Building a Blogging Business - Second Quarter Goal Review 2022

Every three months, I look back at my yearly and quarterly business goals to see what I’ve accomplished and where I've pivoted. Because there’s always a pivot. Things come up. Priorities shift. Life happens. 

New to these posts? >Read my 2022 First Quarter Goal Review

This quarter’s original plan was to focus on sponsored content and pitching to future clients, but wholesale and retail selling of my cocktail book ended up taking more priority (and time) than planned. Time to pivot! Which is what I love about setting goals - you can adjust them at any time and keep on going. 

Growing my Retail Distribution

The number of retail stores selling my book, Homemade Happy Hour, has doubled in the past three months. I’m now up to 14 stores! My latest retail partner is Robbins and Co Home., a small business in Roswell, Georgia. Which means my book is officially available outside of Michigan! (Insert happy dance here!!)

>See the Full List of Homemade Happy Hour Retail Partners

Out-of-state retail opportunities have been made possible through a new wholesale partner. I’ve joined Faire.com to connect with independent retailers and be able to offer a wholesale ordering option to future retail partners outside of West Michigan. I’m so excited to see what kind of opportunities arise from this new wholesale partnership. If there’s a shop in your area where Homemade Happy Hour would be a good fit, let me know in the comments below so I can send them a link. 

When I set about creating and printing Homemade Happy Hour, I set a very B.A.G. (big audacious goal) - sell 1,000 copies. No timeline was set. Just eventually sell a thousand copies of my book. Less than a year after setting that goal, I’m halfway there! In May I sold out of the October 2021 printing of Homemade Happy Hour and placed an order for a second print run. 

That second printing arrived in June, so to celebrate, I’m offering FREE shipping on all online orders of Homemade Happy Hour through July 2022. No matter how many copies you order, the shipping is on me. Time to get some early holiday shopping done! 😉 

April Recipes 

• Easy Lavender Lemon Drop Martini 
• 3 Ingredient Lavender Simple Syrup Recipe
• Roasted Asparagus with Goat Cheese
• Easy, 4 Ingredient Hibiscus Margaritas 
• How to Make Hibiscus Simple Syrup for Cocktails and Mocktails
• Homemade Blueberry Syrup for Cocktails and Mocktails
• Sparkling Non Alcoholic Peach Sangria

Recipe Development for Clients 

The cocktail, mocktail, and coffee menu for SIP Coffee and Cocktails is done! I can’t wait for you to visit this new cafe in the Alger Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan and have some delicious sips and snacks. I’ll share information about the opening of SIP on my Instagram page once it’s announced. 

While my social media focus isn’t on sponsored work, I did have the opportunity to work with Red Gold Tomatoes on a summer Instagram campaign for their new BBQ sauce. Check out this Reel for the grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe I created and how to make it.  

May Recipes 

• Blueberry Vodka: DIY Liquor Infusion
• Non Alcoholic Blueberry Grapefruit Mocktail
• Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri Mocktail (Non-Alcoholic)
• The Best Pineapple Mai Tai Rum Cocktail
• Easy, Stove Top BBQ Meatballs

Continuing to Invest 

Investing in myself has been a key component of building my business. Paying to learn from others who have already succeeded in the food blogging space helps me succeed and better understand this industry. In May I had the opportunity to attend a four day food blogging retreat in Minneapolis, along with 9 other bloggers. It was an amazing time connecting with fellow content creators. I learned so much from them. 

I also decided to invest in new branding for Mitten Girl LLC. A new logo and icons, sets of colors, typography, and usage guide have been created to stand the test of time and growth of my business. It was created by my amazingly talented friend Frances Close and I love it so much. I’ve been involved in branding at other companies for nearly 20 years, but going through the process for myself was so exciting and rewarding. >Read more about Mitten Girl Branding

June Recipes 

• Easy Strawberry Moscow Mules
• Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Cocktail
• Watermelon Strawberry Mocktail with Lime (Non Alcoholic)
• Homemade Peach Syrup Recipe for Drinks

What You Can do to Support my Business 

An online business is nothing without people loving and sharing what it does. If you’re looking for quick and easy ways to support me and my small business here are a few to keep in mind: 

• Rate and review my recipes. Google is more likely to show a recipe in its search results if that recipe has been reviewed. The more reviews the better! If you’ve made a recipe of mine, please scroll to the bottom of the recipe page, give it a rating and leave a review.  
• Share on social. Help me spread the word about my delicious and easy recipes by sharing the ones you like on Facebook, pin them on Pinterest, and share posts on Instagram (I LOVE getting tagged in recipe posts - @katymcavoy!). 
• Follow me on Social. While follower numbers are the last thing I’m focused on right now, brands do care about how many followers someone has. If you like what I do, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! 
• Sign up for my newsletter (and open it each week!). A new newsletter goes out once a week featuring that week’s new recipe and other seasonal content. If you decide to sign up, please be sure to open the newsletter each week. If you don’t, your email system will start to think you don’t want it and it’ll eventually end up in the spam folder. And since I actually have to pay to send that newsletter each week, I really don’t want to end up in anyone’s spam! 🙂 

I can’t believe 2022 is halfway through! A lot of my Q3 goals center around the book and my plans for selling it at holiday time, though I may be reconsidering a few of those and getting new ideas in place for fall. 😉 

Above all, THANK YOU. Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for cheering me on. Thank you for your support. It truly does mean the world. 

xo - Katy