Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Life... the Other Side of Business

Sorry about my delay in blogging! Life is ..just..well.. Life!

 However, that is exactly what I wanted to blog about today, what do you do when life happens? 

In the past couple of months so many changes have taken place in my world, it is enough to make any one need to take a breather. Nothing negative exactly, just a whole lot! But, during all of this I have had deadlines to meet, product to deliver, new customers added and new ideas to market (and yes, I still work full time and have a family). There where quite a few times when I thought how much easier it would be to just put a note up some where, " Be Right Back" and hide under my desk! But this is business we are talking! And deadlines are not going to meet themselves. So what do you do?

You do a lot of re-prioritizing and get serious with yourself about what you are and are not capable of doing. I know that when you are first starting out in just about any business, when something comes your way you feel like you just have to do it or you are just doomed to fail! But in being fair to yourself and to your client it is sometimes better to say no than to over extend yourself and run the risk of losing a client.

With the work that you are able to do, separate it into priorities. Items that are due the soonest get done first, biggest projects get tackled in sections, perhaps you do not have a set client that you are working for? In that case it is very important to have personal goal time lines. I set a date to have holiday cards finished, or samples that I would like to have done for potential custom orders. I feel like it is very important to have a eye out for the bigger picture at all times. You never know when that next big thing may drop in your lap!

I personally would not have been able to make it through the last couple of weeks with out self goals and personal lists of "to do's". But I also would not have been able to make it through with out scheduled "down-time". That part of the day when you remind yourself that you are only one person (or in some cases a very small business) and give yourself time to relax. This will help with the burn out feeling (which does happen from time to time) and give you time to regain some focus. 

Just remember why you got into business, set realistic goals and work to surpass them. I hope these little tidbits help you. I would love to hear feedback on what you do when life happens! 

Happy Crafting!