Navigating School Holidays, Illness, or the Responsibilities that Take Us Away from Business (Part 2)

“You CAN run your business on 10 hours a week if you’re strategic, you set realistic expectations and you really focus on what’s essential” - Laura Shook-Guzman (37:09 - 37:17)

When we have a limited amount of time and energy, and an endless list of tasks, what do we prioritize to keep our business running, while staying sane? 

In this business journey, we will all come across times where priorities must shift, and the majority of our time must be spent away from the business. For many of us, this occurs each summer when our children are out of school for break.

Last week, we discussed the mindset needed to successfully navigate these seasons of life. This week, let’s take a deeper dive into the fundamentals that will allow you to keep your business moving forward during these busy seasons.

Planning is key.

When your time is limited, planning is a key discipline to implement into your days. When you take the time each week to prioritize your tasks, when an unforeseen circumstance arises the structure will already be in place to keep your business moving. When you know that your children will be out of school for the summer months, taking some time structure the time needed for the key elements of your business can help you maintain momentum, even when your business can’t be the top priority.

Be realistic about the time you have available, and then plan accordingly. Ask yourself, “What is the core of my business that needs to keep going, and what are the projects that need to be pushed off until a more opportune time?”

When conserving your time, projects are the first things that need to be placed on the shelf. All projects take energy, even if it is excited, anticipatory energy. When life has placed extra responsibilities on your plate, energy conservation is key.

Give yourself the permission to keep dreaming up big ideas for your business, but also give yourself the freedom to wait to execute those dreams until a later date, when life settles down a bit.

“There are three core components of ANY service business. Self-care... sales… and delivery... That’s it. It’s so simple, but most people are spending 90% of their capacity on everything else.” - Sonya Stattmann (17:02 - 17:30)

The Core Essentials for ANY Business

Regardless of the type of business you run, there are three core essentials needed to maintain momentum in the busy seasons of life. Self-care. Sales. Delivery. If you were to take an audit of where you are allocating your energy each week, you would probably find that 90% of your capacity is being spent elsewhere.

We can be so easily distracted by social media, funnels, blogs, projects, all of these aspects of our business that FEEL so important, but actually have little return on investment. So often, the most imperative component of our business is sales. It can also be the component that makes us feel the most uncomfortable. I love sales, and I teach my clients to love sales. However, this is one area that women are quick to place on the shelf in seasons of busyness. Sales still must be a priority in your business to help maintain momentum.

Instead of being distracted by all of those different avenues of connecting that don’t actually bring results, spend your time on the low hanging fruit. Who do you already know that would make an ideal client? What partnerships can you create? Who has access to your target market? Get on the phone and build some personal connections.

Also, so many women miss the conversions hiding in the follow up. There are so many factors that could keep a potential client from converting in the first call, and timing can be one of them. It takes minimal time to reach out to follow ups, and could quite possibly provide a major boost in your revenue. Keep following up with leads that are a good fit.

“When you have minimal capacity, give yourself permission to only focus on what matters. I promise your business will not go down in flames.” - Sonya (35:00 - 35:05)

When you have so little time, you have to look at what really matters. Sometimes when we’re so overwhelmed we can let go of everything and do nothing, instead of really utilizing the little time that we do have. Set time aside to plan, be realistic about the amount of time you DO have, let go of the projects and distractions, and then prioritize the core essentials of your business. It’s entirely possible to maintain the momentum of your business, even when other responsibilities are keeping you from giving 100% to your business!

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