It's always a good idea to rebrand if your company has experienced a significant change. And I’ve had my fair share of changes these past nine years!

 

I started A. Honey Creations, LLC, in 2014, while I was teaching myself about digital marketing and web design, still working at Current Office Solutions at the time. In 2016, while working at Stockhouse, I started operating under a DBA at Hillsdale Web Design. I needed to build my brand as a web design company and reposition myself as such rather than just a graphic designer and printer. In 2018, I started Hillsdale Marketing Group so that other Freelancers could join and network with each other operating under one organization. But I didn’t foresee the confusion it would cause with Hillsdale Media Group, so we changed the name to HMG Marketing & Web Design Company, or HMG for short. Things were going well! For four years, HMG was moving in the right direction.

 

Around July 2022, however, I started to experience health problems. Not anything you’d generally think of, but dealing with stress and anxiety. I experienced the loss of my grandma several months prior, which affected me in ways I’d never experienced before. My children cried out for my time and attention because I was never mentally present. My husband missed his wife. Starting up a small business without any resources whatsoever is very time-consuming and stressful all by itself. I’d work well over 40 hours weekly, nights and weekends, and when I was present, I wasn’t. So I knew something had to change. There were a few other things that took place in my personal life that I’m just not comfortable with talking about, fairly traumatic, that were also happening that last year.

 

I prepared my contractors for the possibility of significant change. Then late summer/early fall came in 2022, and my kids needed me! My oldest was out skateboarding on an electric skateboard without a helmet and fractured his skull. The very next day, my youngest had a seizure. Both are doing very well now and do not have anything to worry about, but I spent the next two months at doctor’s visits with my boys. I also started to lose my hair! The pain in my jaw from my TMJ got too much, and I also saw doctors regularly.

 

I could no longer focus on HMG as I was before, for a good reason! I took a week off work. I slept, read books, and took bubble baths–it was great! I reconnected with myself and what I wanted out of life. And I came to terms with the fact that right now is not the time for me to try to build a more significant business with employees. My focus right now is to do still what I love, design and helping customers, but also to be the best mom I can be, care for and love my husband and family, take time for myself, and be present in my children’s lives more often!