Surviving The Summer Juggle

How to juggle your priorities as a business owner during the summer holidays.

When I launched my blog I promised that I would share some of the behind the scenes of running and growing your own business. It is all too easy to think everyone has it all together when you follow them on social media. We often make assumptions that could be completely false because naturally, people share the highlights and the best parts of their summers on socials. Whilst that is normal, one thing to note is that a little vulnerability actually goes a very long way when it comes to your business marketing. Genuinely showing up and being authentic with your followers is much more powerful than only showing the highlights, and most importantly it’s the key to building real connections with people that may eventually become clients.

There’s a whole other blog waiting to be written on that but for now, back to how I survived summer and continued to grow my business whilst keeping all of the various plates spinning.

With back to school and routine finally returning, I thought I would share a little about how the summer has been with an international move, moving to a completely new area of the UK with no local friends or childcare, a holiday and keeping all our clients happy.

Back to school and routine

Today is day 2 with both kids back at school and wow, it feels weird! Getting back into routine can be tricky but we are getting there. I was really craving routine towards the end of the summer. I love routine. One thing I don’t miss about term time is being the taxi service when all the sports and clubs are on! Despite being ready for routine, it did take a while to find my mojo yesterday. Then again my son starting at his new school was a big deal - it’s 3 times bigger than his old school and there was a lot to take in for all of us.

I actually feel this summer was a pretty special one. I had to be very present for my kids as they (and me) were going through a BIG change. Moving back to the UK needed to be successful so that we could get their buy-in into the fact that the decision to move was the right one. This summer, we also had an epic trip to Africa to celebrate my mum and her 70 years, along with seeing where she was born. Over the last two months, we’ve had multiple reunions, celebrations and also we’ve been house hunting. Fingers crossed we have now found the one! We really have maxed out this summer but I have no regrets.

So how did I survive and keep all the plates spinning? Here are my top tips for managing childcare, life admin and still growing your business amongst the juggle!

Support

Having a team both in work and at home is vital to survive as a small business owner in my opinion. It took me absolutely ages to get my head around relinquishing some control from my business and parting with some of my hard-earned money to get help. But after just a year, I can already say it has been game-changing for me and for the success of my business! I would have otherwise crashed and burned for sure.

I want to give a shout out to Monique, who has worked for me since the beginning of the year and now, I don’t know what I would do without her. She has different strengths to me and it has been so beneficial to have her support with my own weaknesses. Plus, she has been able to give extra support to ensure we hit all the deadlines and also when I didn’t have signal (yes shock, horror in Africa) she could manually post some things I couldn’t for some of our management clients.

So if you are struggling to keep everything turning over, I would definitely look to outsource what you can.

Camps

Before I lived in America, I had heard of summer camps but never fully appreciated the life line they can be as a working mum. Also, I didn’t know that camps didn’t involve going away - in fact, they can be local and really fun. My kids loved the camps we found in Chicago and it was paramount that I found something here in Altrincham now we’re back in the UK. Through a friend, we were saved by Josh and his team for odd days at Soccerwise. It’s a family run sports camp that my kids absolutely loved. We were sad we didn’t find it earlier. On the days that the kids went to Soccerwise, I tried to fit in as much work as possible and utilise my time as much as possible.

They had fun and I got work done so all in all, it was a win-win situation! We will definitely plan ahead for camps next year!

Systems

Like hiring support, investing in some systems has allowed me to save time and be more productive. One of the systems that I use for example is Xero for my accounting software. It makes it so easy to keep on top of my books and chase invoices etc. In the last year I have been working hard on finding the best systems, schedulers and templates to SAVE time and they have become invaluable when I’m not working normal hours. But also schedulers are game-changing when you are working in social media. Batch-creating content and a lot of forward planning meant I had more time to spend on other things. If you want to learn about how to batch-create your content, make sure you check out my blog on it.

My key learns from the summer

Your business can survive you taking your foot off the gas and will benefit from it. I actually didn’t take a laptop to Africa for the first time and it meant I came back properly refreshed. This slightly slower pace helped me learn more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses. Also, sometimes you just have to prioritise. The benefit to my family and settling in to the new area was of far greater importance and will now set me up successfully for back to school and beyond.

I hope you have had a great summer, that you got out of it what you wanted and you are enjoying being back fully without the juggle.