On a weekly basis, someone is asking me how I can get everything done effortlessly. To be honest, a very long time ago I decided what matters more was my sanity and that meant putting a schedule, rules, boundaries, and guidelines in place for my business. Even when I am out of town for client meetings I have a particular schedule I adhere to that way I am consistent. Only time, this has been through for a loop is when I am sick, or a close family friend is sick. Trust, I have tried to keep my schedule for my business when I am sick, lol.
Ask Others For Advice
This is one of the best tips I can give those who are trying to establish a schedule for their full time or part time business. Start asking others how they manage their days, weeks, and business. I am not saying copy their schedule to a T because that does not work at all. You can survey various business owners to see how the manage their companies, task, and life to take tips and insight from them. One of the biggest things I tell people about is day designation, which I will talk about further down. I learned about this through a fellow business owner that loved batch system method. Taking pieces that work for you and leaving the rest.
Monthly Goals Limited
Okay, you might be thinking wait you’re limiting your goals, won’t that hinder you. No, the issue is we have too many goals at one time, and it paralyzes us from achieving them. At one time, I would be trying to achieve twenty things a month thinking that would move further in my business. It was hindering the growth because I was doing things half ass not giving what was needed. Monthly, I only have two or three major goals that I want to achieve that align with my quarterly and yearly goals. Trying to work on my blog, consulting and Business Bestie was running me dry because I wanted to be a success so bad, but I was failing. Rearranging how I ran all the companies and the goals helped me get further.
Switch Things Up
When things are not working well, it’s okay to switch things up to make them work for you and your business. I was wearing myself thin trying to put out content five times a week here, bi-weekly on the newsletter and consulting my clients. My business decision was to create content three days a week and switch to one newsletter a month. In consideration of, how my life was growing fast with my company making $10,000 a month in digital sales, and my consulting company had an extensive client base than when I started, my blog went to one post a week. Blog post were on average 500 words a post when I made that pivot; I decided to write content that was 800 words or more. It’s okay to test different ways and seeing how they work for you.
Day Designation
My secret weapon that has worked for me since starting my original company. It recent years, I have leveled up my day designation process because of the amount of work I need to put into blogging, consulting, content creation, and building Business Bestie. On Sunday, I sit down for maybe two hours planning my week in my to do list book, two planners, and Google calendar. During this time I write down running task that needs to be completed, things I need to buy, and everything that will be happening during the week.
On Monday, I do office work, money management, and life stuff. I rarely do “business work” such as; content writing, meetings or anything like that. Tuesday is my client day even if I don’t have a call I am working on research or projects for them. Some clients tasks are straightforward, and then other clients give me everything and say find a solution. For instance, once client wanted me to streamline his life, task, and staffing. That meant I had to buy several programs to learn them then teach his team how to use them together. Wednesday focuses on content creation for the blog, newsletter, or newspaper. Thursday, I work on Business Bestie task. Friday, are meeting days for me with local clients or finishing work for the week.
So, you’re probably wondering what happens when life happens and I cannot those task on those certain days such as; I do not feel like writing content or clients change their mind regarding a meeting. Just move things around, there are days that I am supposed to be working on x, and the content is flowing from my mind. Stopping the creative thoughts is not something I want to do. Learning to adjust is something you just do as a business owner.
Staying Active With Life and Friends
One of the great thing about being your boss is creating a schedule that works for you. Personally, I workout three to four times days a week to keep me active. Working out in the middle of day works best for me than doing it early in the morning or in the evening. On my calendar, once a week I try to attend an event such as; a business luncheon, coffee date or listening to a panel. My weekends are my weekends where there is no work. I can sleep in, hanging with my friends or family members. You don’t have to work 24/7 on your business to win; you will miss out on a plethora of stuff. You do need to give your business 100% the days you are working. Make sure on your schedule you create time to stay active, hang with friends and family, and of course me time.
Boundaries
For a long time, I had no boundaries, and I use to be annoyed when people stepped over the line. They did not know they crossed the line. Establishing boundaries for example of my business hours was very important for when clients felt they could text me business questions on a Saturday when I am spending time with my family. There were times clients felt I was ignoring them because I was not answering their messages when they wanted. Honestly, that’s just not how life works, but I had to send out a mass message regarding my hours being 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. When clients or even friends text me regarding a business question, I respond saying “I have read your message and will respond on Monday.”
One of the most important aspects of creating boundaries was enforcing them with myself. For example, I rarely take a vacation during the year, but the month of December for the last four years I go on a monthly long one. That month, I talk to my clients at the very start of the month talking about what they have achieved and what the goals for the new year. I spend that first week doing the same thing for me too. Then after that, I just hang out and watch too much Netflix. However, the first year I would still talk to clients or take on a client. Thus there was no real vacation.
In addition to that, you have to be willing to say no to things in order to have room to say yes later. There was time I turned high paying projects because I knew better things were coming. If I had said yes to those clients or projects then, I would have to say no to things that really made my spirit soar. There was time I had a money scarcity menatlity feeling I had to say yes because I needed to pay bills those became nightmare clients or projects. Sometimes, its better to have an empty plate versus one with chopped liver and onions piled up that you hate eating.
Creating an established schedule for your small business is essential if you want to scale your business over the years. This helps you build consistent and stay focus on what matters for you.
