In looking back at 2025, I’m amazed by how many changes Yardia went through over the course of the year. It was a year of finding the next path for the business, getting to the core of what was working, and planning for future sustainability, in spite of a general atmosphere of global economic uncertainty.
Like many other small businesses, 2025 required an immense amount of hustle to achieve similar results as in the past. Yardia increased its revenue and kept profits stable, but I had to work twice as hard to achieve that. This was unsurprising given the level of economic uncertainty, instability that national events that impacted small businesses like mine. I feel incredibly grateful that Yardia was able to survive and strengthen its systems in spite of all the chaotic changes that were outside of my control.
With all of that in mind, let’s take a look back at what I could control: the structure, artistic creations and decisions within Yardia during 2025. First some stats and highlights:
Word of the Year: Pathfinder
Released The Plant Companion Tarot
Joined 1% For The Planet
Hired a new bookkeeper
Hired a virtual assistant
Moved Yardia to a co-warehousing space in SODO
Exhibited at six trade shows
Vended at nine craft shows (increasing from 12 days in 2024 to 22 days in 2025)
Launched a semi-custom sticker program for my wholesale clients
Designed and released 84 new products
Taught two workshops on running a product business without social media
In March, my beloved cat Petra died after being by my side for 22 years. I think her death was really the catalyst of everything that came next throughout the year, and put my word of the year, pathfinder, into literal and figurative action.
In her memory, I decided to take a short break from the business in May and walked the last 100 km (about 70 miles) of the Camino de Santiago. While following the Camino, even though I didn’t intend to think about Yardia, I nonetheless came to some decisions about the next path for Yardia, to simplify and strengthen its structures behind the scenes.
Team-wise, I made the tough decision to let go of my previous bookkeeper and hired a fantastic new team that I couldn’t be happier with. My books are clean and consistently up to date and I finally feel like I have the help that my company has needed at its current stage of growth. (Looking for a bookkeeper? Tell Pinto Financial I sent you!)
I also hired a virtual assistant to help me keep up with serving my wholesale customers more consistently. She’s done such a great job of helping me to nurture current clients, reach out to potential leads, and really just do everything related to wholesale outreach and marketing. These were tasks that I previously found myself always getting behind on, so it’s such a relief to know that she has my back to keep things running smoothly.
And most significantly, after a lot of research into a variety of options, I moved Yardia and all 300+ SKUs out of my basement and into the Saltbox co-warehousing space in Seattle. This was a strenuous process that I’m so glad to finally reached a finish line on. In September, I chose a warehouse suite that I thought would meet my needs, but almost immediately realized that the space was going to be too small. So then on Halloween, I moved all my inventory AGAIN, down the hall to a new suite that was about double the size. It took me until the end of the year to get that space set up and all of the inventory organized, and as I write this in January, I’m finally reaping the rewards. My goal of the warehouse move was to be able to hire the team at Saltbox to help me with order fulfillment and that has started as of the new year!
When Petra was alive, I wasn’t able to be away from home very often for more than a few days at a time due to the medications and caregiving she needed in her old age, choosing to support her well-being elder care instead of traveling for work. After her death, I decided that 2025 would be my year of business travel, and oh boy, I definitely went a little overboard on this.
I exhibited at six trade shows and nine craft shows, in the Seattle-Tacoma area and traveling to Las Vegas, Portland (twice), Columbus, San Francisco, Spokane and Denver. It was even more exhausting than I could have ever imagined, so much so that I’m only planning for one trade show and two craft shows in 2026! But I learned a ton, met some dream contacts, sold my products and developed new business relationships. So even though it was definitely more than I should have taken on, I have no regrets.
One word: TARIFFS. Honestly, these are still so confusing and unpredictable that I don’t have much to say about them other than that they caused me a lot of stress and worry and I’m still not entirely sure how to predict or plan for their costs in the future. Some products I have to raise prices on, some I have to discontinue, and it all just feels so unnecessary. So we’ll leave it at that and move forward.
Would you believe that I completely forgot that The Plant Companion Tarot launched into the world in 2025? That’s how long the year felt. One of my big dreams of a goal that didn’t feel super realistic was that the tarot deck would be a best seller, I’d sell out and have to order the second edition by the end of the year.
In reality, while it hasn’t yet completely sold out, my inventory has reached the tipping point of when I need to reorder to prevent them from being out of stock. So that will be happening shortly! And it DID become my best selling product, reaching the top spot in Yardia’s revenue over the long-time previous placeholder, my I Love You Ferry Much card.
If you don’t already know the story, I spent nine months in 2024 creating The Plant Companion Tarot deck and released it in January 2025. It was by far my favorite creative project I’ve ever worked on, so you can imagine just how gratifying it is to know that you all have been loving it just as much as I do.
And that about covers it, at least for now! There are so many things that happened throughout this rollercoaster of a year, so goodbye, 2025, and thank you for helping me to find my path. I can’t wait to let Yardia’s light shine even more in 2026!
Thank you for being part of the Yardia community,
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