I loved writing this post this week as Its a subject close to my heart. Here’s my 6 business survival tips to get you through the christmas holidays without losing your mind or your business. Believe me I have more tips but didn’t want to blow your mind with all of them!
I had two little people, a full time self employed job and being a single mum I remember the juggling. So I hope you enjoy them and as the Christmas Day is now officially less than 6 weeks away today, so the party and nativity season starts really soon – so get planning.
1. PLAN. PLAN and do some more PLANNING
Decide how you want to run your holiday. Decide how much time you are willing to work, what are the maximum and minimum amounts you are willing to work on your business – not in your business.
Get hold of a calendar or I used to build a spreadsheet – Monday to Friday like one of those family diaries and made sure I knew what was going on and who was due where on what date. It was planned meticulously, but everyone knew what was going on. It’s a long, and stressful 6 weeks if you don’t have a plan.
You don’t have to fill their days with activities, sometimes they need to kick back too, and there is nothing wrong with spending the day in pjs if that’s what you want to do.
Whilst the planning is key, once the plan is there you don’t need to route march then through the holidays. Kick back have some fun and keep an eye on your business.
So get hold of the diary and get planning!
2. COMMUNICATE
Communication is key. Once you’ve made a plan and decided how you’ll run your business once your little darlings are on holiday make sure you tell them, your support network (if you have one) and your clients. It’s probably the most important element after the planning.
3. GET SOME HELP
No one will care if you can write your name in the dust, but your clients will care if they can’t get hold of you. So do what you do best and outsource the rest. Be clear what you want and what you are not willing to do. Be clear and stick to your guns.
Engage a virtual assistant, outsource your social media, reroute your phone calls. Put an out of office on your emails – the list is endless…
Get some help – if you can’t afford it swap childcare with a girlfriend, get the children to help out around the house. You don’t have to be wonder woman! Outsource the boring and mundane – ironing and cleaning. If you’re sitting there thinking you can’t afford to – your business can’t afford you not to!
Do what you do best and outsource the rest! The Master Fixer.
4. GET SOME DAILY HEADSPACE
Need to grab a couple of hours of quiet? Here are some quick (and fairly cheap) attention grabbers to buy you some time:
- Twister (who doesn’t love twister)
- Jigsaws – time them, incentivise them (that’s grown up talk for bribery – I didn’t say I was perfect did I!)
- PJ day / anything goes days – time to kick back and chill out. Take the pressure off and give yourself a break. My girls loved PJ days.
5. PRIORITISE
Making time for work is obviously crucial as you can’t let your business lapse for an entire holiday but reducing your hours and rescheduling key tasks is probably wise.
If you work from home, try some early mornings (my favourite time and most effective time of the day), or later at night. Don’t overdo it though, it’s your holiday as well!
6. ASK
Remember to get your ASK in gear, it will ease the stress and make the whole planning process and holiday run up so much easier. Your people will raise to the challenge and those who don’t weren’t your people. Double bonus you get the support you need whilst flushing out the flaky people
So with just under 4 weeks to go to the big day happy planning.
Originally published at www.themasterfixer.com. For more from Linda, visit https://www.themasterfixer.com/blog/ Follow her on Twitter @lindadaviescarr