Hi there!

Oh my stars, y’all! I am so sorry that I missed Transparent Tuesday last week. If y’all had any idea how much I beat myself up about it, but I’m not perfect, try not to strive to be, even though our culture tells us we have to or we are failures. But, oh well. We’re moving forward.

This past weekend, as I had a day to myself to rest and relax after stressful finals (I graduate THIS Saturday!) and preparing for two weddings, and consulting/decorating for 2 client’s home for Christmas I was exhausted!

As I (finally!) enter a new chapter in life, one with no text books, or classes to attend where I am the oldest person in the room, I am beyond excited to be able to fully focus on being a light for Christ, a doting wife, and a successful business owner (with new and fresh ideas for 2014!) No longer a student! Yippee!

I decided to get real with making some goals, you see I love the act of setting goals- in my head. But thats where they stay, in my head. So now I am getting them on paper and plastering them front and center as a daily reminder to keep pushing through, and set reminders to check in quarterly on my progress.

I created my own goal sheets, that YOU can DOWNLOAD HERE, if you like them! There are 5 colors!

So here is what I am aiming for for the rest of 2013, all of of 2014 and beyond.

Goal: Go on a mission trip!

The past few months, God is doing something crazy in my heart! I feel called to be His hands and feet like I never have before.  I want to serve others and show His love, like He shows His love to me everyday. K and I have set a goal to go somewhere, anywhere so that we can do this. Some action steps I am taking to make this happen is raising money by selling holiday arrangements, praying about where the Lord wants us to serve, and be patient for the right opportunity.

Goal: Organization!

This may seem trivial, but I’m an organizational freak. I love file folders, bulletin boards, even push pins, and the Container Store makes my little heart pitter patter. With free time during the day essentially, I plan to get organized by downsizing the junk we have accumulated that we don’t use, selling TMD inventory that hasn’t been utilized in ages, and re-configuring work flow for TMD complete with client files overhaul, drafting emails ahead of time with different scripts for different situations that often come up, streamline email responses in the same way, and utilize new TMD worksheets I created! Also, come up with a

Goal: Create and stick to a routine!

Ok, another “typical” trivial goal, but for me routine is huge! This past summer I got into a great routine, but when school started back, it fell by the wayside. However, I have already kicked this goal in the butt by recreating that routine, typing it up pretty, and sticking it on the fridge! Now I just have to stick to it! I also have added to it by creating tasks to do for the week and the month as well.

Goal: Get business expenses/spending in check!

God is simply amazing y’all. TMD sales doubled from 2012 to 2013, praise the Lord! I have been avid about tithing from this as TMD really isn’t mine to begin with, it’s God’s, He just let’s me play with it. I’ll be the first tell you though that outside of tithing, I haven’t been the most responsible with expenses. If I am asked to do a styled shoot, I say YES! Of course without even blinking an eye, but for me it’s more than just time since I provide floral, I have spent several hundred dollars on shoots before. This isn’t a bad thing, but I need to make sure I can begin to help out with family expenses before jumping on board with added expenses. I plan to do this by limiting to one styled shoot a month, making sure to quote brides adequately so that expenses and supplies are covered in the percentage that they should be, and to simply stop buying so much regardless if its for the “business” or not. Kason has also come up with some amazing financial ideas to keep us on track, so we are excited to implement them! (I could write a billion more words on this subject, but I’ll stop here.)

Goal: Monthly service project

This kind of piggybacks the mission goal. Not only do we want to go somewhere outside the US so we can see with our own eyes how others live in the world, but I want to serve our community. I wrote a blog post about a servant’s spirit, and how I want to be the hands and feet of Christ, show others love by serving them. No matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient it is for me. We will be doing 12 service projects through 2014, possibly having to repeat a couple to make up the 12 months. But I am going to write out the 12 projects, divide them in envelopes and at the beginning of each month we will “draw” one, and then do that during the month.

 Goal: Tamara Menges Designs New Policies

We are currently brainstorming on new ideas for 2014. Like I mentioned above Kason has created some great spreadsheets for expenses broken down for each bride. We have already implemented the policy of not booking any more weddings on Sundays. We are also praying about two big policies that we will be sharing more on later. But for now our goal is to identify the parameters to those policies and identify the true reason as to why we want to adopt them into TMD.

Goal: Get published in new publications for new exposure 

Of course this is on-going. Publications can be for styled shoots, real weddings, and lifestyle. We would love to begin styling for more lifestyle shoots, and to further exposure by getting published with publications outside our normal range.

So what are your goals? I’d love to hear about them! This is just the beginning of mine, I’m sure over the next several weeks I will think of all kinds of new ones, but I will be working hard to meet these throughout 2014! Let’s do this!

Happy Tuesday y’all!

xoxo, Tamara