Since the State of the Union address happened last night, I thought it appropriate to provide my own State of the Collective to let you know, well, the current state of Rodgers Collective. It’s a way for us to say, “Hey, this is where we are and this is where we’re headed.” And I kinda totally stole the idea from my brilliant friend, Paul Jarvis, who published a lovely State of the Union for his own operation this week.
2015: What went well
Rebrand. We’ve got lots to be proud of from 2015. One significant change was our rebrand to Rodgers Collective, a name that better communicates the spirit of what we do and the team effort it takes to get it done. Along with the new name, came an in improved website and a commitment to consistently delivering useful, actionable information to our community. We also added four new legal kits to our arsenal. Through these new legal kits, we are able to support even more entrepreneurs and small business owners as they tackle legal issues ranging from the general to the specific.
New Clients. Our reputation for legal services has continued to precede us and 2015 brought in a slew of amazing clients both big and small. These new clients inspired us and challenged us to consistently deliver quality work and customer service. We were able to meet this challenge and successfully raise our prices to reflect the hard work we put in for our clients’ success. Our success was also reflected in our numbers and we are proud to say that we met our revenue goals for 2015.
Personal developments. I leveled up my CEO-game in 2015 as well by investing in training, coaching, and by boosting my network so that I could connect more with people who inspire me and who matter to my business. It also became clear that taking care of me, is an integral part of taking care of my business so I made some personal changes as well. I finally ditched the scarcity mindset that was holding me back, focused more on my health and fitness, and developed a morning ritual. I also committed to spending more weekends away with my husband and more time with my kids, including my amazing step-daughter who came to live with us earlier in the year.
2015: What kinda sucked
Personnel changes. In 2015, I had to let go of two employees, which is never easy, even if it is best for the business. But we have been able to replace both team members with folks who have turned out to be a great fit thus far. Now we are a stronger team. We share a common vision for the future of Rodgers Collective and are committed to getting there whilst working hard (and having fun) along the way.
Burnout. The influx of new clients, while inspiring and rewarding, reached a point of overwhelm towards the latter part of 2015. So, we decided to do an audit of how we spend our time to identify the things that give us joy and the things that we dread. From there, we realized that some of the legal services we’ve been providing no longer jibe with our goals and desires as professionals and as a business. So, we committed to making some changes that make us happier and will benefit our people (more on that below!).
2016: What’s Up Next
We are really changing things up this year, and we are pumped.
Business coaching. I finally took the plunge into the world of business coaching, which is something that has been on the back of my mind for a while. And, it would appear, that the world was just waiting for me to get started. My first coaching mastermind, Prime, sold out and I have also taken on a couple of select one-on-one coaching clients. I’m so impressed by the caliber and the talent of all of our coaching clients and can’t wait to see all the many ways they will kill it in 2016.
Products, products, products! At our team retreat in the spring of 2015, we explored ways that we could use our talents to serve our clients beyond the legal services we offer. We recognize that productizing services is the future of business and it is a move that would benefit many of our clients who want to work less and make more money. So, we decided to marry our expertise in intellectual property law with our expertise in developing products. We are now working on a retreat where we guide business owners as they turn their services into products in one week flat (at a fabulous location, of course). Be on the lookout for details on that!
Podcast. I also just launched my first podcast along with my friend and fellow entrepreneur, Ariane Trelaun. In, Your Business is Your Life, we have very honest (and often hilarious) discussions on topics related to parenthood, entrepreneurhood, and all around badassery, with an emphasis on creating a great life. Give us a listen on iTunes or SoundCloud.
Brand Boss. We are super excited about our newest legal kit: Brand Boss. Brand Boss is a DIY trademarking kit. A high-quality DIY trademarking kit is something that our customers have been letting us know is missing from the market. We’ve been highly critical of what’s out there, and honestly weren’t sure if it was possible to develop a trademark product that would deliver results. But, with our skills and experience (and lots of planning and executing), we developed a pretty incredible kit called Brand Boss. We’ve got a small group of customers who are testing the beta version of Brand Boss. Once we implement their feedback, we’ll make it available to the rest of you in early Spring. If you'd like to be the first to hear more information as it becomes available, sign up here.
Limiting legal work. When our work volume reached almost overwhelming heights in 2015, we had honest talks about where we wanted to go as a business, and how we wanted to spend our time as professionals. The result of those conversations was a decision to limit our legal service offerings beginning this year. As of now, we are changing the business model so that we serve only a few, select legal and business coaching clients at a time. We love the current clients we have and will continue to work with them but we are seriously limiting how many new clients we take on this year. This gives us more time to devote to our current clients (many of whom are growing) and other projects, including focusing more on the larger Small Business Bodyguard community.
Welp. That’s the state of Rodgers Collective! It feels good to look back on the ups and downs that happen during the course of the year, and to share with you all the big changes we’ve made and the cool stuff we’ve got up our sleeves for 2016. It reminds us what we learned throughout the course of the year and recommits us to our vision for 2016. We are energized and inspired and ready to do it to it.
What were your biggest lessons in your business for 2015? What major changes are you planning in 2016 to re-energize yourself and your work?
