At the end of every year I write out goals for myself for the coming year. 2025 was no different, I had made my list of personal goals, but the only business goal I had written for myself was to continue growing my business.
Even though I didn’t have a specific goal outlined for Sabrina Winckler Designs, the goal lived in the back of my mind and I was able to make decisions throughout the year to help me meet that goal. I celebrated my second businessversary in June and because I didn’t have much growth from past business ventures, I didn’t have a specific idea of what that growth would or should look like. The plan was to just to keep moving forward and see what happened.
In 2025, I…
…Had my first vendor booths at skating competitions both locally and across the state. I met a lot of wonderful people, sold a ton of hair bows (who knew!?), and came away with new custom dress clients.
…Made 20 fabulous skating dresses in only 2 months to prep for the first vendor booth. You can’t be a vendor if you have nothing to sell, right? This was in addition to the rainbow of hair bows I made, and also in addition to the custom projects I was working on.
…Started teaching classes at a local fabric store. I’ve always wanted to share my knowledge and I was incredibly excited when Treelotta contacted me.
…Decided to close my Etsy shop and open up shop on my website. This gave me an easy way to direct inquiries about the ready-made dresses that I have in stock, as well as giving me the opportunity to link my inventory to my point of sale system.
…Reviewed my various revenue streams. I was able to add new streams of income that I enjoy, such as teaching and creating hair embellishments. I also allowed myself to remove income streams that I did not. I acknowledged to myself that, yes, even though I can do clothing alterations, I don’t enjoy doing clothing alterations. The one exception may be skating dress alterations and repairs.
These items were huge wins for me and, they showed the growth and progress I was looking for. However, there were other things that went by the wayside, such as my social media & blog posts, not to mention the monthly newsletter that I wanted to send and never got around to.
Sometimes life gets in the way of our best intentions, and I’ve had to be ok with that. My dad struggled with his health quite a bit this year and I chose to be present for him and the rest of my family rather than worry about how often I was posting updates online. Hopefully this coming year will be better, Dad will stay healthy and I will have many new and exciting updates to post!
In 2026…
…I’m looking forward to continuing to teach; I’ve picked up two additional classes, which I will be teaching at Treelotta throughout the year. I’ve also applied to be a vendor at two local figure skating competitions in Denver, one in March and one in August. The details are on my Events page and I will be making updates as soon as I have more information.
I would also like to start offering my own set of skating related classes, skating is an expensive sport and many a skate mom have braved the rigors of sewing their child’s skating costumes. I would love to share my tips and tricks to make the process easier and less scary. Also, have I mentioned how much I love rhinestones??
May your 2026 be dazzling!
~Sabrina