I’m making a big change to my business in 2024

This summer has not been working for me and I’ve been feeling incredibly frustrated. I’m a single mum to two children and I run my own business. Like so many working parents that I’ve been speaking to, I feel like I’m constantly dividing my attention between the business and my children, and not doing either very well.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m really driven and ambitious, so I want to make sure I’m not approaching next summer with the same negative feelings.

So what am I going to do?

Well, I’m definitely going to do something about it!

But before I dive in, I did want to add this little caveat. This plan is for ME, and I’m not suggesting that it is right for you, or that you HAVE to consider doing the same. I just wanted to talk you through the process that I’m going to follow because it might also give you some ideas or inspiration on possible changes that you could make.

So, I’ve set my goal to take 4 weeks off in August 2024. In those 4 weeks, I won’t be doing any client work and I won’t do other work if I don’t want to. But, taking the pressure off of those 4 weeks will give me an opportunity for some behind the scenes projects, as well as time to work on my business.

I should add that my children are off for 9 weeks over the summer, so that might give you a better perspective of why I’m doing it, and also the impact this will have for my family and my business!

It might not be perfect!.

One of my values is “freedom” - freedom to do what I want, freedom to develop in the ways I want to, and freedom to spend time with my children. I want to re-establish that freedom for next summer.

But, as with all things and actually, as this summer just shows, things don’t always go to plan. So I might get to the end of next year and decide that taking 4 weeks off was really good, or maybe it didn’t work at all and needs tweaking. However, I also know that so much of running a business is about trial and error, so if I prepare in advance, I give myself the best chance of success.

I’ve already booked it in my calendar, but the rest is up to me.

In August 2024, I have already booked out those 4 weeks in my calendar. Although it’s still a whole year away, I know that doing so now will prevent me from booking any work into my diary in the future. 

I’m giving myself the choice. I can do some work on the business, complete some smaller projects, or show up on social media or I can choose not to. But it’s MY choice.

Now, those first 2 weeks will be a complete break. I am taking that time off to create a separation from my work. At the moment, from how I’m feeling right now, I think this is the best way of helping me stick to my plans for the remaining 2 weeks, because just creating that separation will make me less likely to dip back into work…unless I really want to.

I am leaving that a little bit open to how I feel at the time, because I might get some really good ideas whilst I’m “away”, or I might have some time to myself whilst the girls are with their family or friends. But I’m removing those deadlines so that the decision is mine to make and I don’t have any pressure.

I’m going to be intentional with setting my availability.

I’ve set up a lot of my business to give me the freedom I spoke about before, so when I start looking at the dates for my strategy days in 2024, I know that I need to adjust them to avoid August, and that will probably make my July and September much busier than usual. And that’s ok, I can make other adjustments to accommodate that for my clients.

I’m also not in constant contact with my clients, although they can message me on Whatsapp or email, but this is a monthly service and I have a business number, so I can stop them from booking this over August and prevent unnecessary work comms.

The systems I have in place are really going to help me.

I already have a lot of automation in place, and I use a project management tool to help me plan out each project WITH dates. This will help me to keep August free, but it will also give me the visibility to see what I have planned in July and September, so I can keep a track of how busy I am and make sure that I’m not overloaded.

I have lots of templates for things within the business, which means I can easily bring in a team to support me. I’m already working with a copywriter and sporadically get support from a VA, but by next summer, this will be more consistent.

My copywriter will help me to plan and prepare my emails ahead of time so I know that I’m still being consistent with that, but they’ll then work with my VA to make sure I have content for my social media too. I won’t be posting as often because I won’t have as much time to respond (and I like to!) but I would still like to have a presence there.

I’m going to leave set my “Out of Office”.

I will respond to messages and emails, but working with a VA will allow me to avoid being distracted and keep me up to date with just the really important stuff. I’m also going to communicate this on my socials, through my emails and with my clients and prospects so that they’re aware well in advance.

My Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be set up so that my team are aware of what they need to be delivering and what they should be doing in advance, so there is less of a need for them to get in touch and they can confidently continue working without my input. This is really important if you want to do something like this and have a team working around you.

I now feel really positive that I can make this happen.

By making sure I have a plan and being OK with just seeing how things go, I feel really positive about achieving this goal for 2024.

I hope it’s been helpful to share how I plan on making such a big change, and hopefully, you start feeling as if you might be able to do something similar in your own business if you were to hit a roadblock or obstacle that challenged the direction that your business is heading in.

If you would like to ask me something more specific about my strategy, please do drop me a message, and if you have any tips or suggestions, I’d be really interested to hear from you too. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this goes and remember, if you want to change something within your business, YOU CAN!

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