The School Holidays

School holidays are a nightmare for most working parents.  How do you juggle the kids who have up to 12 weeks a year at home on school holidays and most working parents only get 4 weeks holiday a year?  Clearly the way our working lives are structured  is not conducive to stress free parenting.  Spare a thought also, for the Virtual Assistant, or any self employed small business owner.

Taking time off is not really an option and what happens in reality is most end up doing two jobs at once, parent and business owner.  My own stress levels usually sky rocket over this period as the “clear  headspace” for thinking during the day just never happens and I feel pulled in all directions.

However, I have found some coping mechanisms which may help others in the same position.

Early morning walks

I wouldn’t call myself a natural ‘morning person” but early starts are a way of life when you are a mother and I have got used to getting up early in the morning.  I like to walk and I usually head out at 5.00am for an hour or 45 minutes, before I need to make school lunches or get the kids up.  The walk is my clear thinking time and I can mentally run through my day and what I need to achieve.  I have also found it a stress buster and I arrive at my desk with a clearer head and better able to cope with a demanding day.

Early starts or Late nights

During the holidays if I can get an hour or two of work in before the rest of the household is awake, I have more family time with my children and I’m not constantly checking my email during the day. Obviously this works just as well at the other end of the clock.  If you are a night owl you may be able to squeeze in some productive hours once the household is in bed.

School Holiday programs – The cheaper the better!

Most school holiday programs are heinously expensive and if you utilise them for more than a couple of days,most of your income is going to be  lost on paying for it.  However, there are some lower cost alternatives that will give you 2-3 hours of productive kid-free time to work on your business. 

My local Gymnastics club runs a fabulous program with a variety of activities lasting 2-3 hours over the school holidays.  The RSPCA also runs some great low cost programs.  It’s inexpensive and my children enjoy it.  Most importantly I get those vital few business hours to get through my workload.

Sharing the load

If you are lucky enough to know another mum in the same boat, often you can “share” the minding, by one of you taking both your own children and someone elses for the day and then the next day swapping.  It means cramming your productivity into just a couple of days a week but may be just enough to get the important work done.  You can even do half days if full days are too daunting.

Telling your clients

If you are struggling to meet deadlines and have limited availability over this period, don’t forget to let your clients know.  If they have children themselves they may well be in the same boat and will be able to empathise.  Let them know if they need to call during certain hours or time periods.  Ask them if you can contact them after hours if you need to (however, be considerate here and let them know this is a temporary situation).

Try to stay sane.  Tell yourself the situation is temporary.  Mark the days off the calendar.  They do go back to school eventually.

www.theexceptionalassistant.com.au

The Big Fish

In the beginning of my own Virtual assistant business many of the first jobs I was hired for were relatively small and not what you would call big money earners.  Then, I landed the BIG FISH client.

My Big Fish Client was great to work for.  I liked them a lot and they were very happy with the work I was doing.   Their bank balance was growing and as they hired me for more and more work, so was mine.  This was it.  Here was the income I’d been waiting for. Life was good!  Then, ……they left...

What!  NO!

It was nothing I’d done.  Their business had simply reached the tipping point where they were ready to hire permanent staff.   I’d been a reliable (and essential) stepping stone to their continued success.  A role the Virtual Assistant is uniquely placed to fill for growing businesses.   I’ve exaggerated a little bit here.  My Big Fish didn’t leave me completely.  I still do project and overflow work for their company but the day to day, income generating workload I had come to rely on was gone.

This was a very important lesson in the development of my VA Business.  I realised very quickly that I had become too reliant on a single stream of income and what was missing in my client folio was diversity.  I’d also put much of my networking and lead generating activities on hold.  I already had a BIG FISH.  What I hadn’t planned for was the departure of my BIG FISH.  There should have been a number of BIG FISH and a number of LITTLE FISH to balance out my folio and I should have been positioning myself for the next one.

Obviously,  I did recover from this downturn.  It was a good lesson to learn and now I try not to let my marketing slip when things are cruising along. Enjoy the success of the big fish but realize change is inevitable and you want to minimize the impact should your big fish swim away.

www.theexceptionalassistant.com.au