Our Year in Review
2021 has been an exciting, humbling, and fast-paced year for us at Honey & Hive. We have accomplished numerous goals as an agency and as individual business owners that have completely exceeded our expectations of where the year would take us. When we started Hustlin’ Honeys, our original side hustle, there was always the goal - or more accurately, dream - of becoming a full-time agency, but neither of us could have predicted it would have come so soon. In addition to our successes we have learned many lessons along the way, and continue to learn more about running a business, being our own bosses, working as Co-Founders, and more each day. While there is a myriad of emotions we each feel, above all, we are grateful for each of our clients, the entire Honey & Hive team, and each of you who have helped support our dream.
Accomplishments We've Made
In 2021 we’ve been able to:
Rebrand our company
Serve 15 clients in a vast variety of industries
Hire 2 interns
Travel to New York City for a strategic offsite
& become a full-time agency
It’s definitely been a busy year! Hustlin’ Honeys was started in November of 2020 after Caitlin had the idea to create our own marketing agency as a side hustle. Our first client, who we still work with, Nurses Plus Hospice, was a close connection who trusted us and allowed us to help establish their digital footprint. 6 months later, in May 2021, we were serving 9 clients and Caitlin was able to jump to full-time. It was during this time we also decided to step up our company and rebrand from Hustlin’ Honeys to Honey & Hive, giving us the ability to market ourselves to a wider set of clients and establish ourselves as a serious player in the digital marketing space. 3 months after bringing on Caitlin full-time, we hired 2 interns - Cameron Bellucci and Danielle Hamlett in August. And 2 months after that, in October, Kylie was able to come on as well, making us a completely full-time agency. In November we had the opportunity to travel to New York City and both strategize for the year ahead as well as have some fun to reward ourselves for the past year of hard work.
These accomplishments are things we thought were years down the road, and we continue to be amazed by the success Honey & Hive has had this past year. None of it would be possible without our clients trusting us as a new business and allowing us to show them why we started this agency in the first place: to allow businesses to thrive with the implementation of digital marketing.
Lessons We've Learned
While we have worked in digital marketing for a total of over 5 years, we are both completely new to owning a business and operating as our own bosses. As many of you know, running a business includes much more knowledge than just the services you provide, it’s sales, client management, accounting, HR, and more. However, taking on these different aspects of the business has allowed strengths that we weren’t aware we possessed to shine through. For example, Caitlin had never had any formal sales training or experience prior to Honey & Hive, but now completely owns our sales process, from managing our pipeline to speaking with potential clients. We’ve been very lucky to have individuals in our networks to learn from along the way as well and continue to learn as much as we can about the back-end of our business daily.
Additionally, becoming our own bosses - as well as gaining over 20 new bosses in the past year and becoming the bosses of 2 interns - has been a giant lesson in itself. While leaving corporate America and owning our careers has been a major goal of ours, there are many aspects to this drastic career change that others don’t talk about. Again, we have learned more about ourselves and our ideal working conditions in the short time we’ve operated as a full-time agency than our prior working experiences combined. While many view being your own boss as an easier experience, we’ve learned it takes much more discipline and hard work than simply being an employee. While we wouldn’t trade it for anything, the experience has definitely not always been a walk in the park.
Looking Ahead
As entrepreneurs, there will never be a time without learning and self-growth, however, we are excited to take on 2022 with a year of agency and self-employed experience under our belts. We have high hopes for the year ahead, including growing our team even more, serving more clients, marketing new industries, exploring the latest digital marketing trends, and sharing more stories and resources from the Hive. We want to extend our deepest gratitude again to everyone who has liked our social media posts, read these blogs and our other stories, passed on Honey & Hive to someone in your network, and followed our journeys this past year. Honey & Hive would have never gotten to its current stage without the vast support we’ve received, and we cannot wait to continue to help businesses Thrive with the Hive. Here’s to 2022!