The End of July

 It is officially August today and Raspberry Iguana is well overdue another blogpost….

Up first is a roundup of my July challenges where I think I can safely say I hit two out of the three goals set. I did shout about Raspberry Iguana to my wider and personal community, and they have been really lovely in liking, commenting and sharing my posts. I am also gaining more confidence in talking openly about it because whilst it is only small, it is a part of me, I work hard on it and ultimately, I love doing it and we should all try and do more of what we love.

I have also been taking advantage of scheduling posts on Instagram and Facebook and whilst it took a little time in the beginning to set-up a few posts at a time it has been working really well and has given me the freedom of not worrying about remembering to post. Also, I thought Pinterest was suffering because I haven’t scheduled uploading pins (to be honest I haven’t actually checked if it is possible or not – note to self to look into this) however when I totted up all the post for July, I had actually only missed posting two on Pinterest and to be honest one of them wasn’t really relevant to Pinterest anyway. This was ultimately a good habit, and I have some scheduled posts for August already and it does take the pressure off on either busy weeks or if I am away.

Filming didn’t go well, I made one reel and to be honest it took me longer than I care to admit. This is where I wish I had joined the hype of social media a long time ago and not just used it for sharing holiday snaps with friends and family. It is a learning thing and without making excuses; the end of term was fast approaching, we had a busy social calendar and I was preparing for our family holiday (only three sleeps away) so I haven’t had the time to research apps, take advantage of free trials and play around with what sort of content I want to film – probably silent at this point as I cringe whenever I hear a recording of my voice. Normally I would roll this missed goal into the next month, but it is August, and the summer holidays have arrived so this is staying parked until the smalls are back at school in September – I may try another reel – maybe.

Now on to August goals and I am keeping it simple, planning some new products for Autumn and Christmas but mainly just having fun and spending summer with my family. I stepped away from my career to re-adjust my work life balance and whilst I absolutely love Raspberry Iguana and building it up, I very much want it to stay a small business with an intimate community to allow me to keep my work life balance and watch my smalls grow. So, I will be carrying around a notebook and pen for jotting ideas down, I will still be posting on the social media platforms and packing any orders but other than that I plan to enjoy the summer with my tribe.

As mentioned above, only three sleeps until we head to Italy on our family holiday road trip adventure, so things might be a little quieter than usual, but I promise to come back recharged on sunshine.

Also, just incase anyone was wondering about the progress of the Rubik’s cube – there is none, I might take it on holiday in case I want a break from reading on my sun lounger.