The end of the year always calls for a lot of reflection and often allows for a slower season of life and business. 

Even though the holidays can bring a lot of chaos with tons of events and holiday parties, December is a time when you can choose to slow down, take some time off, and really reflect and get things in order for how you want the new year to be. But also, I'm a realist and I understand you may be reading this in 2025 or beyond, in which case allllllll of this still applies. A brand audit can be done ANY time of the year.

Personally, I always choose to take almost all of December off in terms of client work, so that I not only can spend more time with my family while the kids are out of school, but also devote some much needed time to MY business. 

Because let’s be real – as a business owner, it’s so easy to put off all the things you know your business needs and instead put all of your time and energy into your client work. 

And trust me, I totally understand this. You want your clients to see you as someone they can depend on and trust to get the job done.

But if you spend ALL of your time, pouring into your clients and leave no room for your business, you can miss out on some really amazing growth opportunities.

I learned this the hard way a long time ago, which is why I’m SO intentional about it now. 

Now, let me preface this by saying – by no means do I believe that December should be the only time that you should pause client work to focus solely on your business. 

As business owners we should create a system to do this quarterly at the very least. 

Sometimes, it’s not always feasible, but if you don’t MAKE the time for it, it will rarely happen.

Before I get into the year-end brand audit list, I want to encourage you to consider how you can do more throughout the year. 

Some people love to implement CEO days every single week where they devote their time to only things for their business. 

Others prefer to dedicate one week each month to their business alone. And others design a quarterly system that works well for them.

Whatever it is for you, decide what it looks like and block that time on your calendar. That way when clients begin to inquire or projects start piling up, you already know exactly when you can say yes.

There’s no trouble trying to “fit it in.” It’s already been pre-decided and plugged in so that it becomes a non-negotiable!

Now, back to the list of things I believe every business owner should audit at the end of every year and ideally keep their pulse on every quarter at least. 

10 Ways To Audit, Update, or Optimize Your Brand At The End of Every Year

Is it just me or does every business owner have an “eventual to-do list?”

Meaning it’s nothing urgent, so it just sits on a list hoping that one day you’ll have the time to get around to it. 

I’ve seen some people call this a backburner list and I really like that word because that’s essentially what these types of tasks are.

They’re the types of things that are kind of important, but not enough to be a huge priority, so you’re comfortable with just putting them off until “one day.”

Here’s what I know about backburner lists like this: they can sit for months, or maybe even years, without actually being touched. 

Which means that you can put off some work that really could impact your business in a positive  way for a reallyyyyy long time without realizing the effects. 

It’s tasks like these that make really good projects or action items for your end of year brand audit, but like I said before – ideally you would be giving these items some of your attention at least quarterly. 

However you decide to do it, here are a few things that make really great focus areas during times that you’re able to spend on YOUR business:

Update your website

This should honestly go without saying, but as a website designer, I see people go farrrr too long without actually updating their website.

Many times, I actually see people directing people to the first iteration of their website with little to no updates.

While this might not seem like a huge deal, it actually IS! If your website is not updated with fresh photos, fresh content, accurate pricing, and updated offerings, you run the risk of confusing your audience. 

And as the saying goes – a confused person takes no action at all. 

When things change in your business, your website should be among the FIRST places the  changes are reflected. 

At the very least, ensure that you’re reviewing your website at the end of every year so you can enter the new year on a fresh slate!



Review and update your current email funnels

Raise your hand if you’ve ever launched a freebie, written a welcome sequence to go along with it, and then never looked at it again… guilty 🙋🏻‍♀️

Listen, MOST of us are like this. And honestly, it’s not your fault.

Email funnels very easily become a “set it and forget it” type of thing and while I’m a big fan of automation, that doesn’t mean you really should set it and forget it. 

Make it a practice to review your current email funnels and update them consistently so that, similar to your website, they are always accurate!

Create a new lead magnet

If you’re feeling creative and want to channel that energy, one of the best things you can do is to create a new lead magnet (aka freebie) for your audience.

This could be a great project to work on in December and launch at the beginning of the year in order to bring momentum to your business right away.

Of course this shouldn’t be something that you do “just because,” but if there’s good reason for it and it makes sense for your business, spend some time creating something fresh for your audience and have a new asset that can serve your business for years to come.



Optimize your social media profiles

When’s the last time you changed your profile picture or updated your social media bios? If you’re like me, it’s probably been awhile. 🫣

These are things that can easily go unnoticed, and while they may not seem of high importance to you, they ARE important to your audience – especially new people who are entering your world.

Spend some time on ALL of your social media profiles – including the ones you might typically ignore, like LinkedIn for example – to ensure your profile photo is up to date, your bio accurately reflects your business, and the links you direct people to are the most important and relevant.

Optimize or update your internal processes

Let’s be real… it’s really hard for creative business owners to spend time on seemingly boring business tasks, like internal processes.

We’d much rather spend our time creating and ideating, and I GET IT! Truly, as a brand and website designer, I find much more joy creating brand boards and designing websites than I do optimizing workflows in my CRM.

But the moment that I made this a priority in my business and spent some dedicated time optimizing my internal processes, such as onboarding and offboarding, my business was able to run much more efficiently and actually gave me MORE time to focus on the things I love. 

Instead of having to manually type emails to client inquiries or create Zoom links for discovery calls, now I have systems that do all of that for me and I can honestly say that the work was SO worth it!

So, if you’ve yet to do the same for your business, add this to your year-end audit list and if you’ve already implemented this for your business, spend a short amount of time ensuring that these processes are updated and accurate!

Review your data analytics and let those inform your next marketing actions

One thing about me is that I’m a BIG fan of data – and honestly I’m not sure how many people can say the same.

Data, analytics, and numbers of any kind typically cause people to run the other way, but in this blog post, I explain why digging into your analytics is actually one of the best things you can do for yourself!

When you review your data and have an accurate picture of what’s going on in your business, you can then use those numbers to guide your next steps, specifically when it comes to your marketing. 

If you’re not sure where to start with looking at your analytics or you’re unsure of what to do with your data once you have it, click here for a full breakdown of Website Metrics 101!

New brand photoshoot

As mentioned above, one of the best things you can do during this time is to update your website. In addition to the content on your website, consider the creative.

Are you still using stock imagery? Do the photos of you reflect what you actually look like right now?

If your website shows you rocking the cutest bob ever, but now you have long extensions, it’s time for a new brand photoshoot, my friend! 📸

Gather client testimonials from the past 3-6 months

Gathering client reviews and testimonials is one of those things that *should* be included as an  automated process in your business, but it’s often something that’s overlooked. 

It’s not until you reallyyyyy need a review to display on social media or on your website that you realize, “CRAP! I don’t have any.”

Spend some time during a slow season gathering client testimonials from the past 3-6 months, so that you have a bank of words from your clients that you can use whenever you need. 

The key here is to make this easy on you. I’d suggest creating a Google form or something similar in your CRM so that your past clients can simply fill it out based on certain questions that you ask and you have one designated spot for all of their answers.

BONUS: spend extra time adding this into your offboarding process, so that you never have to think about it again!

Make a plan for your content marketing

Ahhh… that thing that every business owner knows they *need* to do, but it’s hard to find the time to do it. 

Content creation. 

A true necessity to market your business, but it quickly becomes overwhelming when you realize all of the possible channels that you can create content for.

There’s the blogs, the emails, the social media – which in and of itself is a whole ballgame.

While your content marketing can definitely be something that feels stressful, I’ve found that when I make an intentional plan for it at the end of every year, it becomes something that is totally manageable!

For me, I’ve chosen to prioritize blogs and email and let that content guide what I create for social.

The past two Decembers, I’ve made it a point to sit down and decide how many blogs I want to publish for the ENTIRE year. Then, I’ll take a look at my data to help inform what content topics I want to create.

And then, because I’m a big fan of outsourcing when I can, I call on my favorite blog writer   to help create the content for both my blogs and emails.

From there, I can decide what topics I will focus on when, allowing me to create a clear, actionable plan for social media. 

This sets me up with clear focus right from the start and takes some of the overwhelm out of it!

If you’re not in a spot to do this for the entire year at one time, try doing it quarterly at first. I promise it’s a game changer!

Intentional goal setting

Lastly, the end of the year is of course the ideal time to do some fresh goal setting. And I know… this is what everyone tells you to do.

But this isn’t just any type of goal setting – it’s INTENTIONAL goal setting. 

I prefer to use a vision board method where I focus on very specific categories and ask myself very specific questions in order to create clear and concrete goals for what I want to achieve in the new year. 

And spoiler: you can do this process at ANY time! There’s nothing magical about a new year. 

So, regardless of when you’re reading this, don’t skip looking into this method of setting intentional goals for yourself.

Overall, December serves as a great time of year to FINALLY spend time on those overlooked or avoided tasks that have been piling up all year long. 

Ideally, you wouldn’t put any of these things off until now, but as a business owner myself with a heavy client load, I understand that sometimes it just happens.

My hope is that this list gives you a guide on how to spend a somewhat slow season in your business and inspires you to make MORE time for some of the seemingly unimportant tasks in your business, whether that be by implementing a CEO day or week throughout different times of the year.

Your business can’t continue to grow without the intention from YOU, so give yourself the permission to take some time off client work and divert your energy into the business that you worked hard to build in the first place!

P.S. If brand or website design is something that’s been sitting on your backburner list and you’re looking to outsource, I’d love to connect!  Click here to review my services and to see if we’d be a good fit. 

Your designer friend always,