What a year for Black Jacket! Top lessons learned in our biggest year yet

As we come to the end of our second (eek!) year in business, Jerrica & Kerry take some time to reflect on 2024's wins and challenges with a few glasses of bubbly on the beach.

As a small business passionate about working with small businesses, it's safe to say 2024 has been filled with ups and downs. With all the challenges we've experienced in recent months, we're thrilled to say that we're ending the year on a high note and have some very exciting things planned for 2025.

On that note, I'd like to take this chance to thank our clients who have trusted us with their brands this year. Seeing the impact we're making - whether it's launching a new website or dazzling SEO results - and getting amazing feedback has kept us motivated and driven since we started Black Jacket in early 2023. Thank you!

Our year in numbers

• 5x websites built this year (plus project managed another and a migration to Shopify)

• A huge rebrand for Ormiston Hospital & Healthcare

  
  

• 16x clients are now part of the Black Jacket family

• 2x new starters joined the team (hi Toni & Nicole!👯)

• 2x award shortlistings for Jag Express

• Hundreds of social media assets created (vs about 3x for Black Jacket 😅)

• 3 hours of video content for Black Jacket that's never seen the light of day (note to self: post more in 2025!)

• Thousands of Google Ads optimisations

• Here's one we didn't have on our bingo card - 1x vehicle branding for a client. Beep beep!

  
  

• And finally, over 200 landing pages created or optimised for clients, or in other words, 80,000 words written!

Cheers to that!

We didn't get through this rollercoaster of a year without learning some things along the way, so here's our top 3 biggest lessons of 2024.

Lesson #1 - Just Start

In a small business, it can be intimidating to know where to begin. We see this time and time again with new clients who feel overwhelmed by everything there is to be done. We've learned it's best to pick one thing that is easy to deliver and once you hit the mark on that, add another marketing initiative or programme in. Don't eat the elephant whole!

Lesson #2 - The Power of 'No'

A big one for me this year, it's been OK to say 'no' - that's not really our bag. We've had the chance to pick up a few pieces of work and boy, I'm glad we turned them down. We should be proud to be great at the bits we're good at and not jacks of all trades.

Lesson #3 - Don't Underestimate SEO

If you're going to focus on anything and $$ is tight, explore SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It provides you with long term results that will futureproof your business, and means you're not giving more money to the man (ie. Google, Mark Zuckerberg).

What's next

Our clients have ambitious goals for 2025, and so do we! We already have some very exciting projects lined up for the New Year - watch this space!

With our newly expanded team, we also have capacity for new clients, so if you're a small business looking for help with social media, design, or marketing strategy services please get in touch!

PS: We're also going to make time for fish and chips on the beach, because what's the point in living in beautiful New Zealand if you're not enjoying everything it has to offer?