Yes – not long now! Maybe your kids have already broken up for the holidays or you’re on a single day countdown for the summer holidays! Mine finish this week.
For many of us, we’ve started our businesses so we can work flexibly around our home life and personal commitments. Personally, I’m also included in this group of women. I have a 6 year old and a 4 year old and I’m already planning on how to strike that balance between the school holidays.
I have a thriving business and I want to spend quality time with my boys and husband. So it got me thinking, what are my top tips to strike balance and to be productive.
- Be clear on what time you have access to and how you’re best going to use it and what’s possible.. How are you going to get most “bang for your buck”. I know I have less work time and now is not the time for me to have the luxury of being strategic and planned in my business. The holidays are about keeping the business ticking over and practically like this article is all about, focus on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results.
- Time block. Or should I say, keep time-blocking! If you have a few hours a day / week / evenings only….make them count. Time block the key areas you need to focus on – time block admin, marketing, clients – avoid scatter-gunning your efforts. It’s so important when you have less time in your business to be as productive as possible. Download your free scheduler here.
- Outsource. Which areas of your business can you outsource for the 6 weeks? So that the time you DO have you can focus on those efforts that need YOU in the business and you’re going to get greatest return. Who can handle your admin, answer your calls, look after your social media accounts or schedule regular emails?
And if you’re looking for help on planning your time, download my free summer holiday business planners HERE.
I’d love to hear what your plans are – come and share the conversation in my free Facebook group.
And so I asked on my Facebook group for others’ top tips. Here’s what the lovely members shared:
Alison Cooper, Owner of The Virtual Assistant says ”
The A.D.D. methodology…Automate / Delegate / Defer.
Work out the tasks that can easily be automated such as social media updates, email marketing mailouts etc and implement.
Work out what every day processes/tasks can easily be delegated – document and out source.
Decide on what can be deferred until the kids are back at school.
I’ll also be making use of a local co-working space, The Residence to concentrate on my work (aka getting away from the kids…)
Lorraine Perry, owner of the CM Connection says ”
I’m an early riser, so used to get up a little earlier and worked furiously until my daughter woke up. Now she’s 15 and since she’s been around 10 I’ve let her lay in until I get done what I need too – yep, has been known to be 11am or midday (she’s a teen!!) and then we do stuff in the afternoons.
When she was younger friends were brilliant and would take her out for the day or have her over to play and I would return the favour.
Above all, I accepted that for my business the summer tends to be a little quieter and I wasn’t going to beat myself up about it but do my best to enjoy my time with her as, after all she was the reason I went self employed. Oh, and I use holiday clubs for my production weeks – she has fond memories of Barracudas activity camps, drama weeks, sports weeks – there’s so much out there, I never felt guilty as she was having a blast!
Jo Patel, owner of Phonics Stars in Bishop’s Stortford is planning on doing some binge scheduling for Facebook, Instagram and Mailchimp.
I’m also planning on getting up early and having movie time for the girls while I get a bit done.. and I’ll have a list of jobs and ‘time block’
But most of all, I just want to relax and spend time with my kids.. I really do look forward to the holidays and I love it when we are all together JO
Or be like Vicki Marks, owner of Vicki Marks PT who simply told me, she’d be “winging it”. I know she won’t be alone on this one!
Finally, if you need help with your planning, download my free summer holidays planners here. I personally use these in my business so please do let me know how you get on. DOWNLOAD HERE.
However you plan to enjoy the coming weeks, have a wonderful time with those closest to you and whom I’m pretty sure feature highly on your vision boards! Have a wonderful summer! I know I’m planning to!
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I’m Sam Dixon, founder of Thrive In Business – an experienced Marketing Coach & Consultant to ambitious businesswomen who want to launch, grow and scale their business with flexible marketing support.
For a free 30 minute discovery call get in touch by email hello@thrivewithsam.com or come join Thrive Collective, my monthly membership community. JOIN HERE.