small-business new year check-in

Starting a new year feels like cracking the spine on a fresh new notebook… so many possibilities for where to take your small biz in 2025. It’s exciting, but it’s totally cool if it also feels a bit overwhelming.

The good news is, you’re not alone in feeling these uncertain ~feels~. One way to prioritise what to focus on is to take stock of the year that was. We polled frankie’s Strictly Business community about their current small-business vibes and we found out that most people (63 per cent, in fact) find the freedom of running their own thang somewhere in between ‘scary’ and ‘exciting’. It can definitely be both!

To make things less scary, concrete business goals can help you have something to work towards. In our poll we found that 58 per cent of the community don’t have ’em! They’re taking the ‘see what happens’ approach, which has its merits too! But even if you’re floating along with the business wind, it’s great to know that more members of the Strictly Business community make time to celebrate their wins (53 per cent) than not. You've gotta give yourself a pat on the back from time to time to lessen the business grind.

Speaking of grind, is it time for a coffee yet? Sorry… got distracted. Speaking of grind, the majority of you find the social media side of your biz a slog. It can be so hard to find the time to create the amazing things your biz offers, let alone have time to promote it! Ugh!

Last year we ran a webinar in partnership with Squarespace where we focused on how to build your email marketing database to try and ease your small business’s reliance on social media in this ever-changing landscape. Owned audiences are so important! It’s satisfying when your email marketing and website can work for you while you sleep.

On websites, 68 per cent of you say your website needs some work in order to truly reflect your business. The other lunch break lesson webinar we ran was ‘how to create a boujee website on a budget’. We’ve got another webinar in the works on how to update your website for 2025, which will help those looking for some quick and easy ways to make your website work harder and smarter for you. Sign up to the Strictly Business newsletter so you don’t miss the webinar details. Bring it on!

This article is brought to you in partnership with our pals at Squarespace who make all the tools that can help your business create a sparkly online presence, build an audience, monetise and scale your biz. Oh and here’s a lovely Squarespace 20% off code while we’re at it.