Hothouse #50 - Reflection, Direction and the Year Ahead 🌱

Welcome to Hothouse No.50. This is the final newsletter of 2025. 🙂

Before we charge into a new year with fresh notebooks and bold resolutions, I’d like to offer something quieter. A moment to pause and reflect on what you built this year, what you learned, and what deserves to be carried forward.

Because businesses don’t grow in a single burst. They grow through consistent application: setting targets, noticing what works, adjusting what doesn’t, and returning to the work with a little more clarity each time.

1. Design: Looking Back With Clarity

Before you rush into January goals, I’d strongly recommend one thing: an annual review.

This week’s blog walks you through how to do it properly, using my own 2025 review as a worked example. I share the exact process I use to look back with clarity rather than judgement, and there’s a downloadable spreadsheet template (via Hothouse on Facebook - look under the 'Files' tab) so you can run the same review for your own business.

This isn’t an exercise in self-critique. It’s a way to see what actually happened this year, spot patterns you might otherwise miss, acknowledge the progress you’ve made, and decide what truly deserves your focus next. If you’re joining the Hothouse Annual Planning Event in January, this is the ideal place to start.

→ THIS WEEK'S BLOG: Why an annual review is the best gift to give your business this Christmas

2. Declare: Values Before Strategy

Once you’ve looked back properly, the next question is not what should I do next? but what matters most?

This week on Instagram I shared a short carousel on why governing values sit at the very foundation of any business. Before time management, before planning, before strategy, clarity of values makes everything else easier to choose, shape, and sustain.

Here's an earlier blogpost I wrote about Governing Values. 

When designers struggle with boundaries, decision fatigue, or a sense that their business is pulling them in too many directions, the root cause is often here. Values act as filters. They reduce friction, sharpen focus, and quietly influence the kind of clients, projects, and opportunities you attract.

The most successful practices I work with have rock solid governing values, and could cite them in a heartbeat. 

→ SEE: What’s your why?

3. Deliver: Notes From Last Week’s Private Planning Session

A practical starting point for thinking about 2026

Last week I ran a planning session with a small group of interior designers, focused on helping them step back from day-to-day delivery and think clearly about the year ahead.

What follows are the key ideas and exercises we worked through. You don’t need to complete all of this now. Think of it as a calm, structured way to begin orienting yourself towards 2026, ahead of the Hothouse Annual Planning Event taking place from 12–16 January.

This is about clarity, not urgency.

Step 1: Look Back Before You Look Forward

(Design)

We began by anchoring planning in reality.

Before setting goals or targets, take time to review the year just gone. What actually happened? What worked, what didn’t, where did momentum build, and where did it stall? (See this week's blogpost along with the template guide in the Hothouse group).

This is not about judgement. It’s about pattern recognition. Planning without this step tends to be reactive rather than strategic.

Step 2: Revisit Your Governing Values

(Declare)

Before discussing plans, we returned to values.

Governing values are not aspirational slogans. They are the internal rules by which you make decisions, especially when things feel pressured or unclear.

Ask yourself:

• Are these still my values?

• Do they show up in how I run my business?

• Where am I compromising them without noticing?

Many issues designers experience with boundaries, clients, or exhaustion begin here. Clarifying values reduces decision fatigue and sharpens focus.

Step 3: Take a Snapshot Using the Seven Pillars

(Deliver – diagnosis before action)

The core exercise in the session was a diagnostic, not a plan.

We used the Seven Pillars of Design Entrepreneurship as a way to assess the business from multiple angles, rather than relying on gut feel.

The Seven Pillars are:

1. Founder Presence

2. Financial Mastery

3. Strategic Vision and Planning

4. Marketing and Brand Expression

5. Sales and Client Acquisition

6. Operations, Systems, and Professional Practice

7. Design Quality and Client Experience

Participants scored themselves from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong).

Low scores are not failures. They are information.

If you’re in Hothouse, you'll find the Seven Pillars Quiz under the Files tab - if you're interested, you can complete the same exercise in your own time.

The purpose here is simple:

• to see where you are strong

• to notice where you are under-resourced

• to identify where attention would unlock the most progress

Step 4: Identify the Bottleneck

Every business has one area that quietly limits everything else.

Ask yourself:

If I improved one thing in the next year, what would make everything else easier?

That answer is your leverage point.

Step 5: Vision and a Forcing Target

Only after diagnosis do we move into vision.

We asked:

• What do I want my business to feel like by the end of 2026?

• What do I want to be true then that isn’t true now?

From that, we discussed setting one forcing target.

A forcing target is a goal that cannot be achieved by repeating existing behaviour. It requires you to change how you operate, decide, or show up.

Examples might include:

• reaching a new income level that requires different pricing or sales behaviour

• building visibility that can’t be achieved sporadically - you'll have to fundamentally change behaviour

• professionalising systems so the business can run with less personal strain - you'll have to overhaul and change processes and procedures

One target only. You won't succeed in changing five things simultaneously - but give yourself a stretch goal - one that forces you out of your comfort zone.

Step 6: From Intention to Action

We set annual targets, but rather than planning the whole year in detail, here's what we did: 

• shared responsibility for hitting our annual target across all four quarters - realistically. For example: lower expectations for Q1 because first up we need to learn new skills. 

• having divided the necessary delivery towards our annual target across all four quarters of 2026, we zoomed in and defined outcomes for Q1 only. Ensuring Q1 pulls its weight. 

• then we made a plan for M1, M2, M3 - dividing the responisbiity for delivering on Q1 targets across all three months of the quarter. 

• planned in a granular way for January, ensuring laser focus on the small part that M1 will play in the overall vision for the year. 

• agreed that in April (the first month of Q2) we'll reflect on Q1 performance and start the granular planning for Q2. 

Planning isn’t about certainty. It’s about direction. 

4. My Year in Hothouse

Writing my annual review this week has been one of the most illuminating exercises of my year. It made something very clear to me: 2025 hasn’t just been a year of business growth, it has been one of the most interesting and fulfilling years of my working life.

The decisions I made this time last year were, on the surface, quite modest:

• to start a Facebook group

• to write a weekly newsletter

• to publish a blog every week

• to run regular free events for designers

None of this looks dramatic on paper. In practice, it changed everything.

Those decisions forced consistency. They required me to show up whether I felt ready or not. They created visibility, accountability, and momentum that no amount of thinking or planning could have produced on its own. Over time, they compounded.

What surprised me most, as I reflect back, is that this didn’t just transform the business. It transformed my relationship with work, ambition, and possibility.

For a while (in my early to mid-fifties, and maybe because some of my peers and many of my slightly older friends had this mindset) I absorbed an unspoken message that this was the moment to become more cautious. To slow down, take fewer risks, and begin edging gently towards retirement. It sounded sensible. Responsible, even. 

But a year of pushing far out of my comfort zone, setting targets, measuring progress, and returning to the work week after week, has produced a very different outcome.

At 58, I feel capable, energised, and ambitious. I feel that growth is still available, still stimulating, and still deeply rewarding. More than that, I feel curious - excited too - about how much further this approach can take me. I genuinely feel the sky is the limit, and nothing about my future is fixed. 

So my intention for 2026 is simple: to lean into that momentum, continue applying the same principles, and see what becomes possible next.

Almost all my growth this year has been organic; completing my annual review (with AI obviously!), showed loud and clear that growth in 2026 should be enhanced using digital tools and methods. And, my time is best spent developing and delivering - it's time to invest in external support. I have started looking for an expert digital strategist to help me intentionally grow the self-directed side of my business. 

As this is Hothouse Issue No.50, I’m taking a short break over Christmas to be with my family. Hothouse will remain completely free throughout 2026, and the newsletter will return on Sunday 4 January, with the first issue of the new year.

5. The Purpose of Hothouse in 2026

Hothouse in 2026 begins, as it should, with planning.

From 12–16 January, I’ll be running a free, five-day planning challenge. We’ll meet live each day from 11.00–12.00 UK time, and across the week we’ll build a clear, workable plan for the year ahead: setting goals, defining targets, and establishing the monthly rhythm that will guide your decisions throughout 2026.

NB - LET ME KNOW YOU'RE ATTENDING THE PLANNING EVENT BY CLICKING 'GOING' AGAINST THE EVENT NOTIFICATION IN THE HOTHOUSE GROUP (look under the 'Events' tab), 

Having established the Seven Pillars of Design Entrepreneurship, the focus of Hothouse next year will be to help members strengthen their businesses across all seven areas.

Throughout 2026, we’ll move through the Seven Pillars one at a time. At each stage, I’ll provide focused materials, live sessions, and practical support designed to help you improve performance where it is most needed.

Crucially, we’ll also look at how each pillar evolves as a business grows. What’s required at startup is very different from what’s needed to move through the growing pains, to reach maturity, or to scale. Understanding this removes overwhelm and replaces it with strategy.

The purpose of Hothouse has always been simple:

To help designers design their businesses with intention,

declare what they are working towards with clarity,

and deliver, consistently, over time.

That is what I committed to in 2025. It’s what I’ll continue to build with you in 2026.

6. How to work with me in 2026

In 2026, my work will continue to support interior designers at different stages of practice, depending on what you need most right now.

• Hothouse will remain free and will be the heart of the community, with weekly newsletters, regular expert webinars, live planning events, and structured support built around the Seven Pillars of Design Entrepreneurship.

• Group programmes such as Business in a Box and Recipe For Success Bootcamp will continue to offer deeper, more structured guidance for designers who want to build or strengthen their businesses with focus and accountability. And Designers' Boardroom - new in 2026 - will offer structure, monthly planning, and a trusted peer group as part of a year of intentional development. 

• One-to-one work will remain available in limited numbers for designers who want bespoke strategic support and direct oversight. Find out more here. 

Throughout the year, I’ll signpost opportunities clearly in this newsletter, so you can engage at the level that’s right for you.

7. A Final Word of Thanks

Before I close this final newsletter of the year, I want to say thank you.

You may not realise it, but the only reason I’ve managed to honour my commitment to show up here every single week is because I know you are there, reading.

I’m deeply grateful to the designers I’ve had the privilege of working alongside this year: those of you who’ve started your businesses with me in Business in a Box, who’ve worked to level up your business via Bootcamp,  who’ve chosen to work with me one-to-one, and who’ve supported my work by investing in one of my short courses.

My clients don’t just sustain my business, they inspire it. I do this work because I love it, and because I genuinely love working with you.

Thank you for your trust, your curiosity, and your willingness to grow. I’m very much looking forward to what we’ll build together next.

Hothouse will remain completely free throughout 2026, and the newsletter will return on Sunday 4 January.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas, and a healthy and prosperous New Year! 🎄

Julia 

Founder - Hothouse