Every year I like to look back on the past 12 months and list our achievements to see an overview of our progress. It's a practice that not only celebrates the growth of our pakihi, but also keeps me grounded amid the hustle of entrepreneurship. Although this review is more of a business 'highlight reel', I would also like to acknowledge the challenges that were a big part of what made me push myself further out of my comfort zone.
2024 was the year I experienced my biggest creative slump, struggled to juggle all the pōtae I was wearing, and hit my lowest point to date as a business owner. It's easy to only see the highlights of other businesses, but often success is a result of enduring seasons of perseverance, resilience and overcoming self-doubt. It was the year my tāne—my biggest support person—started his masters, which resulted in him being away for 3-4 days every month or so for wānanga, on top of staying in Tāmaki-makau-rau every fortnight for mahi. The combination of running a growing pakihi and holding down the fort in the kāinga stretched me more than I like to admit, and if it weren't for the incredible support of my whānau I don't think I would have made it to the end of the year sane 😅 My village really showed up, and I am forever grateful for them wrapping around me during a season of being stretched to the limits—personally and professionally.
I found myself in the deepest creative slump around mid-year, feeling more consumed with managing the day-to-day. Motivation was almost non-existent, and creativity and fresh ideas felt out of reach. Yet, this period of stillness eventually lead to a season of what I like to call my 'bold era', where I had a boom of creativity, and ended up designing and launching a new line of bilingual cheeky greeting cards all within a matter of weeks—a concept that had been brewing for years. It is a refreshing addition to our offering that brought out my authentic self, and spotlighted the unique cheeky humour that is shared far and wide by other whānau in Aotearoa.
This year also saw a shift in how I approached content creation—less of my cheeky reels (which I still love to create, btw) and more focus on developing meaningful educational resources, blog posts and producing a couple more free downloads to make our mahi and te reo Māori more accessible to our following.
Key business decisions, like changing suppliers and moving some production overseas for certain products—something I had been trying to avoid since the beginning—were made with careful consideration. I am constantly on the hunt to improve our products, offering and processes, which involves weighing up the pros and cons of multiple options and determining the best path forward. 2024 was also the year I decided to stop offering custom prints on our website. Despite enjoying handlettering one-off prints as a refreshing creative pause in my day, it was also very time-consuming, and took my energy away from more important tasks.
Although I didn't manage to expand the team as anticipated, which has now become a necessity, I remain immensely proud of what 2024 represented. It was a year of resilience, creativity, and realignment with our core values. Looking ahead, I'm excited for the next 12 months, confident that the foundation I've built will continue to guide and grow our pakihi.
Thanks to all our loyal customers and followers who have supported us in all the ways one can support a small pakihi—we value you more than you know. E mihi ana 🖤
2024 in Review
Period: 1st January - 31st December 2024
Orders
- 7,590 Total Orders
- 20,184 Total items sold
- 179 Wholesale Orders
- 973 Digital Downloads
- 3,806 Free Downloads
Products
- 35+ New Products added to our offering
- 2,118 Free Downloads: making te reo Māori and our creative work accessible to everyone.
- 545 Five-Star Reviews left on our website by happy customers
- New Toitū Te Tiriti Enamel Pin released (April 2024)
- New Whakatoi Greeting Card Range launched — 19 designs (Oct 2024)
- Edition Two of Kāri Māori released: new suppliers (Oct 2024)
- Edition Two of Pakiaka ordered: new suppliers (Nov 2024)
- New Decals launched — 8 new designs (Nov 2024)
Top 5 Products
- Toitū Te Tiriti Enamel Pin: 2495 sold
- Kia Kaha Te Reo Māori Enamel Pin: 1740 sold
- Kāri Māori Playing Cards: 1402 sold
- Parāoa Parai Tea Towel: 1280 sold
- Thank You/Ngā mihi Greeting Card: 1056 sold
Digital & Social Media
- 12 Blog Articles: Including tips for learning te reo Māori, sharing perspectives from our followers on kaupapa Māori, guest article features and more.
- Reached 85k Followers on Instagram
Events & Media
- Guest speaker at WRPPA Conference (April 2024)
- Guest speaker at Toitū Te Reo (Aug 2024)
- Finalist for MWDI Māori Businesswomen’s Awards 2024. Category: Pakihi Toi Ora | Creative Arts & Design (Oct 2024)
- Partook in monumental Hīkoi Mō Te Tiriti, Kirikiriroa (Nov 2024)
Expansion
- 29 Stockists: Onboarded 29 new stockists to extend our product availability throughout Aotearoa.
- Celebrated 5 Year Anniversary (Jan 2024)
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"Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua."
Look back and reflect, so you can move forward.
Another version of this whakataukī is "Titiro whakamuri, kia anga whakamua", which has the same sentiments of reflecting on the past and drawing guidance from your ancestors and experiences to influence your future. The past informs our present and future 🖤
