Donna Hann
So at the time that this podcast goes live, that will be around three weeks until the school holidays start depending on what state you live in, in Australia. And if you're tuning in from a different continent, I'm sure that Christmas holidays are probably around the next four weeks. So this seemed like a really great time to share with you what I do in the lead up to school holidays. And when I know I'm going to be managing both business and full time parenting for an extended period of time.
Donna Hann
Hello, I'm Donna Hann, a business coach, and an online course creator. And this is the shiz in business podcast. You can think of me as your business bestie, who's a few steps ahead of where you are right now. As a monk fueled with ambition and determination, I've created and sold three businesses. I've learned the lessons made mistakes, and I understand the daily juggle in the hustle. I also know what it's like when relationships fray and burnout taps you on the shoulder. That was my world until I reshaped and transformed the way I ran my six figure business. Today I help women to transform their businesses and go from being the overwhelmed entrepreneur to becoming the thriving entrepreneur feeling energized, empowered and fulfilled within their business lifestyle. I want to inspire your business journey and help you to stop spinning your wheels, because I want you to burn bright instead of burning out. And I'll invite other entrepreneurs to share their real life stories too, because I want you to know that you're not alone. You can be the savvy entrepreneur that you were born to be, and enjoy the freedom to do the things and be present with the people that mean the most to you. So if you're ready to rise to the next level, and build a business by design, this is the shoes in business podcast for moms who are made for more.
Donna Hann
Welcome to another episode of the shaping business podcast. Thank you for tuning in again. Today I'm talking about preparing your business for the school holidays. So in my family unit, it's a fairly traditional kind of setup, in that my husband works full time, he works long hours as well, which is just the nature of his job. So when he's off work, of course, our parenting role is very even. But when he is working, I run the household and the kids are my full responsibility. Now both my kids are school aged, and I choose to run my business during school hours. So when the school when the kids are on school holidays, my business hours 100% clash with my responsibilities of parenting. Now, of course, my kids are the most important. And so I changed the way that I ran my business during the school holidays, so I can be present with my kids. But I do want to say upfront that I don't always get it right. You know, sometimes things can come up, and I have to drop what I'm doing with the kids to attend to the business. And that's just the way things go sometimes. But what I do is I make a big effort to prepare my business for the school holidays as much as I can. So that during the school holidays, I'm really just doing the bare minimum. Or I have the choice to work a little bit here and a little bit there. But I don't have major things hanging over my head like deadlines and in person events and things like that.
Donna Hann
So I'm going to be sharing with you the things that I do, because I figured it might be helpful to you. So the first thing I want to share with you is managing your diary. And I did talk about this in Episode 65, which was titled 2023 Are we there yet? And this is about being really specific about what you will say yes to, especially when it comes to business activities. So things like meetings with clients and suppliers and networking events, those kinds of things. Now, I don't know about you, everybody does things differently, of course, but very, very rarely will I take my kids with me to anything business related. And that's mainly because my boys are super busy. They will not sit still far from Placid. And from time to time. You know, I've had to do that. And for me, it hasn't worked out. From the time that they learned to crawl. It became really tough for me to include them in those kinds of things that are business related. Because, you know, I know that for myself. And you may have heard me say this before as well, in that I work best when I can be 100% in work mode, or 100%, in my mode, and mixing the two is just not ideal for me. You know, I was hoping that as my kids would get older, it would get easier. But even with a seven year old and a 10 year old, they can still sometimes be a handful, you know? And why would they want to go and hang out at a business related thing, right? So unless I can get a babysitter or unless they have a playdate at a friend's place or something like that, I don't take my kids along to business related activities. Because I don't enjoy the feeling of trying to be in two places at once be in business mode and mum mode. At the same time. It's just not fun for me. But that's just me, right. And obviously, you need to do what's right for you, that might work for you. But by nature, kids are pretty unpredictable. You know, that's partly why we love them so much, right? So I prefer to limit my business activities, where I'm required to be somewhere representing my business during the school holidays, because that's just what works best for our family.
Donna Hann
So if you're service based, maybe you can service more of your clients needs between now and the start of the holidays. So that in January, December, you are not seeing so many clients face to face. And of course, maybe there are some elements that you need to keep going, right. So for example, within my business, I have my group coaching sessions, and I have my private coaching clients. And they are locked into my calendar for the school holidays, because I'm committed to holding space for my coaching clients and showing up. For me, it's all done via like online zoom, which makes it super easy. But you know, I wouldn't be holding face to face group training sessions during the school holidays, because I know that that just doesn't work for us. So that's my number one tip is manage your diary for what works for you. My second tip is to front load your work. So this is about looking ahead to the business activities that you do day to day. What can you do in advance so that over the school holidays, you're working minimum hours? Can you shedule your social media in advance? Can you shedule your email newsletters? Can you pre record and schedule your podcasts in advance? That's exactly what I do. And if you run Facebook groups, you can schedule posts in advance there to keep your group engaged without you having to in the moment, remember to shedule things within your Facebook groups. If you manage Facebook groups, you can get all your accounts up to date, right? So thinking about what are your payable invoices, what receivables do you need to keep on top of what In other words, what invoices are coming in to you can you prepare those invoices in advance so that you can either schedule them to be sent out at a particular time, or at least have them sitting there so that when the time rolls around for you to actually invoice a client, all you need to do is quickly send the email. If you make handmade goods, can you prepare as much as you can in advance to build up your stock. And another idea that you can do is create a pre order system. So a little bit of a wave of perhaps like a marketing campaign, where you invite your customers to pre order so that you can fill those orders before the Christmas rush happens. And if you plan on launching something straight after the school holiday, so once school goes back, can you prepare as much as possible for that now, so that you're not working on the prep during the school holidays. So an example is that I'm going to be opening the doors to the next intake of the ready to rise program in February when school goes back. But I'm working on some stuff now. So that I don't feel the pressure during the summer school holidays, to be getting on top of all of that sort of stuff. My you know that area of my business is already in motion, I can pop it on hold during the school holidays, and one school goes back I can go straight into that launch mode of getting new people inviting new people into the ready to rise program. Now the third thing is setting up automations. So one of the ways you can do this is to set an out of office response to your emails. It's very, very easy to do. If you're unsure of how to do that within the specific email program that you use. Just Google it. Everything is there in the amazing world of Google.
Donna Hann
Can you set up some automations for an online ordering system with your clients online payments with all Automated receipts that generate for you without you having to go to the effort of individually creating payment receipts for your clients when they order online. And if you don't already have a direct debit system, then I would definitely make sure that you look into setting up something like that as well. When I come back from the break, I'm going to give you a few more tips that are going to help you to set up your business for the school holidays. As a mum and business owner myself, making time to create fresh, new festive social media content ahead of the Christmas rush is so time consuming. So I have a little gift for you that will save you loads of time, so that you can spend that time making Happy Christmas memories with your loved ones. My gift to you this year to thank you for being a listener to this podcast is 25 Christmas care for templates that you can download for free and personalize to your social media content for December to get my gift to you go to Donna hann.com forward slash silly season.
Donna Hann
Alright, so let's have a recap. So to prepare your business for the school holidays, what do we need to do, we need to manage our diary. We need to front load your work as much as possible before the school holidays start. And we need to set up as many automations as possible. The fourth thing that I recommend that you do is that you hold strong to your boundaries. So what this means is if you work out that you need to plan to work one to two hours a day on your business, then do that, right? If it's one to two hours a day every day, do that. Set your hours specifically for what you need to do. Now for me, I like to wake up early, smash out what I need to do for work in a couple of hours. And then the rest of the day. I'm wearing my mom hat. But you might be like Well, one to two hours a day Dons, that's not really going to be enough for me to get done what I need to get done, I would rather work in larger blocks of time, and that's fine. So you might be like, well, I'm going to work four hours a day, every third day. So my idea here is that you figure out what you need to do. And then you block that into your diary, then you hold strong to your boundaries. This means if you've decided to work one or two hours a day, and you find yourself still sitting in front of your computer, or still, you know, making whatever it is that you do within your business, or you know, tending to, I don't know the background of all of the things that we do as a business owner. And after two hours, you're still sitting there doing it, and it's now becoming three hours, and then it's edging into four hours, you'd only plan to do one to two, you have to hold yourself strong to those boundaries. You are the person who sets the boundaries, and you are the person who keeps them.
Donna Hann
The next step, oh, my next tip, I guess I would refrain that to be your next tip is to create a daily task list. So there may be specific things that you need to get done on specific days. Here's a few examples of the way that I do this in my business. So on a Monday and a Thursday, I make sure that if I haven't already done it, I check my Facebook group. And I grant access to any new members who have requested to join. I do this every Monday and every Thursday, because it's not something that I want to set up as an automation, I want to make sure that the people who are joining the group are the right type of people for that group. Right. The other thing that I do on a Thursday inside that Facebook group is I go live, I present on something that is business related or mindset related, you know, it could be some business tips and strategies, it could be something that has just popped up for me during that week that I feel is important to share. And so I can't do that in advance, right, I have to make sure that's part of my daily task list. And I create that daily task list because it helps me to feel organized, and it makes sure that I don't miss anything important. So if you have those types of things that you need to make sure that you get done on specific days, I recommend creating a daily task list, print it out, put it somewhere that you see and make sure you just stick to it, right. And if you're not part of my Facebook group, and you want to be then make sure you join the link to join my Facebook group is in the show notes. And I'd love to have you there, especially on Thursdays when I do my live session in there as well. The other thing that you might like to include on your daily tasks list is housework tasks. Don't you love housework tasks. But the thing is, it needs to get done. Now I usually have a cleaner, but during the school holidays, I kind of don't like I tend to just put them on pause because, you know, it just seems like a bit of a waste. Because within minutes of them leaving the house is back to what it was. But stuff needs to get done. Right. So on a Monday, I try and do my floors. on a Tuesday, I do a quick whip over the bathrooms. Wednesday it's tending to the bedrooms, you get the idea, right? Yes, my work is undone within minutes of the kids coming through. That's just the way it goes on school holidays. But at least I know that each area has been cleaned throughout the week, right. So that's just what I do. It just helps me as I said, to feel more organized, and to feel kind of, you know, just get that inner knowing that things get done.
Donna Hann
My sixth tip for you for preparing your business for the school holidays. And my last tip for today is to cut yourself some slack. So there is an expectation that we need to work like we don't have kids and parent like we don't work. And that's not realistic. So cut yourself some slack, create some time to relax and rejuvenate. Enjoy some time off. Now when I was writing my notes for this podcast, I started with writing down like brain dumping some of my tips for survival during the school holidays. And I wrote on there, stock up on wine, you know, and I do enjoy a wine. For me that's an important part of you know, just chilling out. It's not something that I use as a crutch but it's definitely something that I like to do I enjoy it. And whilst I'm not suggesting that you overindulge. Make sure you do whatever it is that feels good for you to kick back, relax, put your feet up and if that means with a glass of wine if that's what you feel like doing, then do Do it. You know, December is a great time of the year for you to close your business, and actually take time off because lots of other businesses do. So why not you to just add January is also a really great time to take it easy. So it's important, it's really important that we don't work ourselves into the ground, and that we don't work every day of the year. So important that you can take a break guilt free from your business, because rejuvenating your mind your body, rejuvenating those important relationships, you know, Christmas is a great time to do that, because there's so many opportunities to go out and socialize. And maybe see friends that you haven't seen for a while to really fill up that social self care, which is a really big part of, of self care within the ready to rise program actually talk about five different areas of self care that are important to maintain. And this time of the year going into January. And December is a great time to pay attention to those areas for for self care. So those are my six core areas that I think are really important for preparing your business and yourself for the school holiday.
Donna Hann
So managing your diary, front loading your work, setting up as many automations as you can, holding strong to your boundaries, and cutting yourself some slack. So if you have school aged kids, and you're heading into the school holidays, and it suddenly feels like oh my god, it's so close. These are the things that you can start to do now ahead of time, to help you to reduce that sense of overwhelm as we head into that, so I hope that it's been really helpful for you today. As always, please send me a DM if any of this has landed for you. Or if there's a topic that you'd like me to speak about on the podcast. We are preparing for the next season of the shoes in business podcast for 2023. And I am all here for all the ideas that you might have. I'm also here for all the feedback too. So if you do send me a DM, make sure that you give me your business name as well and your Insta handle so I can give your business a shout out to him. Thank you for sending me through your feedback and your ideas. Okay, have the best day and I will see you on the next episode of the She's in Business podcast. Bye
Donna Hann
Thank you for listening to this episode of the shoes in business podcast. If you enjoyed it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook and I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a review on iTunes. Be sure to include your business name and Insta handle so I can give you a shout out to if you want to know more about what I do the programs that I offer, then head over to www dot Donna hann.com and follow me on Instagram at Donna underscore Hann underscore s IB. I hope this podcast inspires you to be courageous and take action in carving out your very own business by design where you can avoid burnout and shine like the universe is yours.
