Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Episode Transcript

I'm SO excited to introduce The Business Journey Podcast!! I always said I'd never start a podcast, yet here we are! I'm so honored to have you along for this adventure. I hope that these tips help you as your grow your business! Now to the nitty gritty stuff…. Let’s be honest, time management is hard! From the time I started my photography business to July 2020, my business was a side-hustle. I had a full time job outside of photography! I was balancing work-life, mom-life, AND my side business as a family photographer. 

Balancing Home and Work Life

Sometimes balancing that can be hard and one of the biggest lessons that I learned that impacted my business greatly was from Ashlyn Carter of Ashlyn Writes. She preaches to work from a place of rest and not hustle. Hear that. Work from a place from rest and not hustle. She says that hustle isn’t a badge of honor. Which, it’s not. You work super hard all hours of the night, sometimes that’s what you have to do to get it done but hustle isn't a badge of honor. I always ask the question, “How can I take control of my work instead of letting my work control me?” I’m going to share a few tips that I use so that I can work from a place of rest so I don’t feel overwhelmed with mom life and work life hustle. I can balance it all and serve my clients well and be present for my kids and for my family. So just wanted to give you a few really practical things that you can do to help with  balancing home and work life.

Set Office Hours

I set office hours and I try to keep them. For some of you, office hours might be after the kids go to bed and that’s okay. I encourage you to set time aside that you are planning to spend just on business stuff. Stick to those times and try not to go outside of them. I also turn off notifications and put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” when I'm working so I don't get easily distracted and into something else. And remember, every season of life will look different. There's no right or wrong answer here. When I did have a full-time job outside of photography, my work hours looked different and that’s okay. Whatever season of life you’re in, be flexible and be okay with that season.

Automate Whatever You Can

If a machine can do it, LET IT. There are lots of things that you can automate. There are lots of systems that allow you to automate things that are fairly inexpensive. Creating canned emails and workflows will save you SO much time. PS – did you know I have templates for that in my shop?! Seriously, if there's an email that you could potentially send to another client, make it an email template that way you don't have to re-do it later. Let these systems work for YOU.

Outsource

Don't tune me out right away when i say outsource because i know that can be scary but it doesn't have to be. There's this thought that outsourcing has to be super expensive and that’s not true. You can factor those things into your cost of doing business and price yourself in such a way that your outsourcing gets paid for. I try to spend my time doing things that only I can do. If you’ve never done this before, I encourage you to make a list of different tasks that you do in your business and put a star next to things that only you can do that you can't pass off to someone else

Hopefully this is helpful for you and these things give you a few really practical steps that you can take to get your business and life balanced. You don't want to spend all your time on your business but you also need to balance that you don't need to spend all your time (and hear my heart here, because I know this sounds bad) on family time because your business is a part of who you are.

Topics We Discussed

“If you're the kind of mom who feels guilty for working instead of being with your kids…” (2:40)

Set Office Hours (4:30)

Batching your work (5:24)

Do Not Disturb! (6:10)

“You have to be flexible.” (8:05)

Automate anything you can! (11:25)

Outsource (14:40)

“Lets take editing for example…” (16:33)

Outsourcing Your Social Media (18:25)

Links mentioned in the episode:

+ 5 Must-Have Apps Freebie Download

+ Dubsado (20% off)

+ HoneyBook (50% off)