The Guide to Running a Booming Business Even When Your Child is Sick
You’ve got the momentum going. You’re in control. Your business is blazing. Until late one night, you hear that sound. That cry. You know the one I mean. The one that can easily crush your week. Your little one has a high fever and won’t let you leave his side for a second. You're on round-the-clock ice chip duty. Time to change deadlines, juggle orders and reschedule meetings. And fast. And let me guess. Now that your child is sick, you're wondering, Can I really run a booming business and still be a caring mom? Well, I'm here to tell you yes, you CAN. As a mother of a 2 year old boy, I know firsthand that this is part of the "mom entrepreneur" package. But - you don't have to choose one or the other. You can do both. And I'm going to show you how with my "guide to running a booming business even when your child is sick".
Step 1: Plan ahead
Break bigger projects up into smaller chunks with individual deadlines, so that if you need to delay something, it’s a fraction of the project, not the entire thing.
Step 2: DO ahead
Commit to completing some of your regular activities in advance so that when a crisis emerges, you’re ahead of the game. If you blog, create posts 2 to 3 weeks ahead of time or have a couple written and saved for emergency situations. For social media, use scheduling tools like Hootsuite to program updates days in advance.
Step 3: Automate
When you automate your business processes, you can actually be in two places at the same time!
- Use e-mail management software to schedule your blog posts in advance and to create autoresponders.
- Use e-commerce software like Shopify to collect and process payments.
- Use an online scheduler like Schedulicity to automatically schedule or reschedule your commitments.
Step 4: Delegate
You need someone — an employee, a trustworthy friend, or dependable family member — as your safety net, to be there for you when you really need support. Don’t wait until the last minute to make that person familiar with the ways things flow in your business. Create a contingency plan by listing the things this person will need to take care of in case of an emergency and providing the key tools they’ll need to support you. They might need a link to your calendar (to reschedule appointments) or the password to your client management system (to get in touch with clients). And for more info on delegating, be sure to pick up my free guide on mastering delegation skills at SystemsRock.com. READY FOR A CHALLENGE? If your multiple responsibilities tear you apart and every crisis situation causes major setbacks and frustration, I challenge you to get started this week by applying at least one of the above strategies.
Which one of these steps are you going to act on first? Share with me in the comments below.