2019: The Freedom Maker Highlight Reel

It is always important to take time to reflect and celebrate your team’s accomplishments. The end of the year is as good a time as any to do this. When you take time to think through what you have gone through, you can appreciate how far you have come. This appreciation gives you a boost to face your next challenges. 

I am constantly amazed at what we come up with for improving at Freedom Makers. Every once in awhile, I will find myself thinking, “we are doing pretty well, not much needed for improvement.” The next thing I know, we are embarking on a major project or initiative! 

It is especially a treat to write these highlight reels each year because I remind myself that things that seem mundane now were transformational for our business. For example, in mid-2018, we built a database to be able to track hours purchased by our clients and worked by our Freedom Makers. We had been tracking it in an Excel spreadsheet. The database allowed us to share across the Core Team, giving more transparency and ability to take action. By the end of the year, we were so ingrained with its use, it seemed like no big deal. But when we had built it six months prior, it was completely nerve wracking to transition to it!

2019 has been an even bigger year of transformation for us, from using a marketing calendar for the first time ever to a full rebrand to 25% growth over 2018. 

Check out some more of our accomplishments below:

Personal Growth Leads to Business Growth
In 2019, I was accepted into two programs that helped propel the business forward. 

• VIR. A partnership between WeWork and Bunker Labs, I was in a community of veteran entrepreneurs who supported each other in learning and growing our businesses.
  
• The Global Good Fund. Sponsored by Smithfield Foundation, The Global Good Fund Veterans program is a year-long leadership development program. Through this program, I began embracing my full self which has empowered the team and the business to grow. 
  

Strive for Excellence Leads to Business Growth
While on vacation for my birthday, I had the space to think and to incorporate all that I was learning from the programs mentioned above. Sharing the ideas with the Core Team led to another guiding principle: Strive for Excellence which is threefold:

• 
  Freedom Makers: We are focusing on setting up our Freedom Makers for even more success and fulfilling work through us and beyond.
  
• Clients: We are seeking to provide even better service for our clients.
  
• Core Team: The more closely and strongly we work together, the more we can accomplish and better serve our Freedom Makers and clients.
  

Optimal Tools Lead to Business Growth
I do take pride in our focus and ability to create, improve, and maintain systems to run the company. And I always say, “tech amplifies your processes. If you have good processes, tech makes them better. If you have bad processes, tech makes them worse.” In 2019, we really capitalized on our use of tech tools. 

• Asana. We got some hands-on training through VIR and began incorporating it into our daily processes. Wow, it has blown me away how much more we are able to collaborate!
  
• Payment Processing. We switched from PayPal and Quickbooks to a payment processor. Not only is it cheaper but it is much faster. I think our clients like not having to switch from our form to PayPal to complete payment. 
  
• Streak. We have talked about Streak and JotForm before but it continues to play a major role in our business. It is a bit pricey but it helps us to stay organized in our email. 
  
• JotForm. With Freedom as a guiding principle, it is important to us that we provide as much freedom to our clients and Freedom Makers as possible. JotForm allows us to collect the information we need to run the company in a manner that is convenient for our clients and team. 

All in all, it was a great and transformational year for Freedom Makers. I feel we are stronger than ever and could not have predicted this growth. It is the combination of strong practices and strong team that has landed us in a great position for 2020! We look forward to serving our clients in the new year and forming new business relationships as well. 

Happy Holidays and New Year!

If Freedom Makers can assist with growing your small business, contact us today!