My honest 2025 reflection: what worked, what was shit and what I’m taking into 2026

2025 is coming to an end but do you know what makes that scarier to write? Seeing so many people share their 2025 wins, scrolling through the highlight reels on Instagram, all while looking back at my 2025 goals and honestly falling short of quite a few of them. It’s never a nice feeling looking back at your shortcomings but its worse comparing that to other people.

That’s exactly why I wanted to write my end of year reflection to share with you. An honest and open reflection, not just the highs but the lows as well.

I hope that by sharing this, you might see something reflected back at you that makes you feel less alone as you look back on a year that maybe didn’t quite go to plan. But also hopefully to remind you that we need to think about the good along with the bad. Because although looking back on goals we missed might make us feel a little disappointed - there will still be a whole list of amazing things that happened too.

I hope that you can look back on the year and be proud of the progress you made, big or small and I hope you can look towards 2026 with light and optimism knowing that you are capable of achieving so much.

Reflecting on 2025

Launching The Online Shop

I wanted to start off with one of my wins of the year which wasn’t some big goal I set at the start of the year, but was simply a passion project. Launching my online shop wasn’t part of the plan but I had so much bloody fun building it and sometimes it’s those unexpected things that make a year so great.

I wrote a more in-depth reflection on this a few weeks ago but this for me felt like a real labor of love. As someone who is very process driven, I love a spreadsheet and a system, so sharing these things with the world felt like a no-brainer. And building the online shop itself, the systems, the products, everything, I just had so much fun creating it.

But I also think its important to add - it hasn’t bought me much money at all! It wasn’t some huge launch that bought me thousands of pounds like you see online. In fact I pretty much “soft launched” it so no one really knew and I haven’t had many sales at all. But honestly, I’m okay with that! I had so much fun building it and everything I have created for the shop will be there to support my community for years to come and I love that.

So I wanted to share this as my number one to let you know that not everything has to be flashy numbers and exactly as planned - if it bought you joy, its good enough.

Feeling Burnt Out

Something that went not so well this year was hitting a real low in my energy levels around May and again in August time. I had just come off the back of launching my membership, I had put all my eggs into that one basket and money was running low. It was an especially stressful time for me because I felt like I had run out of steam, like I had nothing left to give, but I had such high expectations of myself and knew I needed to make money. I was in debt, I had spent almost all the money I had saved but I felt trapped because I didn’t have the energy to turn things around. I felt lonely working from home, like I couldn’t afford to turn anywhere for help and just in a bit of a rut really.

I share this in the hopes that if you have felt something similar, just know you’re not alone. The stress of this year was a huge overarching theme for me but I have such high hopes that 2026 will be better. I’m learning to manage my energy better, finding out what my limits are and its all things I can learn from which I can look back at and be grateful for those learnings. It was shit, don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to sugar coat things, but there is definitely something to be learned and I hope you can reflect back and find those learnings for yourself too.

Starting an SEO Role and Feeling Like I’ve “Failed” as a Business Owner

With that being said, I did actually find a way to get my umph back and I actually landed a 9-5 role at an SEO agency called Hookflash here in London. If you know me, you know that I have always been a huge SEO nerd. It’s been a special interest of mine since I studied digital marketing back in my uni days, so to slightly pivot my career into working in SEO is especially exciting to me.

Of course though, it wasn’t all rainbows as I’ve had to battle some deep feelings of failure, like making this choice means I’m giving up, people will judge me… I could go on. So while getting a new shiny role is super exciting, it also comes with a lot of scary feelings as a business owner too.

Of course, I have decided to keep going with Freya Padmore Web Design on the side though. I love what I do, the clients I work with and I don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon.

With that, has obviously also come the fear of announcing that to the world, sharing on LinkedIn that I have a job as well as run my web design business. It felt like an especially hard challenge to navigate this year for fear of coming across like I’ve “failed” but I’m proud of myself for not letting that fear hold me back. I think this is the best decision for me, and only think it will make be a better web designer.

In fact I have already learnt so many new things about SEO, I’ve been to a couple of SEO conferences and most importantly I have found my nerdy spark back again.

My new SEO colleagues as Hookflash

Launching The DIY Website Club & A Second Launch That Flopped

Probably my proudest win of the year was the official launch of my membership, The DIY Website Club. It’s a space for business owners to get support with DIYing their websites, get feedback and accountability, and learn from a web designer without the crazy price tag.

Building this membership took so much time and energy and bloody hard work honestly. It contains over 40 video tutorials which I had to plan, film, edit, upload… You can imagine how much hard work has gone into it. But it’s honestly been so worth it because of the amazing women inside of the membership. I am so proud of everything they’ve achieved already and the feedback I’ve had has just been incredible.

BUT, I want to make a point of noting that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. In October I did a relaunch of the membership with an online webinar and email sequence and everything, hoping to get a few more members inside. The reality? Nobody joined. I didn’t get a single new member from that launch which was scary and disappointing at first. Those feelings of failure crept in of course, but reflecting on it really helped me to see that it was kind of half-assed honestly. Starting my new job took away my attention from the launch and I see why it didn’t go as well as the first launch.

But again, I’m glad I have the learnings and can walk away feeling confident I know what to change next time.

Struggling With Social Media

One of my big goals for the year this year was to really find my groove with marketing and find my rhythm with social media in particular. I even invested in social media coaching with the lovely Jess Bruno which was my biggest investment of the year and second biggest investment in my business EVER. So I am quite disappointed to write - it didn’t really go the way I had hoped.

Me and social media simply are not friends despite the investment, learning an incredible strategy from an incredible coach, and despite the hours I spent trying to perfect my content.

I know this is something that a lot of business owners struggle with and I’m not alone on this battle. Feeling like you HAVE to be on social media, but struggling to make it work.

I think a lot of my own struggles comes from slipping into the doom scroll too easily, as well as prioritizing it over other parts of my business. As business owners we all have limited time in our calendars and around client work, I simply didn’t see the return on time investment from social media. I’d spend hours planning, filming and creating posts but didn’t really grow my business as a result. So I’d much rather spend my time elsewhere than feeling like I am battling an algorithm.

Maybe things will change next year but as I transition from full-time business to part-time, I think social media will continue to slip even further down the priority list honestly.

Running My First Marathon

This isn’t a business related win but a huge personal achievement that I felt deserved recognition in this blog post - I ran my first ever marathon!

I fell back in love with running early this year and joined a running club where I was inspired to take on the challenge of running a marathon. The marathon day itself was so much fun! I had friends and family come out to support, the atmosphere on the day was so much fun and the achievement of finishing was euphoric.

The toughest part for me was the training. The weeks of hard work beforehand, that’s the hard bit. The 3 hour runs by yourself with just your thoughts and headphones to get you through. No glamorous medals or crowds cheering. That is the real achievement of running a marathon and its so much like business too. The hard work goes on behind the scenes but people only see the glory of flashy milestones.

Much like many end of year wrap ups, you only see the medals, not the tears and blisters that went into it for weeks before. So I am so excited to be sharing my honest truth about how the year went - not just the flashy milestones.

My friends and family out to support with homemade signs

Me at the finish line with my friends

Starting The Year Lonely & Finishing With Some Incredible Friends

The same run club that encouraged me to run a marathon was also one of my biggest sources of joy this year. I started the year struggling with feeling incredibly lonely. I had moved to a new area with my partner, work from home all my myself, and I’ve always struggled to make friends in London. I was 25 years old and barely leaving my flat. It’s kind of embarrassing to write but it was my honest truth.

It was joining the run club that really turned things around for me.

Seeing the same people week after week gave me the consistency I needed that made making friends so much easier.

I can now say I have made some of the most incredible friends I could have wished for thanks to my run club. Local friends too, the kind you can go to the pub with on a Wednesday night, you can go for a walk and coffee with on a Sunday morning and we’ve even been having regular movie/games nights too. This was a dream for me for so long and I’m so grateful to finally feel part of a community again.

If you’re someone who has struggled to make friends, I can’t recommend joining a run/sports club enough. Having that regular contact with the same people week over week is one of the best ways to make friends and I promise it will make the world of difference when it comes to your happiness.

My Friends & I playing rounders in a local park

What I’m Taking Into 2026

Weekly Email Newsletters

One goal that I did actually achieve this year was sending a weekly newsletter every week of the year and I am so proud that I stuck with it. Email marketing has been a big priority for me and honestly the consistency of sending emails has made me so much better at it. I’ve finally figured out how to write engaging emails that people actually read and click on.

And most importantly its been something I’ve really enjoyed. Unlike social media where I struggled with find my groove, writing my weekly email feels like a safe space for me and I can’t wait to keep growing my email list into 2026.

Continuing to Grow My SEO Expertise

My new role at Hookflash is going to be an incredible way I can continue to grow and learn throughout 2026 and I’m looking forward to becoming even more of an SEO expert. SEO has been my specialty the whole time I’ve been a website designer, my USP if you will, and its been my nerdy passion for 7+ years now since I studied marketing back in uni. The thought of continuing to grow my SEO expertise really excites me and I can’t wait to pass on this knowledge to my clients too.

Growing The DIY Website Club

The DIY Website Club has quickly become one of my favourite parts of running my business and the progress the members are seeing is INSANE. I am so proud of the little community I’ve created and I’d love to continue to grow it into 2026. To support more business owners with their websites, to help grow their confidence with DIYing their websites and to share everything I am learning.

Running

Running has been an outlet for me throughout this year, I’ve grown to love it more than I ever thought possible. While I don’t think I’ll be training for another marathon anytime soon, I definitely plan on keeping up the running into 2026. Keeping up my run club where I met incredible friends, having that regular exercise and that sense of achievement every time I hit a PB.

Prioritising Rest & Looking After Myself

Burning out is something I absolutely want to avoid happening again in 2026 which means I frankly have to make rest more of a priority next year. While running was an outlet for me, it wasn’t the rest that I needed. That’s why in 2026 I am making a promise to myself to look after myself. To rest, to be creative, to journal, to enjoy doing nothing.

As business owners, our businesses can only grow as much as the energy we can provide, therefore protecting that energy should be a priority for us all.

Monthly Check Ins

One final thing that I’ll definitely be taking into 2026 is my routine of a monthly check in and business review. On the 1st of the month, I always look back at the previous month, review my progress towards my goals, review my finances, review what worked and what didn’t. I truly believe this practice is one of the key things that helped me achieve what I did this year and taking time to reflect, not just at the end of the year but at regular intervals throughout the year, is so important for staying on track and being intentional about your growth.

If this is something you want to adopt in the new year, I actually have a monthly business review bundle you can check out in my online shop.

Wishing You A Happy New Year

Writing this yearly reflection publicly has been cathartic for me honestly. To not hold back and share openly, the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s refreshing to write and hopefully refreshing to read too.

And I sincerely hope that you found something relatable to you in here too. Business is not all sunshine and rainbows, its bloody hard work, its confronting, its draining. But it’s also joyful and full of growth and personal achievement too.

So here’s to wishing you an amazing 2026 - a year full of growth and joy and achievements.

Just remember, you’re bloody amazing, running a business is hard and you’re never alone on this journey.

All my love & happy new year,

Freya xx