Week 16

To be intentional means you are purposeful in word and action. It means you live a life that is meaningful and fulfilling, you make thoughtful choices, and you actively interact and engage with your life.

You wake up every day and ask yourself “How am I going to make this day great?”

I’ve been focusing on living my life intentionally. Just four months after taking the first step to building up a side hustle, my dream is becoming a reality.

This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. On Friday at 5:08 p.m. I received an email that all of my documents to become an LLC had been filed with the state of Kentucky. My new business startup packet is in the mail. It was easy to ride this wave of excitement and check several items off of my to-do list.

Now that I’m filed, I’m officially able to operate as a business entity. I’m not ready to start soliciting clients as I still have a lot of learning and preparing to do, but here is everything I worked on this week:

• Developed a Contract template (I used Canva.com – they offer hundreds of free templates that you can use, upload your own copy and image files, and download so you can print.)
• Created a business brochure (If you visit my Services page, you’ll see an image capture of it.)
• Updated my “About Me” and “Services” page on my website
• Developed an Invoice template (Again, used Canva.com.)
• Hired a designer to create a logo for Callahan Communication (I used Fiverr.com.)

I’ve also been reading “The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From the Crowd” by Allan Dib. (Stay tuned – next week I’ll write about some things I’ve learned and how I’m building my own marketing plan.)

As many items as I’ve checked off my list, I still have many more to go. While this will be an ongoing learning and optimizing process, there are a few items I want to complete before I feel comfortable getting clients on my own (outside of Upwork).

In this upcoming week my primary focuses will be:

• Uploading work samples to my website for an online portfolio
• Ordering/printing brochures and business cards
• Purchasing Adobe design software
• Developing Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages for Callahan Communications and using Hootsuite to schedule posts and content
• Set up a Google Business Account/Google Analytics
• Keep reading 1-Page Marketing and developing my marketing plan

Don’t worry – I haven’t forgotten about my Upwork clients. I logged hours this week for my current client and am continuing to submit proposals for new job postings. My goal is still to add one additional client in the month of January, and one more before the end of Q1 (March).

On a fun side note, I also went shopping for a desk in order to set up a home office in our spare bedroom! Thanks to IKEA, I found the perfect one for my needs. Unfortunately they were out of stock – who knew setting up a desk and office space would be so exciting!