My 2014 Annual Review

The year of turning 35.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

Time for my 2014 annu­al review.

I’ll do my best to answer three ques­tions in this post: 1This format is inspired by James Clear’s annu­al reviews.

What went well this year?
What did­n’t go so well this year?
What am I work­ing toward?

Here we go:

1. What Went Well This Year?

Jack. On September 14, Jack was born. As a first time fath­er, I’m still not quite sure how to describe this feel­ing; it’s more than just love; it’s more than just an immense sense of respons­ib­il­ity and pur­pose. It’s … magic.

New apart­ment. We needed more space and found an apart­ment in Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm. It was­n’t per­fect to move while my wife was preg­nant in her third tri­mester (it took us longer than expec­ted to find the right place), but I shipped her off to her par­ents while I moved our stuff and cleaned out our old place. Now we both love it here.

Marketing. I write down my thoughts online, and that’s all the mar­ket­ing I do for my busi­ness. And it works; I get more high-qual­ity leads every week than an aver­age mid-sized agency. I’m not look­ing to hire, so for now, I’m happy with refer­ring most of those leads to others.

Family sup­port. I’ve had the pleas­ure of work­ing closely with my young­est broth­er, Pontus, for a year. He’s a pro­fes­sion­al soc­cer play­er, but he has helped me out on a semi-reg­u­lar basis through­out the year.

2. What Didn’t Go So Well This Year?

Office space. After work­ing out of my apart­ment most of 2013, I moved into a cent­rally loc­ated office in 2014. But in 2015, I gave up the lease, even though I loved the office. I love work­ing from home, and that’s what I did — whenev­er I had the chance. I don’t even want to think about how much money I spent on rent those 18 months!

The pro­ject from hell. Took on a risky pro­ject in 2013, and the pro­ject just went on and on, well into 2014. After 300+ hours, I still had­n’t made a dime. Once the pro­ject finally launched, everything had changed for the worse, and even though we mar­keted the task well, sales wer­en’t exactly boom­ing. And when I was finally about to get paid in late 2014, the com­pany told me that they had already spent that money.

Agency plans. I’ve always had some vis­ion to grow my busi­ness into an agency. But now I’m not so sure. I do know that I enjoy being a freel­an­cer, though. Can I run a solo busi­ness forever and be happy?

3. What Am I Working Toward?

Clearer busi­ness focus. Today, I’m tak­ing on pro­jects with no par­tic­u­lar selec­tion cri­ter­ia or fil­ter. But I’ve noticed an inter­est­ing trend; the assign­ments I enjoy the most are all of the same types and are also the most prof­it­able. I plan on devel­op­ing a clear­er dir­ec­tion on what pro­jects to take on in the next year.

Paternity leave. Whatever it takes, I’m determ­ined to spend as much time with Jack as I can in the com­ing year. My boss is great[note]. I’m the boss.[/note], so that should­n’t be a problem!

ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 This format is inspired by James Clear’s annu­al reviews.
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at KIX Index and Spin Factory. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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