2023 has been a good year for me and Business Bloomer overall.
I couldn’t manage to write a review last year, so the 2021 recap is the only one available for now. I’ll see if I can use this personal blog a little more this year and commit to at least a 2024 review at the end of the year!
Regarding 2023, here’s the shortest recap I could write – hope this is helpful for you!
[TIME] I worked 1253 hours (on average 24hrs/week), against 2022’s 1138 hours and 2021’s 992 hours (back when I became a dad, got married, moved to a new place). So no major time changes, except that the month of November was the busiest month for me, and that’s because I ran my first decent Black Friday promotion and launched the Business Bloomer Club. I will definitely work on a 2024 marketing/sales plan in the next few days, so that I can balance my efforts and avoid working during the weekend. Also, I will be experimenting with 1 day off per week, and see how it goes.
[REVENUE] 2023 revenue is down by 12%, with organic traffic to Business Bloomer down by 20% (600,000 unique visitors in 2023). I believe this is because of the ecommerce post-covid trend, the natural switch from Woo to Shopify or other platforms, and the rising of AI. However, I went big by increasing my WooCommerce mini-plugins offer, which means +94% orders, +133% new customers, +139% items sold.
[CLIENT WORK] So, 2023 revenue is down, however my business is changing – less client work, more product sales. I lost my biggest client as they switched to a different software; some others as they picked more affordable developers; some others as they went out of business. I had a way too busy December with client work, and that’s because I focused my entire November on products (such as online courses), underestimating all the backlog. Anyhow, in 2023, client work accounted for 36% of my revenue; in 2022, client work was 63%. In 2021: 41%. In 2020: 55%. In 2019: 65%. In 2018: 91%. So, except for 2022, it’s evident in which direction I’m moving towards.
[COMMUNITY] I had, honestly, the brilliant idea to rebrand the Bloomer Armada into something more helpful. I noticed the private Slack channel was getting some momentum, and also watched a webinar about a private community and found out recurring “classes” were a nice way to add value. And so, the Business Bloomer Club was born: a private Slack channel for daily Woo support from me and other experts + a series of WooCommerce masterclasses to learn something specific every month. 81 members signed up thanks to the lifetime-only offer. I can clearly call that a success!
[LIFE] 2023 was a good year. All went well, including the first year in the new place, a few short trips, my son’s preschool. With a little kid it’s very difficult to also look after relationships and friends, as well as playing sports. There was little balance there, and 2024 can be the year I get it all back, however this requires a lot of “work”, which means I need to create time. That “1 day off per week” solution is exactly my way of trying to focus on the things I had to neglect in 2023. Hope it works!
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