Business Minded Mama | Strategies for Juggling Your Business Schedule with the Holidays | Ep. 42

“All I want for Christmas is” to manage my business through the holidays while still enjoying them with my family. Maybe that’s not what Mariah Carey wanted, but is it too much to ask for? It can be difficult to manage your business while still prioritizing the time to rest and make memories with family. In this episode, Stephanie provides three strategies to help manage the holidays and set your business up for success in the new year.

Key takeaways:

• Only focus on the necessities; yes, everything else can wait until the new year.
• Time block to optimize your limited focus, energy, and time.
• Ask for help; your family and friends want to see you succeed.

Resources:

Bookkeeping Basics Bootcamp

Ep. 41 How to Juggle Your Business and Motherhood

businessmindedmama.com

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What to listen for:

00:50    Bookkeeping Basics Bootcamp is LIVE

02:31    How can you balance your business and family during the holidays?

03:40    Strategy #1: Focus on the necessities  

06:00    Strategy #2: Time block

07:24    Strategy #3: Ask for help

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hey, business-minded mama. I’m so grateful that you are here and that you are ready to grow enough, authentic community and scale your impact. Hi, I’m Stephanie. Parenza the voice behind business-minded mama podcast, local and small business advocate and entrepreneur. I’ve created this community because I want to help business-minded mamas. Like you build your dream business by finding your authentic community and gaining control and clarity on the financial aspects of your business by managing your own books. Now let’s tap into your own potential.

Speaker 2 (00:43):

Hey there, and welcome to another podcast episode. Um, before we get started, I just want to remind you that the bookkeeping basics bootcamp is alive. You can now get access to all of the business basics, whether that be how to set up your business, what to do once your business is set up understanding on a very basic level, you know, the terminology and the financial reporting that comes with having a business and then really diving into QuickBooks. Self-employed where I give you a step-by-step guide on how to set up your QuickBooks and what you need to do each month in order to maintain your own books in the most simplest way. Okay. QuickBooks is going to do a lot of it for you. And so really all you’re going to be spending is 30 minutes a week, maximum on your business, bookkeeping by you doing it yourself and paying the approximately $7 per month for QuickBooks self-employed, you’re going to be saving yourself hundreds of dollars per month.

Speaker 2 (01:57):

That’s right. My minimum that I charged for my clients to do their bookkeeping is a few hundred dollars hundreds of dollars. So you can either choose to outsource that, or you can spend $7 a month, 30 minutes a week of your time to manage your own books. And I’m going to show you at a very simple, basic level, how to do that in the bookkeeping basics bootcamp. So head to the show notes, click the link to sign up today. Now for today’s episode, I’m going to piggy back off of Tuesday’s episode, where I talk about my struggle with juggling motherhood and business and the steps that I’m taking to make it better, to make it more manageable. And one of the things that I touched on is it is holiday time, and it is even crazier this month for many of us mamas out there.

Speaker 2 (02:55):

And so if you are a mother or honestly, if are just struggling, managing your business this month with all of the holiday festivities and planning that needs to be done, I’m going to come in and talk about three strategies for juggling your business schedule with the upcoming holidays. All right. Just three simple things. And like I said, I briefly touched on this on Tuesdays episodes. If you haven’t listened to that, go listen to that first. Then come back here and listen to the three things that I want you to do this month to get you through the holiday season while not completely letting go of your business. So let’s go. First thing I want you to do is only focus on the necessary items in your business. The things that have to be done by January 1st, let’s say, let’s get you through both holidays. This, this month only focus on the things that absolutely have a deadline at absolutely have to be done by January 1st.

Speaker 2 (04:07):

Okay. What does that mean? Don’t take on new things, unless it is an opportunity that is take it now or leave it and you absolutely have to. Okay. If it makes sense for your business, you need to do this project or take on that client. And this is your only opportunity then you really need to evaluate, is it worth it right now in this busy time? Or can you make the argument to them or the, um, proposal to them? Hey, can we wait until after the holiday season? Because guess what? I can only imagine that they are just as busy as you are. So sit down, look at your business, your business task, your business projects, your clients, whatever it may be, what absolutely needs to be done this month. And that’s it. Now I know that a lot of you as business owners have goals to meet, and those goals have timeframe is coming to an end on December 31st.

Speaker 2 (05:06):

And that may be your push and what is driving you crazy and what you feel like you need to do. So while considering that, I still want you to just step back and think, well, goals are good. And I believe in them, is it worth the stress, the overwhelm, the heartache to reach this goal by December 31st? Or will you be just as content, just as happy, just as successful if you just let it ride. Okay. So only focus on the things that absolutely have to be done then on January 2nd, after your holiday break and your time off, let’s get rolling on all the new and exciting things and all the new goals for 2021, all the new projects you want to take on. Let January 2nd be that day. Now with those necessary items, we’re going to go to number two. And in number two, I want you to time block and give 100% of your focus to your business during that time block.

Speaker 2 (06:14):

So whatever that looks like for you, whether that be every day, every other day, certain days of the week, I want you to actually plan ahead, take your calendar plan ahead, block off that time for your business. Turn your cell phone on airplane mode, turn off your notifications. Don’t look at your email, whatever you need to do. 100% focus on those necessary items during that time. Now this may also mean you need to communicate with your family, your spouse, whomever, to let them know that you may not disturb me during this time block, because I’m going to sit down and get all the work done. I think if you actually do this, you will be surprised to see that you actually accomplish more than you think you will. And you may have the ability. If you get all the necessary items done in a timely manner, take on something small or, um, something extra.

Speaker 2 (07:15):

If that is what you choose to do with your spare time. The third thing, and this is hard. This is hard for a lot of us because we want to control everything. We can do it all. I’m one of these people ask for help. Or if you already have help ask for extra help, explain to your family members or your friends or whomever you’re asking for help, that you have things you want to get done so that you can enjoy the time with your family, uninterrupted time with your family during Christmas and doing during new years while your children are out of school, or while you have this break, you want to get all of this stuff done as quickly as possible with your focus fully on those tasks. So you need extra help or you need help. I think you’ll be surprised that there are, um, family members and friends out there who are willing to help you because they want to see you have that time with your family.

Speaker 2 (08:19):

They want to see you be successful in your business. And there is nothing wrong for asking for help. I believe that if you can do these three things, you will have a less stressful, less overwhelming holiday season, and that you can fully then give yourself to your family. During this time, have all of those moments with them without the distraction of your business, you get all of this stuff done now because you’re giving it your focus and you’re planning for it. And you’re asking for help. And then when you go back to work on, I keep saying January 2nd, but that’s a Saturday. Most of us are probably going to be January 4th, which is a Monday. When you go back to work on January 4th, you will be ready to hit the ground running. Um, you will be completely fulfilled and rested because you are able to take time and dedicated to your family who were able to take the time to be off in a way from business. So your soul will be refreshed. Your mind will be refreshed and you will be ready to tackle 20, 21 head on. And that excites me personally so much. And I think it excites you too. So I will see you all next week, uh, for some more business-minded mama podcasts.

Speaker 1 (09:38):

Did you like what you heard on today’s podcast or do you know a business-minded mama that could benefit from hearing this, take a screenshot and share this with your community. And don’t forget to give me a review, want to chat more by me on Facebook and the business minded mama Facebook page or on Instagram at Mrs. And SIS or through my website, www dot business-minded moma.com.