Business building and marketing advice

50 Nifty 5 Minute Hacks for the Time Starved Mum

Are you bashing your head against the wall when it comes to trying to get everything that you need to do to grow a successful business?

Feeling overwhelmed with the size of your to do list versus the very limited time you’ve got available to actually do the work – trying to fit in when baby is napping, limited childcare or day job!

I’d like to take away some of your stress when it comes to your business (sorry, but I can’t help with the kids)! Here’s a list of 50 things you can be doing to grow your business if you’ve only got 5 minutes spare to do some work:

1. Create a meme (pictures with quotes), on Canva and upload it to your Facebook page (check out my Facebook Page for ideas)

2. Get yourself a notebook (think lots of pretty ones for me) and write down some ideas for blog posts

3. Go through your emails to find the common questions you get asked

4. Go through your social media to find the common questions you get asked or that come up in your industry

5. Create a Frequently Asked Questions page on your website – using the questions from ideas 3 and 4 above

6. Write down what your dream life looks like … what do you want your perfect business to look like (think about income, lifestyle, material things, happiness). This is what your hard work is for!

7. Start working on a vision board to help you achieve your goals. This will take more than 5 minutes as one big task so break it down into 5 minutes for each section of your board (what car you want, your dream house, income, clients, lifestyle etc)

8. Get clear on exactly who your ideal client is … What are their biggest problems? How can you help them? Where do they hang out? What do they read? Who do they already do business with? The clearer you are about who you want to work with, the easier your marketing will be!

9. Update your Twitter profile with your latest free gift link or product launch

10. Update your Facebook profile with your tag line and latest offer or free gift

11. Brainstorm ideas for potential free gifts (that’s another notebook you’ll need). What can you offer that will get people onto your list?

12. Is your website home page up to date with current offers or free gifts?

13. Turn off notifications of when you receive an email so it reduces distraction

14. What other business owners could you work with to benefit each other (think about businesses that work with the same type of clients as you but they aren’t a direct competitor)

15. Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read

16. Do a Brain Dump of everything in your head. Whatever tasks, projects, ideas you’ve got in your head, write it down – no filter needed, just get it down on paper. Check out this article about avoiding overwhelm by doing a Brain Dump

17. Go through your Brain Dump list and prioritise the tasks to be focusing on for the next 30 days (think about prioritising tasks that will either bring money into the business or will take you closer to your long term goals)

18. Create a list of videos you can record to showcase your area of expertise, great for building that important know, like and trust factor that people need to have before buying

19. Ask clients for testimonials and put them on your website, sales pages and social media content

20. Plan out your week of what you need to be focusing on (this is where you use the priority list from the Brain Dump)

21. Plan out the following days work and make sure you only have 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks) that MUST be completed. Anything else is a bonus

22. Do some filing. It’s not a sexy thing to do but it is essential if you want your business to be organised (which you do). Try to make this a daily or weekly regular task

23. Are there any local networking groups where you can get in front of your ideal clients? Find out and book yourself on to attend

24. Look for groups on Facebook where you can get in front of your ideal clients and start showcasing your expertise by answering questions and giving value

25. Ask a question on your Facebook page to get some engagement

26. Look at your Facebook Page Insights to find out when people are online and what your most popular content is

27. Use the information from your Facebook Page Insights to create a strategy for your content. Think about what type of content is popular (meme, blog post, tips, video etc) and when are the good times that your fans are online

28. Get clear on the products or service that you’re offering, what are the features – what is actually included, how is it delivered?

29. What are the benefits of your product or service? This is completely different to features because we’re looking for the result that your clients get from your product or service. What is the end result, the transformation, the big problem solved?

30. Brainstorm some ideas of added value for your product or service. Think about any extras you can add – warranty, email support, Q&A calls, free delivery / returns etc

31. How can you provide upgrades to your product or service as there will be a small number of people who are more than happy to pay more if they’re getting more value – think VIP options

32. Start to build your list by putting a sign up box on your website to get notification of when new products or services launch

33. Make sure that you’ve purchased all domain names relevant to your business and products

34. Get your first free gift out there – map out what to include

35. Schedule in your diary time to complete the work to create your free gift

36. Get new sign up box on your website linked to your free gift

37. Shout about your free gift all over social media (on all platforms that you use)

38. Is your About Me page on your website up to date? Share your compelling story to show your ideal clients why you’re so amazing – put some emotion into it

39. Look for people who you could write a guest blog post for to get in front of their audience. Make sure that it’s a really juicy post with lots of great information and tips that their readers can easily implement

40. Create a Facebook Ad to promote your free gift – you must have a different ad for each free gift you have

41. Create a Facebook Ad for each of your products

42. Reach out to people you admire to ask them to do an interview for your crowd. Someone who can offer some great tips that’s relevant to your crowd

43. Offer yourself as a speaker for local networking events to help position yourself as an expert in your local area

44. Create some speaking topics you could talk about and offer yourself as a speaker online

45. Actively reach out to people who you want to do a talk for and tell them WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) so it’s an easy decision to say yes

46. Got something newsworthy to shout about? Actively pursue some PR for your products and business

47. Get your partner and family on board as cheerleaders for your business so they can help out where needed – childcare, cleaning, cooking, emotional support!

48. Find a planner that works for you (whether that’s online, paper or a mixture of them both), to make sure that you’re getting everything done and working strategically to build your business. I still haven’t found my perfect planner so I’m going to be designing my own

49. Take time every day to build your crowd (whether that’s your list via your website or on social media), ask yourself “what can I do to nurture my crowd today?” it’s all about relationships so that you’ve got a group of raving fans who will buy whatever you’re offering

50. And finally … remember to take time out for you! Don’t make the mistake of spending all your free time working on your business, otherwise you’ll be heading for burnout pretty quickly which is no good for you or your family! Treat yourself when you reach a goal, read a book, go to the cinema, take a nice walk in the park, have a nap!

You Need to Mix It Up If You Want to Stand Out

By Emma Walker

Going on holiday is a fantastic opportunity to take a step back from your business to recharge your batteries and if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up coming back with a bunch of new ideas and a renewed motivation for your business.

On our recent trip to Cyprus, I noticed a lot of great ideas and lessons from our holiday experience – from the Thomson flight to the First Choice Holiday Village hotel we stayed at. And they are simple things that we can ALL use to help our businesses.

Our Thomson Flight

Before we even got off the ground, I experienced the first lesson. I’ve been on many flights on all sorts of planes – from little propeller type planes for internal flights to the new Dreamliner (which is amazing by the way) – so I’m not going to pay much attention to the safety video or instructions as I think I’ve heard it all before!

But on this flight, I did take notice and it was because it was different to what I’d seen before! We flew with Thomson last year, in fact we went to the same hotel, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw, and heard, the safety video on this flight.

Why was it different?

It featured children. The kids were acting as the pilot, cabin crew and passengers going through all the details. It was really cute and it got most people’s attention which is a difficult thing on a flight – unless of course you offered a free flight, that would get a lot of attention quickly!

The children were acting as the adults and teddy bears were children, it was great to watch and I can honestly say, I watched it all. 9 year old Megan and 3 year old Kenzie even watched it as well as they thought it was fantastic and they even made the point of making sure they were ready to see the TV on the flight home ready for the video to come on.

Your turn …

In a marketplace full of people offering the same products or services as you, how can you do things differently
How can you stand out from the crow
Can you go against the ‘norm’ for your industry and really shake things up?

So, take a look at your business and see what you can do to stand out from the crowd. I’d love to hear what you’re doing, share in the comments below.

Sometimes You Just Need to “Shake It Off” Like Taylor Swift

By Emma Walker

As busy mums, we’ve got so much to do in our role as mum that when it comes to running a business as well, it can feel like you’ve got a mountain to climb and in stilettos as well!

We all go through moments when we feel like we’re banging our head against a brick wall, or feel like the Universe is out to get us (as well as lots of other silly things), but in reality, you’re doing an awesome job and you can take some inspiration from Taylor Swift.

“The fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake”
Once you step up and get serious about building a successful business, you will unfortunately attract competitors who think it’s fine to copy all your hard work (you know, that blood, sweat and tears you’ve poured into creating a great marketing message that works).

You can soon get angry and bitter (understandably so, check out this article I wrote about my own copying experience), but try to see it as a compliment that what you’re doing is right. But also use it as an opportunity to look at what you’re saying and putting out there – is the message as clear as it could be, has it got your authentic voice running through it so that it is totally obvious that it’s your voice?

“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
For some people, the sight of success for others can bring up feelings of jealousy, bitterness and the “who do they think they are” mentality. The key is not to think this YOURSELF! Just remember that the issue isn’t actually about you – it’s ALWAYS going to be about their issues.

“And that’s what they don’t see”
I love this quote from Maya Angelou …

“The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story …”

It’s so true, nobody knows exactly what people are going through, how many hours work has been put into something, what things have gone wrong.

“I’m dancing on my own, I make the moves up as I go”
Whatever industry you’re in, there’s going to be some competition for you – if you don’t have any competition I would be a little concerned as it might be that people aren’t buying.

This is why it’s so important to think of ways that you can stand out from the crowd – is there anything you can do that isn’t the norm for your industry and shake things up a bit?

“Shake it off, I shake it off”
Just remember that no life or business are perfect, mistakes happen, things don’t go to plan, just don’t go into a meltdown moment and instead “shake it off”.

So, are you going to fake, fake, fake or hate, hate, hate – or are you going to shake it off?

I Wouldn’t Trust My Local Sainsbury’s Store with My Life

By Emma Walker

I was shopping in Sainsbury’s the other day looking for some clothes for Ripley (you forget how quick they grow so this is a common trip) and I’d started wandering down the stationery aisle (hands up, my name is Emma and I’m a stationery addict who thinks you can NEVER have too many notebooks)!

Everything was perfect in my little world when all of a sudden, an alarm started sounding saying “this is a colleague alert, please wait for further instructions” (or words to that effect).

It was obvious that this was an alarm going off and wasn’t a test, the store was packed with customers but what I thought was really worrying, and why I wouldn’t trust Sainsbury’s with my life, was how the staff around me handled the situation.

There were quite a few shoppers by me and I counted 4 staff members walk past but not one of them made any comment, even though the alarm was still sounding – they didn’t stop whatever job they were doing.

This might not sound like a big deal but I would have expected these staff to say “nothing to worry about, probably a false alarm or a fire drill” or anything else to reassure shoppers. It wasn’t until an announcement finally came over the speakers that it was a false alarm.

The scary thing about this situation is what if it HAD been a real emergency and not the false alarm? The staff weren’t even beginning emergency procedures and didn’t seem interested in doing anything which didn’t really instill confidence!

Once I’d finished my shopping (new coat and notebook in hand), I had to go to the top floor and as I had Ripley in her pushchair (and I was on my own), I needed to use the lift but it was in lockdown because of the fire alarm. I had to go to the customer service desk to ask for a member of staff to reset the lift so it could be used again. But this should have happened automatically as systems should have been in place – you shouldn’t have to rely on your customers to tell you about these problems!

So what can you learn as a result of this interesting experience?

Make sure that staff are fully trained
You might not have customers visit you so an evacuation isn’t necessary but think about visitors to your website- what if it wasn’t working or you’d been hacked, how would you and your staff deal with it?

What back up systems do you need in place?
What can you do that will make the transition period easy for your customers? Think about sending out a message on social media, send email, redirect customers to a different website.

How can you get back up and running quickly?
Create a full disaster recovery plan and work out absolutely everything that could potentially go wrong (equipment failure, sickness etc) and then create a solution for how you’d handle it. This will save you so much time and stress levels not wondering what to do if this shit hit the fan!

By being prepared and having your team fully trained, you will instill confidence with your customers which is what you want!

How to Give Your Business the Adele Affect

By Emma Walker

I love Adele, both her music and the fact that she is refreshingly down to Earth. She’s had so much success with her albums and the latest one, 25, and the hugely successful and record breaking ‘Hello’ single has made sure that she is a global superstar – and quite rightly too!

Not only is she a hugely talented singer but also a great inspiration for business.

Here are 4 specific strategies you can use to give your business the ‘Adele Affect’:

She speaks her mind in interviews
She’s not afraid to be herself during interviews which makes people fall in love with her – you’ve also got to love that she rocks up with her cuppa as well (think the James Corden carpool karaoke).

BUSINESS LESSON: Don’t pretend to be someone else in your marketing materials, let your personality shine through as it will always attract your ideal clients to you.

She doesn’t follow the industry norm
It’s common that artists release a new album every 1 – 2 years yet Adele does things when she’s ready and not worried about her ‘competitors’. She stands apart from everyone and creates some amazing songs.

BUSINESS LESSON: Why do something just because that’s how things work in your industry, shake it up a little so that you actually stand out from everyone.

She knows exactly what product she wants to create
When Adele was writing her latest album, 25, she wrote way more songs than was included on the album. She then decided on the best songs to include – only her best work would do!

BUSINESS LESSON: If you want to attract more clients, think about giving away some of your best stuff for free so that ideal clients can see how great you are.

She keeps things simple
At awards shows, other performers tend to go all out with their pageantry whereas Adele keeps things super simple and relies on her voice – think spotlight and Adele dressed in black belting out her hits!

The thing with Adele is that she is always her authentic self which means that she doesn’t have any competitors – even your Beyonce’s and Taylor Swifts.

BUSINESS LESSON: Don’t overcomplicate things in anything, whether that’s your marketing or systems.

But most importantly, make sure that you are always your most authentic self in everything you do!

What Peppa Pig Can Teach You About Business

By Emma Walker

If you have young children, you’ve probably heard of Peppa Pig and have had the ‘pleasure’ of watching a few episodes!

My 3 year old LOVES Peppa and at first glance, you can soon get fed up of this bossy little piggy with the theme tune that stays in your head. And if you’re anything like me, you probably can’t say dinosaur without saying “grrrrr” afterwards like George!

But, there are lots of lessons we can take from the world of Peppa Pig and relate it back to our businesses.

Here’s 3 important lessons we all need to be aware of if we want a successful business:

Daddy Pig “I’m an expert at…”
According to Daddy Pig, he is an expert at most things but it nearly always turns out that he can’t actually do what he says he can do

Your lesson: Don’t promise something to your clients that you can’t deliver as this is bad for your reputation. Always be honest if you don’t have a particular skill that’s being asked for, don’t try to blag it just to get a client.

Know Your Audience
The creators and writers created Peppa Pig for young children, so each episode is only 5 minutes long which is a perfect time for their attention span – there’s no point having 1 hour episodes as the viewers will soon get bored and switch off.

Your lesson: Get clear on exactly who your ideal customer is to make sure that your product or service is a perfect fit for their problems.

Give Them What They Want
Peppa Pig has soon become an empire as the creators have taken it from being ‘just a TV programme’ to a phenomenon as they have expanded their product range.

As well as the programme on the TV, they’ve got lots of other products, including:

DVD’s with a compilation of 8 – 10 episodes
Branded toys so they can play with Peppa and friends
Branded merchandise like duvet covers, cushions, storage, scooters, bikes, clothes, food (just do a quick search on Google and you’ll be amazed at all the different products available)
They’ve got their own Peppa Pig theme park with gift shop (it’s a great day out if you have little piggies)

Your lesson: What else can you offer that compliments the work you do? For multiple income streams, you need to be thinking of a range of different products your customers will love

How to Easily Set Goals as a Time Starved Mum

By Emma Walker

We know we should set goals but as busy mums and business owners, it can seem that we don’t actually have the time to sit down and plan out our goals for the next 12 months. But this is why it is essential that we do set goals so that we can create the business and life we want (and deserve).

Here are the 3 simple strategies I use which have helped me to achieve all the goals I set myself without sacrificing any more time with my 2 young daughters – these are going to come in very handy when baby number 3 makes their appearance in the next few weeks. They’re easy to implement and you don’t need to spend hours getting it done – enjoy!

Break Your Goals Down Into 90 Day Chunks
When you’re mapping out your goals, what I recommend you do is break it down into 90 day chunks; 90 days is a bit more realistic. It’s more focused. Whereas if you’re just doing something for 12 months, that’s ages away; that’s a year away. Whereas if you do 90 day chunks, it gives it a bit more urgency and it makes it more real and achievable because you know you’ve got to get it done. There’s no, ‘I’ve got 12 months to do it.’ You’ve only got 90 days. You need to get on it.

Once you do start changing it up to 90 days focus, it does make a big difference.

The thing that you need to keep in mind for every task is it should always help you achieve your long-term goals. Ask yourself. Does this take you closer to your goal? If the answer is no, you then need to think about and consider, do you need to do it in the first place? If you do, can somebody else do it for you?

Always think about the end goal and everything that you do has to work towards that point. That is the reason you’re in business. That is your why. Always have that clear in your mind so you can map everything else out, you know what you’re doing and you know you’re doing the right tasks and delegating where appropriate or even deleting a task. When you ask, does it take me close to my goal? If the answer is no, do I have to do it? If the answer is no, then why is it on your list. Get rid of it, just cross it off.

Realise That Planning is Everything
When it comes to mapping out your goals, you need to have a 12 month plan to be working towards. This doesn’t have to be a complicated document but you must make sure you include the following:

Any personal events (school events, school holidays, weddings, family holidays etc)
Any business events you want to attend
Any events you’re running (physical or online)
Product promotions so you know what products to be focusing on each month
Set deadlines for your goals (think about your 90 day chunks here so you can set specific dates to work towards)

If you did just this one thing, it would help to transform your success!

Do a Brain Dump
Some people don’t like the term Brain Dump but I love it – just think of it like a download. This takes everything out of your head and on to a piece of paper. Every single task, every idea you have, write it down. Think about projects you want to do, what are the tasks involved.

Taking everything we’ve talked about planning your goals and creating your schedule – brain dump the information.

What happens is you’re literally freeing up space in your head so you’re not feeling so stressed that things haven’t been done. You now have this master list which you can use to prioritise the work that will move you closer to your goals and bring money in to the business – we all want that don’t we?

I’ve been using these strategies for a while now and it has improved my productivity so much and makes me feel as though I’m achieving my goals quicker as its great crossing off items from a brain dump

Your action plan
Take some time now to go through these strategies for your own goals.

Create your 12 month plan
Break your big goals down to 90 day chunks
Do a brain dump

I’d love to hear some of the goals you’ve set, share them in the comments below.

Why A Support Team is Vital for Your Business … And How to Delegate Easily to Them

By Emma Walker

When you start out in business, you soon realise that you have to perform many roles in order to get things done. These include: administration, marketing, IT helpdesk, finance, PR, website, technical help, etc. It can soon feel very overwhelming with everything that you do need to do.

Doing everything yourself is fine to begin with, but if you really want to build your business and take it to the next level, you need to learn to let go of some of the routine tasks, to give you time to focus on more important ones.

One of the keys to building a family friendly business is to build an amazing support team

A lot of people don’t expect me to say this but a support team is your secret weapon. It is amazing. To be honest, it’s a smart way of working because you have to take care of the marketing and strategy for your business as well as the work that your customers pay you to do.

There’s loads of people you can have on your team (for your business AND home life), think about the following as the essential team members to bring on board first:

Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is a self-employed professional providing administrative, secretarial and creative services on a remote basis. Working from their own fully equipped offices, VA’s work with a variety of different clients helping them in their businesses on an ad hoc, regular or individual project basis.

Outsource your routine administration so that you can focus on product creation and marketing activities to build your business.

Cleaner
This doesn’t need much explanation!

As busy mums, we have so much ‘stuff’ to do for our family, never mind adding a business to the mix. Getting a cleaner may sound like a luxury but I say it is essential as it will free up a lot more time than you realise so you can get your business moving.

If you don’t want to get a cleaner, at least get somebody to do your ironing. I have a local lady come to collect and deliver mine every two weeks. I know exactly when she is coming so that everything is ready for her.

Childcare
I always tell my clients that childcare must be the first type of support you need to bring on board as you need some dedicated no child zone time to work on your business. Even if it is only a few hours a week, it is something that you need to look at quickly.

If you have children of any age, regardless of what their age is, you realise how distracting they can be and why it is difficult to run a business and look after them at the same time. You can’t do it. It’s simple. This is why having good childcare is essential to your success. Even if they go to nursery for a couple of days a week or a couple of afternoons or if you got somebody who can come in and look after them (even if it’s just one afternoon a week). Whatever it is, you need some form of childcare to give you the dedicated time and energy you need to focus on your business.

My oldest daughter she goes to school five days a week and then my youngest daughter she goes to pre-school for three days a week from September. They go to the same place so its only one drop-off and I’ve arranged for my youngest to go to after school care so I can pick her up the same time as my eldest after her after school club or homework sessions. It’s good. I know on those three days I have those set specifically that I can spend between 9.15am until 4pm doing what I need to do. It might be phone calls. It might be client work. It might be training events or networking events. Those days are really good.

Obviously, this is going to change when baby number 3 makes their appearance but at least I’m in a routine with the other 2!

Delegating Made Easy

When you are delegating anything, more so from a business point, you need to set clear deadlines and priorities. When you’re delegating a task, set the deadlines and then prioritise the task for the person doing the work so that they are in no illusion what they need to do, when they need to do it and what is the order that they need to do them. If they’ve got a big list of stuff to do, what are the must do items first.

Give them clear instructions and information. If you’re not clear, then this leaves it open for basically anything to happen, misunderstandings, whatever it is, because they could go off on a different tangent to what you wanted. Be clear and say, ‘this is what I want doing. This is the type of result I want and this is how I want it done.’ They can do it because you’ve given them clear instructions. No misunderstandings and everybody is happy. They get to do the work that you want. You get it in the way that you want it. Everybody is happy. Job done.

When you’re working with freelance staff, you have to realise that they work with other clients, so they have other things already in their work load that they need to do. If you show up and say, ‘I need this done now.’ That’s not fair on them. It’s not fair on the other clients that they’re working with who have given them advanced notice and have been nice and clear.

Think about any deadlines and say, ‘I’ve got this product launch on X date, I need this, this, this, this. Do it in advance.’ Everything can be mapped out on what and when you need to do things, what and when they need to do things. What do you need to sign up? Is there anything you need to create for it? Is there any social media stuff that needs to be sent out that the VA can do for example? Give them advance notice.

To make any delegation easy, you need to remember that communication is key. It really is the key to an effective relationship with those that you delegate work to. It’s a two way process. I suppose the golden rule is to treat people how you would like to be treated. Give them respect. Give them the recognition they deserve. Tell them they’re doing a great job. Tell them if they’ve made any mistakes. You don’t have to be nasty about it. Obviously, they can have that two way process with you. Just make an effort. Keep the lines of communication open. Make it so that you’re easily approachable so if they’ve got any questions or concerns, they can easily approach you.

Your action plan
Who do you need on your support team? Who are you going to bring on board first and when?

Seeking That Elusive Work / Life Balance … Is It Possible?

By Emma Walker

I think the answer to this question is yes AND no. Let me explain …

There’s a bit of a myth about work / life balance because you only have 24 hours in a day. We all need to sleep, eat and rest, as well as actually working to earn money … never mind everything involved with looking after the family and house as well!

With all these different personal and business commitments, we can soon get lost in the day to day rush of being a mum and now you’re wanting to add in your business as well.

But this is where it is possible to balance the business as you can really create a family friendly business – this is where boundaries become really important to you.

We have to be clear about what we want and what we can do to achieve it but there are some simple things that we can do just to make our lives a lot easier. One of the main reasons that people don’t necessarily get this right, even some of the most successful mumpreneurs and business owners, is setting effective boundaries.

You will hear a lot of people talking about establishing your boundaries within your business and you may think that this will not apply to you. However, this is something that all business owners need to sort out, especially if you’re juggling your other job of ‘busy mum’.

To identify your boundaries think about what you are and aren’t prepared to do as a starting point and expand on the answers.

To give you some ideas, ask yourself these questions:

Will you accept client visits?
If you want to let clients visit, you will need to get public liability insurance. If you work from home, you need to consider if you want people knowing where you live.

Will you offer 24/7 service?
If you are a service based business, you will need to have systems in place to be able to accept and complete work 24 hours a day. Some people make this their Unique Selling Point (USP) but others choose not to have this extra stress.

Will you speak with family and friends if they call in the day?
Family and friends can be the worst offender for distraction to those who work at home. They may feel that now you work at home, they can call you anytime for a chat or pop in for a coffee.

Explain what your hours of business are and don’t speak with them if you are busy with work.

Will you only be working certain hours?
Decide what your business hours are and make sure that you inform all prospective clients what they are. Some clients may try to push this boundary by calling 5 minutes before you finish wanting work completed for the next day. Be firm and say that you will start the work the following business day – but only if you have the capacity to.

Will you be working 52 weeks per year?
Think about what holiday you want to take now so that you can start educating your clients or getting associates on board to cover for you.

Do you want a term time only business?
If you have school aged children, you may choose to only work during term time and spend the holidays with your children. Now is the time to be able to start educating clients or bringing on board help to work during holidays.

By establishing your boundaries now, it can become part of your business systems, as well as informing and training your family and clients about how you operate.

You must remember that you are the boss of your own business and you can say no!

I’d love to hear what boundaries you are going to implement in your business, please share in the comments.

Your action plan
Take the time to go through these questions and set up your own boundaries for you and your business.

Systems Aren’t Sexy … But They Are Essential If You Want Your Business to Thrive

By Emma Walker

Systems are essential if you want your business to thrive. There’s no two ways about it. You have to have them.

It is worth so much to spend some time now to get the foundations right because it saves a whole lot of time and money later on down the road.

Why Would You Need Systems?

Some of the reasons that they’re really important is that once you start bringing on board people to your team, whether that’s people who become your employees or who you outsource work to, having systems in place means that you are reducing the time it takes to train them so they can become as productive as possible as quickly as possible. If you’ve got to spend time constantly training them to do the same thing over and over again until they get it, that’s a waste of your time.

Surely, you would prefer to spend that time marketing the business, getting new clients, sending out products, actually doing the work that gets you paid than having to train somebody. Just from that one element alone, it is worth it. Yes, it will take you time and it is a bit of a challenge to get it done first, but please make the time.

The other thing that is really good here is in case of emergency. Now, nobody wants to think of the worse thing happening, but if you want your business to continue in the case of an emergency, whether it’s illness or a family crisis or if you’ve had a bereavement, whatever the case may be, if you’ve got systems in place, then your team or people you rely upon can come in, step in for you, and continue running the business with no issues. They haven’t got to come in and say, ‘What do I do? I’ve got no idea what this person does. I want to help them but I can’t.’ If they don’t know what to do, they could end up costing you your business.

To give you an example about this, when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter, I had quite a bad pregnancy complication and it meant I had to have four weeks bed rest before she was born. It wasn’t planned or anything like that. The emergency happened and that was a consequence. That’s what we had to do to make sure that the pregnancy carried on successfully and it did, but I was on complete bed rest.

My business continued to run without me because I had some systems in place that my team could come in and take over some of the stuff that needed to be done. I also could do things from my hospital bed that I needed to do and the business ran as normal. My clients didn’t really see much of a difference. There were some calls, for example, that had to be rescheduled at the beginning of the situation because we weren’t sure what was going to happen. It was a ‘take it day by day’ to begin with the first few days. But then I could reschedule things once I knew what was going on. I could also do more of the information via email or online.

I had that flexibility because I had the systems in place. I had taken the time to map out everything so there was no confusion. My team came in, did what had to be done. I just said to them, “Can you please do this, this, and this?’ That’s it. They got on with it. I didn’t have to go, ‘Well, this needs doing. This is how it has got to be done.’ No, it just got done. So much easier because it freed up my time. At the end of the day, there was the issue with the pregnancy which was extremely stressful and worrying as it was a case of taking each day at a time. I didn’t then want to have the added worry and anxiety about the business and getting paid. It was quite a crucial thing. The systems helped me to make that transition easy, make that worrying time as stress-free as possible.

Once you have decided how you want to do things, it is a good idea to create some Standard Operating Procedures. These are a great tool to train up any new team members that come on board but also help your business to stay open if you can’t work for a while.

Some procedures to think about:

Disaster recovery
What would you do if your computer stopped working or you got disconnected from your internet connection? If this happened to me, I would use my laptop and I have an internet dongle I can use until the problem was fixed.

You need to consider the types of problems you could face and come up with the solution – this way you won’t panic as much if it happens.

New Clients
What happens when you sign up new clients? Are you going to send them a welcome pack with information on how you operate, your procedures, useful information?

Complaints
In the unlikely event of you receiving a complaint, you need to have a procedure in place on how you will deal with it. Think about what timescales you will use to respond and investigate the complaint.

Branding
What is your house font going to be? What email signature should people use? Think about how you want to give a consistent impression to everyone you interact with.

Prospective Clients
How do you handle all new enquiries that come into the business about working with you? How can you make it easy for clients to sign up and work with you.

Your action plan
Think about the procedures you need and get documenting them.

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SOME HAPPY MUMS

As I sat listening and talking to Emma, it became very apparent and obvious to me, the one thing holding me back from actually being a successful Virtual Business Assistant rather than comfortably subcontracting to someone was me

Emma has simplified my outlook, cutting out pointless stresses

She was very honest and quickly spotted my weaker areas

Emma has given me suggestions on where to find my ideal client and put myself in front of them

I have a much clearer path now on what I have to do to target my specialist clients