As 2025 comes to an end, what are some of your business or personal goals you are looking to achieve for 2026? Are you looking to hire more employees? Maybe expand or start another business? Maybe you are looking to step back and take a little R&R for your personal well being?
For me, I have a plate full I am looking to do! I slow down for a few weeks in February, so I picked up a laser engraver to help me stay productive during this time (don't really care about turning a profit on it) as I am mainly looking to use this to promote my current business, and learn with my son at the same time so he can take over that part of it on his time after school.
I am also looking at a piece of land to build a larger garage, more bays with a customer waiting/show room for auto accessories.
I am hoping to utilize more of the Square Marketing aspect in an attempt to get people in the doors earlier in the year so that my fall time isn't so chaotic, with the possibility of trying to incorporate the loyalty program.
What are your goals?
I love your idea of working with the laser engraver to stay busy and creative during a slower time. In addition to my brick-and-mortar business, I have a blog and YouTube channel. I am brainstorming and creating video and article content and thinking of doing some grooming livestreams. A dog tried to bite me the last time I filmed so it can get very exciting!
My primary goal for 2026 is to grow the business. One of the things I am doing is marketing outside of my small town. I am in communication with a large senior apartment community in a neighboring city. I plan to offer pickup and drop off of the dogs for grooming. I am also using EDDM at the post office to send marketing post cards to those areas.
great idea!
I love watching TikToks of groomers!! It's such fun content especially when there's a dramatic makeover 🙂
LOVE dog groomer tiktoks!!
How long does it take you take make/edit one video for YouTube?
The pickup/delivery sounds like a great idea to offer!
It's amazing how many hours it can take for a video of a few minutes! There's ideation, scripting, filming of the talking head and B-roll, then editing. This one about finding a lost cat took a few days because my friend helped me film the parts featuring me. I have a system so it's efficient, but I'd say on average 4 hours per video.
I'm waiting on the buildout of my vehicle for dog delivery. Stay tuned 😊.
Great question!
next year (April 2026) my first published tarot deck comes out.
I have 3 proposals floating around in my brain I'd like to get out- so I'd like to get those done.
I'd also like to do in-person talks in support of my tarot deck- hit up some stores and do local travel.
That sounds amazing! I started drawing my own Tarot deck many years ago. I didn't finish, but I cherish the cards I have and their meaning for me.
@DinaLRosenberg wrote:Great question!
next year (April 2026) my first published tarot deck comes out.
I have 3 proposals floating around in my brain I'd like to get out- so I'd like to get those done.
I'd also like to do in-person talks in support of my tarot deck- hit up some stores and do local travel.
Congrats on that again! Are you going to be doing like a signing or anything at your shop for when it comes out?
We are pretty much done for this year, so we are looking to grow our socials, better website, etc.
I am really trying hard to get into a licensable location so we can expand where we can sell our products, but holy cow, rent is insane in a university town.
We are also currently doing some R&D with the intent of selling microwavable mac and cheese cups, bread box mixes, fry mix, etc. We just tested our hellfire corn bread at an event, and it was a big hit!
@schaefferjosh wrote:We are pretty much done for this year, so we are looking to grow our socials, better website, etc.
I am really trying hard to get into a licensable location so we can expand where we can sell our products, but holy cow, rent is insane in a university town.
We are also currently doing some R&D with the intent of selling microwavable mac and cheese cups, bread box mixes, fry mix, etc. We just tested our hellfire corn bread at an event, and it was a big hit!
Hellfire corn bread, that just sounds delicious!
You are making me hungry! I love the food from my local licensed home kitchens and street markets. I live off of it sometimes 😁. I looked at your website and had to see what flavor "Swamp" is! I love to cook when I have time, but many seasonings have too much salt or MSG which makes me ill. I would love to have a source of safe and delicious flavor.
GREEAATT question! You teed me up... Professionally, I’m really hoping to bring the Community to new heights in 2026 ✨ I have some big dreams for engagement and for Square Champions participation. We’re a tiny and scrappy team, but we’re making thoughtful changes to improve how the Community works and how we support our sellers. I won’t say too much, but I’m excited for what’s coming 💛 Hope that didn't sound too salesy. I also finished my master’s degree in September, so I’m looking forward to learning how to slow down again and actually… relax 😌
Personally… I’ve read 103 books so far in 2025 📚 and my goal is to hit 150 next year. And my husband and I are hoping to buy a place to live because renting is starting to feel a little old 🏡
That’s all from me! Love that you’re thinking of leaning into Square Marketing and Loyalty more, @Minion, and you totally nailed it with the part about taking a little R and R for your own well-being... feels like we all need to relearn how to do that 💕
Always looking forward to what's on the horizon...as long as its not clicks haha.
I remember the price my buddy was paying for rent over there , astronomical. Congrats on getting older!?
I don't think I've read 105 books in my entire lifetime let alone a year! (no shame in my game). Huge kudos to you.
We will be getting more back office space in our current building! One of my team members is coming over to operations and she's going to be taking some stuff off my plate. She's also going to be getting some of our better designer items on our website, which will take our website from strictly luxury to luxury and designer. This should be an easy way to increase sales which is always a bonus.
That'll be a nice way for you to get some more time to yourself. It's nice when you can rely on your team!
We are launching housemade functional plant add-in syrups to our menu in January! Launching as a helpful solution to winter blues, but hoping it takes off! Syrups for any drink - 6 total, with blend options for optimal benefits. They are ashwaganda, l-theanine, cordyceps, kanna, rhodiola, lions mane - and blends will be bliss, mood, energy, adapt, focus, calm.
I’m so excited about this and have received really excited and positive feedback so far!!
That, and coffee subscription boxes. THIS is the year for that! I finally became an adult who understands how to shoo things 😇 Now I just need to get the subscription back end set up. Hoping Square Subscriptions has improved???
Sounds like you have a solid plan for 2026! Would you be offering your add in syrups to your subscription boxes as well?
A coffee subscription box does sound fun! I would also like to hear how Square subscriptions are going for others.
2026 - I am hoping to do an expansion on our shop. We have been planning it for a couple of years, and I am starting to feel like next year is right. If anyone has done this before any helpful tips about doing a construction expansion I would love to hear them.
We are also looking to hire one more full-time employee and one more part time.
We work with a coaching business in the hospitality space which has helped us tick off some bigger boxes over the last few years. My big goal is to get to a point in the next few years to sell our business (Restaurant and Food trucks), however I started a side business that I am still growing, producing gifts and timber items like end grain chopping boards, Ring boxes, Personalised gifts, etc. I use a laser etcher/cutter and a lot of other carpentry equipment-my background is in carpentry.
As for the current business, we want to grow and develop our business along the lines of our vision which is "To bring people together through authentic food, genuine connection, and a sense of belonging-creating a community that grows together, one pizza at a time!" We have a lot of plans to implement along creating communitieis and improving our own community-our team and our local supporters/family. So my goals are:
1. We are aiming to increase our average sale and my plan is to do this through consistent and regular marketing using square email marketing-wish I could use text message marketing as it is a very big part of my current marketing mix.
2. We also need to focus more on our loyalty program, as our loyal customers are the ones that spend the most. Becuase of someone elses post in the community I did a deep dive on our customers (We have over 26k customers on our records) and get this. 0.001% of our customers provide 1/7th of our total sales. That's wild!
3. I really want to learn to use Square's functionality to build our business more-I just wish some of the functionality was available in Australia! I'm specifically looking at Delivery using square, or delivery in house, improving customer experience and overcoming some of the specific challenges we have created with ordering for our customers.
4. I want to use square to help with my specific goals but also to train my managers to use its functionality to help them in their roles.
5. I want to be a part of helping others in this community grow-I already help others in our Coaching group and so many have switched to square this year becuase they have had others they know recommend it! If you haven't realised it yet, community is so important to me and we are all in so many different communities! I need to learn how to contribute more, but contribution is what I want to achieve this year!
6. We are hoping to achieve greater success with our marketing using a variety of tools to get our message out to our local community and our wider community. There's aspects of our business like our Catering boxes and our food truck catering that has great potential that I'm not currently achieving.
7. I also have some personal goals, such as reading and learning more. @isabelle your number of books read inspires me-I have a stack next to my bed that I have started and never finished- I need to get onto this.
Thanks for this thread. It's always good to plan for the new year around now but sharing your goals can help you focus more on them.
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