I cannot BELIEVE I’m waking up to my 12th year in business!

On September 8th, 2014, I started KA Social Media out of the spare room in our house after a pretty scary health situation that made a traditional job basically impossible for me.

Social media looked SO different back then, and I definitely couldn’t have predicted where this would take me.

There have been incredible years, hard years, ridiculously busy years, and quieter ones. There have been clients who have been with me for a huge part of the journey, opportunities I never could have imagined as a full time employee, mistakes, pivots, networking events, speaking engagements, and a whole lot of learning along the way.

I've worked through different stages of motherhood and different stages of business side by side, both growing together as a part of who I am. In both cases, I’ve tried my best and sometimes it was awesome and sometimes it wasn’t. Somehow, 12 years later, here we are.

After taking time to think about things over the past few weeks, I wanted to share 12 lessons I’ve learned along the way. Because to this day I still believe in growing our businesses together.

1. Relationships will take you further than followers.

If there's one thing I believe more strongly today than I did 12 years ago, it's that relationships will always outlast followers.

Some of my biggest opportunities haven't come from thousands of people seeing a post. It’s usually from someone remembering me from a networking event, someone recommending me after attending a workshop, or someone I met years ago reaching out because they finally needed social media help.

I've always loved networking, connecting people, grabbing coffee, attending events, and staying in touch. Over the years, I've realized that IS my marketing. It’s not separate from what I do online.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust.

2. Your business is allowed to change.

The business I started 12 years ago isn't the business I'm running today, and thank goodness for that!

Services change, clients come and go, technology changes (OH BOY, does it change!) For me, my family changed, my priorities changed, and my business changed right alongside everything else.

There have been things I've offered that I loved at the time and eventually stopped offering, and there are things I do today that weren't even on my radar when I started.

Changing direction doesn't automatically mean something went wrong or I did something incorrectly. Sometimes it means figuring out what you ACTUALLY want.

3. You don't need to say yes to everything.

This one took me a little too long to learn, if I’m being honest. When you're building a business, every opportunity feels like an opportunity you HAVE to take, even if you’re already overbooked and overburdened.

For years I took on every client and project and event and collaboration that came my way. And sometimes it burned me.

Not every opportunity is the right one for you. Saying no leaves room for things that will ACTUALLY bring you joy!

4. Yes, you ARE your business; they’re not separate.

I’ve been told all through the years that the business isn’t me, and I’m not the business, but sometimes that’s just not true. In my case, I AM my business.

People aren't just hiring KA Social Media Consulting. They're hiring me, the person they've watched on Stories, met at an event, heard speak at a workshop or webinar, had coffee with, or followed for years and years.

For a long time, businesses were taught to make everything look polished and professional. But people want people, and they want to know who they're supporting.

Showing my face, sharing pieces of my life, talking about the things I care about, and letting people see the person behind the business has been one of the most important parts of building my business to last.

5. Networking only works when you build relationships.

Networking isn't walking into a room, handing out 30 business cards, and leaving. The magic happens afterward, when you remember someone’s name, follow their business, send them a message, meet up for coffee, or refer someone to them three years later.

Some of the relationships I've built through networking have lasted longer than some of my services! You never know where one conversation will lead.

6. Slow growth is still growth.

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me for a viral video post, I would have a few dollars at least, and that’s too much, honestly.

We talk so much about overnight success, but I've been doing this for 12 years, and there was nothing overnight about it.

This business was built one client, one referral, one workshop, one blog, one event, and one coffee chat at a time.

There have been big successes along the way, and there have been long seasons where things barely moved.

Looking back, I needed both the high seasons and the low to get here. Sometimes you don't realize how much you've grown until you stop and look backward.

7. Done really is better than perfect.

If I waited until everything was perfect, KA Social Media Consulting probably wouldn't exist.

There are posts I would write differently today, workshops I'd present differently, services I'd price differently, and decisions I'd make differently.

That's part of learning, and you can't improve something you never start.

Sometimes you just have to hit publish, send the email, launch the thing, walk into the room, or say yes to the opportunity and figure it out from there.

8. Community made this business possible.

One of my favourite things about running a business has been becoming part of so many communities.

I've always believed that supporting someone else's business doesn't take anything away from mine.

I’ve built my business on referring clients to people who better fit their needs, sharing other people’s posts, celebrating their wins and introducing them to the people who absolutely NEED to know them.

There is room for all of us.

9. You can't do everything, everywhere, all the time.

I teach this constantly now, but I've had to learn it myself too. You don't need to:

Be on every social media platform
Attend every event
Take on every client
Jump on every trend
Be productive every hour of every day

Pick the few things that actually move your business forward, and do those well.

10. Keep learning, even when you're the expert in the room.

Social media in 2014 and social media in 2026 might as well be two completely different industries.

Platforms have disappeared, new ones have arrived, algorithms have changed, video exploded, AI showed up, and the way people consume content has completely changed from how it was when I started my business.

Part of staying in business for 12 years has been being willing to keep learning. I teach social media, but I'm still learning it too, and I hope I always will be.

11. You won’t find perfect work-life balance when you have a business.

I've run this business through a lot of different seasons of life and over time I stopped chasing that whole ‘work-life balance’ thing. It’s never going to be completely balanced when you run your own business.

There have been seasons when I could give the business everything I had, and other seasons when my family needed more of me. There have been school schedules, summer vacations, sick days, appointments, celebrations, stressful weeks, exciting opportunities, and ordinary Tuesday afternoons.

I've stopped expecting perfect balance. Some seasons, business gets more of me, and other seasons, my personal life does.

I like that my business blends with my life, so I can enjoy both along the way.

12. Build a business that supports the life you want.

This is probably the lesson I'd put a big giant star beside. Because building a business that supports the life I want changed how success looks to me.

Success looked different to me 12 years ago.

There were times when being busy felt like success, when more clients felt like success, when more work felt like success.

Today, that isn’t exactly how I feel. Of course I want a successful and profitable business, but these days, success also looks like:

Having the flexibility to be there for my family

Summer afternoons with B
Working from a beach sometimes
Choosing projects that actually excite me
Space in my calendar to speak, teach, connect, and travel

Years ago, I remember watching other moms who owned businesses taking summers off, working from cottages, sitting by pools with laptops, or rearranging their days around their kids. I wondered if I'd ever get there myself, if I could build a business that actually gave me that kind of flexibility.

It didn't happen immediately, but somewhere in the years of running my business, I realized I had.

This summer was another reminder of that. I worked, a lot happened behind the scenes, and I kept things moving with clients and a few events. But we also visited family, spent time in Liverpool and Chéticamp, and packed in plenty of adventures along the way.

Twelve years ago, that kind of flexibility was something I hoped I'd eventually have.

Today, it's one of the things I'm most grateful this business has given me.

Success isn’t just how much your business grows; it depends on whether your business is giving you the life of your dreams along the way.

Would I do everything the same way if I could go back?

Absolutely not. I didn't get to 12 years because I had everything figured out back in 2014. I got here because I kept learning, changed when I needed to, made my share of mistakes, built relationships, tried things that didn't always work, let go of what wasn't serving me anymore, and kept showing up.

If I could go back, I’d want to make all different mistakes and see where it took me.

So here's to 12 years of KA Social Media Consulting, and to whatever year 13 has in store. I have a feeling it's going to be a good one. 💛

12 Things 12 Years in Business Have Taught Me