My 2024 Business Review
I’ve been reviewing 2024 and I think it’s been my most up-and-down year in business yet. There were times when I felt on top of the world and also a big chunk of time where I felt flat and couldn’t seem to find my entrepreneurial groove.
I started Cheer Up Marketing five years ago and it’s always been about creating a way of life that means I earn good money whilst getting to do the school run and having maximum flexibility to do mum stuff.
Over the past five years I’ve battled with my own ambition (“I want to make a million!”) vs what’s possible for me in the hours I have available to work (about 20-25 a week). Reflecting on what my daily life looks like, I’m grateful and satisfied that I’ve built a business that gives me and my family what we need.
I also need a reality check sometimes when comparisonitis kicks in. I forget what the average employed person takes home every month and my salary is way above average for a full-time employee, nevermind someone who works 4 hours a day and takes most of August off!
I am grateful for the money and I’m forever grateful for the lifestyle.
In this annual review I’m going to share highs, lows and the struggle I encountered over the summer which meant my revenue tanked in Q4. I’ll also share the lessons I’ve learned over the past 12 months in the hope that they are useful for you.
2024 Business Review By Quarter
I’m going to split the calendar year up into quarters and report business and life Highs, Lows and Learnings for each quarter.
Let’s dive in with Q1 2024!
Q1 Highs (Jan, Feb, Mar)
Financially, Q1 started off as my highest revenue start to a calendar year to date. I was feeling confident in my abilities to market and sell my services and I was excited to build on what I’d created in 2023.
I launched my new mastermind level group which was an iteration of the group I’d been running for the past 18 months. I welcomed in a small group of brilliant clients and felt good about scaling this group over the coming year.
I hung out with my business pal Tania King-Mohammad at her Wealthy Live event in London and met some of my clients for the first time in real life.
My diary was fairly busy with 1-1 client calls and I started the year having lots of chats with people about working with me. I wanted to keep up momentum and speak to as many ideal clients as possible as this had always worked for me in the past.
I was without a mentor at this point as I’d just completed a year inside Lisa Johnson’s Destination Inspiration mastermind which had been a big help for me in terms of creating a strategy to dial down my 1-1 client delivery and shift my revenue streams to semi-passive. I had launched The Spark subscription which was very well received (52 founding subscribers!) and I planned to grow the membership this year.
At the gym, I’d started doing barbell workouts again at Lift Club and I was feeling strong! I’m no good at getting to the gym in the evening so I’d made sure my gym sessions were in the diary for 10am classes twice during the week and I was also going on a weekend.
I launched early bird tickets for my upcoming in-person marketing day here in Nottingham and made sales which felt good as I’d committed to hiring the venue!
Q1 Lows (Jan, Feb, Mar)
There weren’t any stand out “lows” in Q1. I was making excellent money and I felt confident in my own abilities after coming out of Lisa’s mastermind. I was healthy and physically strong and everyone at home was happy.
My diary was perhaps a little chaotic with calls and it was a bit of a headache to squeeze in time to promote my event and everything else I was selling from 1-1, MiniMind, Accelerator mastermind, strategy sessions and The Spark. I did feel scattered at times.
Q1 Learnings
Recurring revenue from payment plans for higher priced group services are very useful for hitting money goals whilst not having to deliver the work in that time period.
Having calls most days limited my capacity to do deep creative work.
I tried some local networking events but couldn’t find the high level inspiration I was now missing from being in a business mastermind. I believe you have to pay to be in the best rooms with the best-performing people.
On to Q2…
Q2 Highs (Apr, May, Jun)
On the finances side, I made even more money in Q2 than I did in Q1 but as you’ll see when you get to the Lows section, this trend was not to continue.
On the family side, we had a great time during the school holidays with a camping trip in the Peak District and lots of play dates with friends. I only had two weeks to work in April but still made great money thanks to existing payment plans and launching a new sprint group programme.
The best business decision I made was to launch an annual pass for The Spark which banked thousands in May and gave me a huge motivational push to market this subscription more than I had been doing. With the help of the fabulous Derryn at Sunset Creative, we turned this live launch into an evergreen funnel and got Facebook ads converting. Finally, I was making sales while I slept!
I invested in my skin. I joined my client Kaytie’s VIP membership and started having microneedling regularly which now I’m 6 months down the line, I can say has definitely paid off!
I ran my in-person marketing strategy day which was the third event I had run and I was thrilled to have the highest number of people join me here in Nottingham.
After not finding the right in-person networking events earlier in the year, I found a local networking event which was a VIBE. I attended Tamika Martin’s Entrepreneur’s Brunch and it had that feel of these people are high vibe entrepreneurs who have big ambitions. I didn’t know anyone at the event but made some new friends and felt welcome.
I also went to Niyc Pidgeon’s Psychology of Getting Rich event in London and upgraded to VIP so I got to go to Nobu for dinner after the event where I ate a sharing platter of sushi by myself. So good.
I finally got some new brand photos done with my client Ally Berry who ran a photoshoot at a beautiful house here in Nottingham.
I moved out of my city centre office for an upgraded space a little closer to home which has central heating! Got settled in but sadly, my office sofa would not go through the doorway.
I went to Download festival with my best friend and sister and despite the horrendous mud and almost fainting besides a Pad Thai van, saw some great bands and had a laugh.
After injuring my shoulder (see Lows), I discovered reformer pilates which I love! I switched weight training sessions for reformer.
Q2 Lows: (Apr, May, Jun)
I have to start with my shoulder injury because health is true wealth and making money is worth NOTHING to me if I can’t enjoy my life in my physical body. Over Easter weekend my right shoulder and arm rapidly became so painful that I had to wear a sling! We think this was caused by bench press at the gym. I missed a family bike ride in the sunshine as I was in so much pain I had to stay home and move as little as possible. I was so upset. I booked in for a full body MOT with a physio and got it sorted. No more weights for me for 6 months whilst I rehabbed my shoulder. Enter, reformer pilates…
A business low was feeling increasingly scattered with where my revenue was coming from. I could launch small groups and make a cash injection but didn’t want to be constantly launching. I was feeling increasingly tired of social media and keeping up conversations with my audience. I felt like I wanted to retreat a little bit but was frustrated that I didn’t have the semi-passive income from The Spark coming in large enough amounts to dial down client delivery and manual lead generation. This (and some client drama) led me to make a costly mistake in Q3.
Q2 Learnings:
Health is always wealth.
There are networking groups out there that will fit your vibe if you keep looking for them (and are prepared to pay and/or travel)
Running your own in-person events gets expensive when you pay for a slap up lunch with drinks.
Having new brand photos makes it easier to show up on social media.
Now it’s on to Q3 (the worst quarter of my year)...
Q3 Highs (Jul, Aug, Sept)
On the home front, we had a blast over the summer! We went to Disneyland Paris and stayed in Sequoia Lodge which was brilliant. We had hot weather at Disney and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Back home, we visited the Lake District, got rained off and relocated to a luxury yurt in Derbyshire. We also stayed at Center Parcs for a long weekend.
At work, I invested in two mentors to help me get out of my funk (see Lows) and help me figure out what I was doing next with my organic marketing to make my semi-passive income grow.
In September I re-launched my email marketing programme, Electric Email, after giving it an update and welcomed in a new group of clients. This felt GREAT! I could see there was a demand for my email marketing knowledge and it was a missing piece of my offer suite.
Q3 Lows:
On the business side, I had started to feel lost. In July I felt really flat and struggled to find excitement to market myself to my usual high levels of activity. I decided not to relaunch my mastermind level group as I couldn’t feel excited about all the marketing it required me to do.
I felt tired and like I wanted to lie down instead of make connections and sell. I wasn’t ill - I was just flat.
I had a terrible experience with a 1-1 client which led to us ending our agreement in a way that left me feeling frustrated, angry and upset. This was my error to begin with. I knew this person wasn’t a good fit but they insisted I was the best person to help them with their marketing strategy and against my better judgement, we committed to 3 months working together. I’m an optimist and I liked this person so I was willing to go for it and help them. It turned out that this was never going to be possible and after they tried to cancel our agreement early without paying me, I had to make my case for them fulfilling their part of the agreement. I got paid but the experience knocked me and caused me to hit pause on working with any new 1-1 clients. My error here is I had no guaranteed way to replace that income stream. You will see how this plays out in Q4.
After a much lower than average June, income-wise, my revenue shot up again in July but tanked in August as let’s face it, I’d coasted in July and took August off to live my best summer holiday life. I felt OK about it because with September around the corner, I figured I’d find my mojo and get back to business (and marketing) as usual.
September arrives and with the move from infant school to juniors, my daughter is very unsettled and we embark on a period of her being extremely upset at school drop off. Her upset over the next 6 weeks deeply impacted my wellbeing and ability to crack on at work when arriving at my desk after school run.
Once again I was grateful to 2020 me who started a business that would allow me to be flexible. I can’t imagine having to show up to work in an office after such a stressful start to my day.
Q3 Learnings:
Never ignore red flags with a prospective client. Don’t try to convince yourself it will be OK because they seem like a nice person. If you know you aren’t a good fit, turn them down.
It’s very tough to pull yourself out of your own funk. Get a mentor who is experienced in the skills you are missing or who is qualified to coach you to turn your situation around.
Disneyland Paris is worth every penny. It’s expensive because it’s premium. Accept that and be happy you are there!
If you are a solopreneur, you get out of your business what you put in. Unless you have your funnels set up to make passive sales, you need to show up, market and sell every week or your revenue will decrease.
If you are good at something and people need it, sell more of that instead of reinventing the wheel with new offers.
Do I turn my situation around in Q4? Let’s see…
Q4 Highs (Oct, Nov, Dec):
On the parenting side, my daughter has finally turned a corner and is now going into school happy. I’m grateful for this every single day. This has had a big impact on my positive emotions and being able to focus at work. Long may it continue!
I started a daily gratitude Whatsapp group with two of my friends and every morning we voice note to say what we are grateful for that day and what the intention is for the day ahead. We all love it and it makes us all feel more positive and focussed for what we want to achieve each day.
I met up with fellow solopreneur and marketer, Charelle Griffith, for a day and we planned out 2025 together. The best thing about this was seeing I could easily hit my revenue goal without adding in any new offers. Relief! I know exactly what to sell and when.
I ran my MiniMind group for the second time this year and I loved doing it. I enrolled more clients into Electric Email.
I felt supported by my mentors and back on track with my motivation and marketing strategy.
Despite sub-zero temperatures, I got back into having a 90 second cold shower every morning. I felt alive again! No more coasting and feeling flat.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing…
Q4 Lows:
In October and November and reaped what I had sown over the summer. Not a lot! My revenue dipped and if it wasn’t for a bumper first half of the year, I was close to losing my ‘6-figure business’ title. It was only after my accountant did my end of year that I understood I had been more profitable than the previous year, and despite my fears, was still turning over £100k.
But the signs were there that I could tank the business if I had another period of feeling flat and lost. I needed to keep my motivation up and double down on lead generation and sales.
I can’t stand the thought of going backwards and this propelled me into action in Q4.
Q4 Lessons:
Mindset work is essential for sustainable success.
Gratitude practice is so simple but it will change your life.
Content + Conversations = Conversions.
Cold showers will keep colds at bay.
My 2024 Year In Business Final Reflections
2024 was my most up and down year in business and all of it was down to me. My revenue didn’t fluctuate because of market changes or the cost of living crisis. It was down to me having a wobble and shying away from doing the necessary work to get consistent results.
I was deeply impacted by the bad 1-1 client experience over the summer and made an emotional, knee jerk decision to pause on working with clients in this way without carefully forecasting what this would mean for my income.
I also stopped enrolling for my mastermind level group without a plan to make that revenue elsewhere. I completely ignored strategy and submitted to feeling lost and flat.
I’m generally brilliant at getting stuck into work and making money but I needed a mentor to help me reset after my confidence had a knock. It was also difficult to keep going when I was upset about my daughter’s anxiety about school.
I had to stop running Facebook ads due to cashflow issues and was unable to replace my 1-1 and mastermind client income with my funnel. This meant my pipeline dried up by Q3 and I had a lot of work to do to generate new leads in the second half of the year.
At the end of Q4, the work I had done since I dusted myself off at the end of the summer and invested in mentorship started to pay off and I felt like myself again.
I’m proud that I hit my £100k target by the end of the calendar year and that I’ve done this for three years running now. I’m kicking myself that I made it such hard work this year.
I’m grateful for all the flexibility my business gives me and ultimately, this business is why I can afford to go on holidays and not stress about spending money on sequinned Minnie Mouse ears.
Let me know in the comments, what are your business highs, lows and lessons this year?