’s not the obvious one of “new sales volumes”. I find that being able to notice and appreciate all the small wins, keeps me motivated to continue to take daily actions towards realising my vision for Wrapped in Kindness.

Shopping Basket