It’s that time of the year when we usually reflect back on the year that was. What we achieved, what we didn’t achieve. The highs and the lows.

Normally I would go through this process all from the comfort of my own desk and quietly explore my little spreadsheet of data. This year though I think I’m going to share. Being self-employed certainly has its benefits. I’ve been self-employed now for 11 years and love it. But there is a down-side, and it’s that I have no one to share those highs and lows with unless you count my husband or my dog who is usually sitting next to me.

So here is a little run down on my year. My highs, my lows and my wishes.

My Highs

These are my proud moments, the moments I give myself a pat on the back for.

Firstly, I completed the rebranding and new website for my little business. This had been in the pipeline for at least 12 months. Knowing how big the project would be meant it was pushed back several times. But I powered through and ended up with a logo that I love and a new website which is better suited and better informs visitors.

On the training front, I have my number tally for the year. In 2019 I have had 334 people attend training with me. That takes my total since January 2017 to 986 people. In 2019 I had a 12.8% increase in the number of people trained. This is only something I have begun tracking in the last 12-18 months and so far I have gone back as far as the start of 2017. Goodness knows what that total would be over the 19 odd years I have been training.

By far the most popular course is Microsoft Excel sitting at 44% of all courses conducted. In the #2 spot was WordPress training sitting at 24% and then in #3 spot at 13% was Microsoft Word training.

In 2019 my blog website, The Training Lady, hit 11,000 monthly users. This is huge and more than I ever expected. I initially created my blog to be an additional training resource for those people I see face to face but it has obviously appealed to a much larger audience. I am seeing visitors from every corner of the globe which is amazing. This year I plan to revamp the look and feel as it approaches its 6th birthday in July 2020.

The top 3 articles on my blog at this point are:

The other highs from the year were the introduction of courses for the Office 365 suite of products. Office 365 is amazing and this year has shown me just how little of these applications people are utilising. My favourite of the apps is by far Microsoft Teams but Planner, Sway and Forms are all very close runners up. These apps provide amazing functionality and can be integrated with many of the other Microsoft applications.

Lastly, I finally fulfilled my wish to work with dual-screens, 24 inches to say the least. I love them! My handy carpenter husband whipped up a shelf for them to sit atop and my laptop slides perfectly underneath. All my cords and cables are neatly tucked away.

My Lows

I’m very lucky in my working life and I know it. My only lows for the year were more of a personal note. My youngest daughter started kindy in 2019 and sadly I missed out on some key school events. Mummy guilt kicked in knowing that I’d made all those events for my eldest daughter but sadly missed many of them for my youngest. Many times though she was lucky and had one of her amazing Nana’s step in to watch her. For me, those were my low points for the year.

My Wishes

Every year I start out saying that I’m going to try to keep my workspace neater. My desk is certainly not instagram worthy. I have paper, pens, notes, odds and ends all over the place. Right now as I write this, I have unopened envelopes on one side, random pieces of paper my children have drawn pictures on for me, pens, a ruler, a pile of papers from courses I ran later in the year which I need to file and lots more. It’s a mess but I know where everything is and so again I am going to try and keep my workspace neater.

My 2020 wishes include a revamp of my blog website (it’s looking very dated), more training with the Office 365 apps, and further extension of my own skills.

If you’ve made it through to the end then I commend you, and thanks for sticking it out. Hope you have a wonderful 2020 and remember me if you are in need of training or web design services.

Thanks for reading,

Belinda