Four Ways to Make Time for Your Growing Business

Life has seasons. I’ve written about this before.

Choosing the path of entrepreneurship leads to one hectic and exciting season: growing your business. However, if we are not careful, this can quickly lead to burnout.  The combination of coffee-fueled late nights and dragging yourself out of bed in the morning is a recipe for disaster.

Your caffeinated growth sprint may feel like an impossible task when you're piled with the duties of motherhood (or just life).

Here are some ideas for how to add more hours into your business that won’t push you into overwhelm.

Delegate House Duties

You can delegate other aspects of your life when work spreads you thin like butter on toast.  A good place to begin is to look at those who live under your roof.  

When I decided to go back to work, my husband (bless his heart) assumed laundry duties. Since he works from home, it's easy for him to throw in the wash while he's on a call.  

What if you live alone? Or your family is also tapped out? Think about the things you can outsource. Here are a few to consider:

• Grocery shopping
• Yard maintenance
• Meal prep
• Gardener
• Running errands
• Bulk purchasing 
• Housekeeping
• School drop-off/pick-ups

Implement the Reset Routine

We lose time working on our businesses by running in a million different directions without making meaningful progress.

The way to get out of this is clarity. Clarity on your goals, clarity on what actions you need to take towards achieving them, and clarity on how you will handle the obstacles along the way.

The reset routine is the best way to keep those goals clear. This will only take ten minutes but the time you will gain is exponential. I won’t get into all the details here but if you want the breakdown of how to get started check out this free video series.

Use Your Flexibility to Your Advantage

I can't wait to see Lady Gaga. It's been on my bucket list since she wore that meat dress at the 2010 MTV music awards. Someone who is that creative in their statement to the world must put on a great performance.

As soon as I heard she was coming to San Francisco, I bought tickets. She performs on a Thursday night in September. I'll have to take a half-day off, plus find rides for my kids to after-school activities since San Francisco is about a 2-hour drive from here.

I’m smack in the middle of the soft launch of the Life After Busy Bootcamp so the timing to take off a half-day is terrible. So why am I doing it anyway?

I’m taking advantage of my flexible schedule as a small business owner. The hours I'm missing to spend with Gaga, I can choose to make up during the weekend or work late the next day. I know the tasks that need to be done and have spent the time allocating blocks in my calendar.

On the flip side, if what you need to do is increase your work hours while you are in a growth phase, identify the pockets of time you have to be inside your business.  Can your husband take the kids to the movies on Saturday so you can record your next podcast? If you need an extra hour every week to meet with clients, why don't you arrange a carpool for soccer?

Communicate Your Needs to Your Family

“What do you have going on today?” my husband asked as we shared the master bath to get ready this morning. I seriously think this is the sexiest thing in the world right now.

Besides showing that he cares about what's going on in my world, he also gives me the chance to relay my goals to him....or he wanted me to do something for him, but let's stick with the first possibility.

When you’re scrambling to find time to grow your business, it’s hard to find the time to communicate your needs to the ones you love. I’m going to go ahead and state the obvious…they aren’t mind readers.  If you share, I’m slammed with calls all day then I have to run the kids to a doctor's appointment after school. Maybe hubby will bring you lunch to lighten your load or offer to take the kids for their checkups.

Also, if all this time you’re pouring into your business is making you long for more time with the fam.  Let them know what you’re doing and find ways you can work together. My client Michelle is amazing at this. She brings her kids into the reels she creates to grow her gemstone biz.

Automate

Anytime you find yourself repeating a task over and over it’s time to think about automation.

The list is a mile long of what you can automate inside your small business and it can be anywhere from free to $$$

The initial setup can be challenging and time-consuming but think about the long game.  

I wrote about this before here.

Here are a few things you can automate:

• Payments
• Contact Us replies
• Networking connections
• Scheduling

So how does that feel? Are you empowered with the time to get growing?