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How to Get Your Business Ready for Summer

How to Get Your Business Ready for Summer

by | Aug 4, 2025 | Business model

How to Get Your Business Ready for Summer

How to Get Your Business Ready for Summer (Without Burning Out or Dropping Balls)

With summer upon is, it’s time to get your business ready for what is likely to be a different pace. Let’s face it, summer has a habit of impacting what’s possible in our day to day working life and as such, it might be time to embrace a different rhythm.

Why Summer Deserves a Different Rhythm

There are several reasons you might operate on a different rhythm during the Summer months.

  • Kids on Summer break.
  • Summer holidays planned.
  • The desire to spend more time outdoors and less time on the computer.
  • More socialising because that’s what sunshine does to people!
  • Friends and family visiting (when you live in Spain, this is a big one!).
  • Less sign ups and clients during the summer months because they too are dealing with much of the above.

The impact all of this can have on our focus, our motivation and our bottom line is undeniable.

Yet so many of us head into Summer with all of the same expectations of ourselves and our businesses, only to be sorely disappointed when we inevitably get derailed by the Summer months.

What do you want and need from Summer?

I don’t know about you but I kinda want it all. Steady income AND lots of time and space to enjoy the sunshine with my family. But if push comes to shove, I know I’d rather take a hit to the bottom line, to allow me to enjoy the Summer with my boys.

How about you? What are your priorities for the coming Summer months? Will you be travelling? Have children home from school? Be out socialising more?

Take a moment now to really tune into what you want and need from Summer and give yourself full permission to define Summer on your own terms.

I’ve built a business model that brings in revenue all year round via group programs and 1:1 subscriptions but I know that often applications for 1:1 coaching drop in the Summer and some clients even put pause on our work until Autumn/Fall.

To some extent, I’m okay with this as it gives me the flexibility to finish my days early and hang with my boys and also to do things I can’t do when work is really busy. I have a couple of big launches coming up later in the year, so the spaces I see in July and August feel super helpful to me to prepare for those launches.

Having said that, I’m all about brainstorming some easeful ways to top up my income so that I can have a fun-filled Summer and not have to pay too dearly for it.

Anticipating and preparing for seasonal shifts

I’ve learnt over the years that certain shifts are to be expected when Summer hits and here is how I’m preparing for them.

1. People don’t want to make big commitments in the Summer

Given a lot of people are on holidays or wanting to spend less time in Zoom calls, it’s inevitable that I get less 1:1 coaching applications during the summer months and a lot of existing clients like to put pause on our work and restart later in the year.

That combined with my own holidays and I do typically see a drop in income in August particularly. This year, I’ve been brainstorming some summer friendly offers to offset the drop in income from my 1:1 coaching subscription with some offers that (hopefully) people will be more inclined to invest in.

2. I feel less inspired and have less time to create content

With a downtick in client sessions, I usually have less in the moment inspiration to guide my content creation during the Summer. Normally I write what feels present to me in the moment, based on what is coming up in client and group program calls. But for the next few months, I’ll take some time now to plan topics ahead of time so that I don’t have to think too much about it over the Summer.

I’ll also identify a few pieces of content that could be easily repurposed into newsletters should I not manage to get my content created each week.

And if I’m feeling really on top of things I might try and batch create a few pieces that can be scheduled for times when I can’t write, like when I’m on my 2-week holiday in August.

3. I have more space in my calendar than usual

Even though I typically work fewer hours in the Summer because I want to make the most of my time with my boys, even within the hours I do work, there’s typically more space in my calendar than during the Spring, Autumn, and Winter seasons.

Rather than waste this opportunity, I’m starting to plan now for the activities I want to work on, that I typically don’t have time to work on when I’m busier. Here are just some of the things I am considering/planning to do:

  • Working on my new website (I don’t have an official launch date yet but I do have a brand new brand and website in the works!)
  • Working on my message and web copy for the new website.
  • Working on implementing better SEO on the more than 200 articles I have written.
  • Working on growing my list with some new generous freebies.

I doubt I’ll have time to do all of these things but in being really intentional about planning my down-time, I am now really clear on what time I have left over for some of these business growth activities.

Managing expectations

With change afoot managing expectations is a must. Not just your expectations of yourself but your clients expectations.

Here’s what I do on that front:

In terms of my expectations, by doing the thinking now about what I want from Summer and what I can reasonably manage in the time available to me, I’m aware that certain things might not get done as quickly as usual or at all and I’m good with that.

In terms of clients, I’m always upfront with clients about when I’m on holiday and my boundaries around that. I’m a firm believer in working when I’m working and being off when I’m off so you won’t ever hear me say that I’ll try and answer emails while I’m away. Before holidays, I send a note to my clients to let them know I’ll be away and unresponsive to email and I put my autoresponder on.

As a business coach, I want to model what it looks like to run a spacious, sustainable business implementing strong boundaries and protecting your down time at all costs!

What’s on your list?

Now that I’ve shared with you how I am preparing for the Summer, I’d like to invite you to take some time to consider the following questions:

  1. What do you want and need from your Summer?
  2. What seasonal shifts do you anticipate in your business this Summer?
  3. Is there anything you need to do to better prepare for those shifts?
  4. Is there anything you want to do less of or more of during Summer?
  5. What can you prep or automate now to take the burden off later?
  6. What boundaries will you put in place with your clients?

I’d love to invite you to take just one simple action to prepare your business for Summer this week. Feel free to let me know what it is in the comments.

 

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The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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The Path to Mastery: Why Embarrassment Is the Entry Fee

The Path to Mastery: Why Embarrassment Is the Entry Fee

by | Jul 14, 2025 | Mindset, Uncategorized

The Path to Mastery: Why Embarrassment Is the Entry Fee

The Path to Mastery: Why Embarrassment Is the Entry Fee

I came across the following quote a few months ago and it stopped me in my tracks. It perfectly captures what the path to mastery really looks like:

“Embarrassment is the cost of entry. If you aren’t willing to look like a foolish beginner, you’ll never become a graceful master.”

~ Ed Latimore

I wholeheartedly agree with this and what I love so much about this quote is the link it makes between feeling like a foolish beginner and achieving a level of mastery. It got me thinking about what I have achieved over the last decade of running my own business and where I started the journey.

I still remember the excruciating fear of my first coaching session, my first group call, hitting publish on my first blog post and the first time I reached out to a stranger on the internet. Now I can tap back into the feelings of anxiety and self-doubt like it was yesterday.

I’ve been surprised numerous times over the years by just how terrifying being in business can feel at times but thankfully, I haven’t let it deter me from moving forward. I now find myself comfortably on the other side of many of those initial fears. Reading the quote above brought into sharp focus the link between facing those initial fears and the path to mastery at what we do.

The Myth of Mastery

Mastery is so often grossly misunderstood. More often than not, we look at someone who has achieved a level of mastery in a skill or profession and incorrectly assume that they’ve always been accomplished in this area. We assume they must possess some innate brilliance that we simply don’t.

That’s how I used to feel anyway.

And then someone told me what a gifted group facilitator they thought I was, which immediately transported me back to my very first group call. A Women’s Circle I decided to host, right at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. I was absolutely terrified, consumed with fear of failure and concerns over what the women on the call would think about me, but somehow, with a wobbly voice and shaking hands, I managed to pull it off.

I have no idea how I came across on that very first call — I’m certain my nerves showed — and I’m pretty sure that nobody would have referred to me as a gifted facilitator. More like a rabbit in the headlights.

Since that point I’ve hosted hundreds of live group calls. I’ve stumbled my way through tricky group dynamics, had more than a few difficult conversations with individual group members about their impact on the group and received a ton of feedback on my group facilitation skills that has helped me to improve and feel more confident. But it hasn’t been a straight line.

The Messy Middle

A while ago, I was feeling called to pull the plug on my yearlong group mastermind. I had stopped enjoying it and was feeling the call to do something else. So I sought out a coach to help me figure things out and as I talked about the group program, he said the following: “Sounds to me like you’re coming up against the edges of your leadership skills.” He went on to say that the problem wasn’t likely the program itself but my need to level up my skills at leading it.

It really hit home. I took what he had said to heart and I worked hard to improve my facilitation skills, not shying away when a situation required me to step up as the leader, no matter how uncomfortable I felt.

Since then my group program has only grown and I love it more than I ever have. Plus I feel confident about my skills and my ability to face any situation that might arise. Getting to this place with group facilitation has taken over a decade. It wasn’t something I was naturally gifted at nor particularly skilled at but it is something I’ve persevered with and managed to clock up hundreds of hours of practice at.

It would have been so easy for me not to push myself at working with groups. To let one bad experience derail my self-belief. The hard work has been pushing through that discomfort. I firmly believe that mastery is a relationship with discomfort, repetition, and showing up even when it’s messy.

What the Path to Mastery Looks Like

For me the journey to mastery goes through 4 stages:

1. The initial attempt. This is often the hardest thing to do. It’s the first time you’re trying something new. Perhaps it’s your first launch, your first video, your first group call. Whatever it is, it’s not something you’ve been able to practice and perfect so the vulnerability stakes are high. If we can get past our fear of looking foolish, this first milestone is huge.

2. Repeated practice. This is where we take that first attempt and we keep going. I’ve heard from so many business owners when discussing business strategies the following words: “I tried to do that and it didn’t work” which they present as justification for not trying again. Many of my first attempts at things have felt like failures (as a perfectionist that’s pretty much a given) but over time and with practice I’ve turned those initial “failures” into successes. You can only do that with repeated practice.

3. The messy middle. Sometimes when we’ve been practicing for a while, things come up that test our abilities, much like what happened with my group mastermind. I could feel comfortable and okay as long as I didn’t have to deal with anything too tricky. When things got challenging, the desire to bail got strong but leaning into my discomfort at these times is what has kept me on the path.

4. A level of mastery. This is where you’ve gone through the 3 stages and survived to tell the tale. People look at you and consider you gifted or skilled (and probably underestimating all the effort you’ve put in over the years). This is where the phrase “you make it look easy” comes into play. Not because it is easy but because you’ve done the work to make it look easy.

Every stage has its unique challenges. Your only goal, if mastery is what you are seeking, is to stay the course and keep showing up.

Why It’s Particularly Difficult for Business Owners

What makes the path to mastery so difficult for us is the fact that we are making the journey publicly. It’s not like learning to play the guitar, where you can go through the stages of mastery behind closed doors, in the comfort of your own bedroom.

For us, more often than not, the path to mastery requires us to face our fears and lean into vulnerability in front of an audience filled with prospective clients, peers and possibly mentors. And that is not easy.

It’s probably no secret by now that being an entrepreneur requires courage and determination. Not, as we often think, skills or confidence. They come later with time. The courage to take the first step and the determination to keep showing up? That’s what’s needed.

And now a question for you to contemplate:

Where are you holding back in business because you’re afraid of looking foolish?

And once you’ve identified that,

What first step would you be willing to take in the next week or two?

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to skip being a beginner. But rather than see that as a flaw, what if we viewed it as a rite of passage on the journey to mastery?

And when you are worried what people might think, remember most people are too busy worrying about not looking foolish themselves to really pay any attention to what you are doing.

If this post has inspired you to make a first step, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

 

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

4 Conversations That Generate Clients, Trust and Clarity

4 Conversations That Generate Clients, Trust and Clarity

by | Jul 7, 2025 | Connection

4 Conversations That Lead to More Trust, Clarity, and Clients

4 Client-Generating Conversations That Build Trust and Grow Your Business

Most business owners I know (and I know a lot) over-focus on 1:Many marketing strategies instead of leveraging 1:1 conversations that generate clients, clarity, and trust.

I think this is a huge mistake.

 

These days, with the proliferation of content on social media, reaching people organically and meaningfully through posts has become something of an impossible task.

It makes sense that business owners who prioritise building relationships and having meaningful conversations are much more likely to be getting new clients and business growth opportunities than those shouting into the void on social. Yet still, so few people make it a priority.

Years ago, when I first created my life coaching business and hired my first business coach, he used to say to me: “No client is created outside of a conversation.” And so my weekly homework from our sessions was to have more conversations. As a result, my business grew faster than every other woman on my Life Coaching training program. So much so that several of them hired me to help them grow their coaching businesses.

And it makes sense. If you are a coach or other type of service-based business owner who works with clients 1:1 over a number of months or even years, you don’t get clients from a “Buy Now” button on your website. You sign clients up in a conversation.

But it’s not just sales conversations. There are so many more conversations you could be having that could support your business growth. Here are the four most important conversations I think it’s essential to be having on the regular:

1. Research Conversations

What they are: These are 60-minute conversations with people who fit your ideal client profile. Spend 30 minutes asking research questions that dig into what they’re struggling with and what kind of support they need. Then spend 30 minutes coaching them on those very struggles.

Why they matter:

  • They give you valuable information that helps refine your message, offers, and positioning.
  • You hear the exact language your ideal clients use to describe their challenges and desires.
  • These conversations also make people aware of your focus and any new products you’re developing, without it feeling like you’re marketing.
  • You get to build and deepen relationships with the very people you’re trying to serve.

How to approach them: To ensure you’re speaking with people who might be a good fit for your offers, your invitations to these calls need to be clear and specific.

Come to the research part of the call with curiosity, not an agenda. Prepare questions in advance to gather the most useful insights. Aim for open-ended questions about their challenges, desires, and needs. Keep it under 30 minutes (I find 10 questions or fewer works well) so you have a solid 30 minutes to coach and support them.

This is your chance to shine, provide real value, and demonstrate your expertise. I’ve had clients sign new clients after a single good research call. For more on how to conduct audience research, check out this blog.

2. Gift Sessions

What they are: These are 60-minute, no-strings-attached sessions where you offer people who fit your ideal client profile the opportunity to experience your expertise and receive your support.

Why they matter:

  • Like research calls, gift sessions give you insights into what your right-fit people want and need.
  • They allow you to demonstrate your skills and show what’s possible when working with you.
  • They build trust and provide value to people in your network who may already be close to hiring you.
  • They often lead to clients, referrals, testimonials, or deeper interest, even if the person doesn’t become a client immediately.

How to approach them: Intention is everything. Show up to serve, not to sell. I recommend offering gift sessions selectively through targeted campaigns (similar to research calls).

Make a strong and specific invitation that explains clearly what the call is (and isn’t), and who it’s for. End the session powerfully by setting homework or a next step, and invite the person to circle back to you — so you’re not left wondering how or when to follow up.

3. Connection Conversations

What they are: Casual, human-to-human chats with no agenda beyond genuine connection, or where applicable, an opportunity to explore mutual support and collaboration.

I usually schedule 45 minutes and call these Virtual Coffee Dates. I use them to connect with peers, colleagues, past clients, or engaged audience members (although I’m more likely to offer those last two groups gift sessions).

Why they matter:

  • They help build your network in a genuine and sustainable way.
  • A meaningful conversation is more impactful than a LinkedIn note or business card swap.
  • They can lead to referrals, collaborations, and unexpected opportunities.
  • They help keep my business relational, not transactional — especially helpful as an introvert.

How to approach them: Keep it light, low-pressure, and expectation-free. Going in with a fixed outcome can shift the energy and make the conversation feel off. Lead with curiosity and openness.

I like to enter with something I might offer the other person — a client referral, an interview invite, or other support. This keeps me in service and out of self-serving agenda territory (which can be a relationship killer).

When I stay rooted in generosity, the conversations flow and relationships form. I’m still amazed at what can come from a simple coffee chat.

4. Sales Conversations

What they are: These are direct, honest conversations about potentially working together. Invitation-based and rooted in integrity. I call them Working Together Calls so there’s no ambiguity.

I schedule a full hour for these and start by letting the person know that I’ll be coaching during the call. It’s the best way I know to assess fit.

Why they matter:

  • They help someone make an aligned decision about what’s best for them.
  • These calls are an opportunity to assess energy and compatibility.
  • I share my best business strategies and gauge the response.
  • They help potential clients experience what it’s like to work with me before making a decision.

How to approach them: I make coaching by application only. I never pitch. Instead, I invite people to apply. Once the application is submitted, I offer the call.

During the call, I stay rooted in service and ask myself: If this is the only time I ever get to help this person, what would I share? That mindset keeps me grounded and focused.

I never pressure people to decide on the call or try to “overcome objections.” A core part of my ideal client profile is that they’re a hell yes. If I need to convince someone, it’s not a fit. I usually suggest they sleep on it and tell me when they’ll follow up.

Which Conversation Will You Try?

There you have it: four types of conversations that can grow your business faster than social media ever could. Which are you already doing? Which one do you feel inspired to try?

Leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

Stop Copying Other Business Owners

Stop Copying Other Business Owners

by | Sep 13, 2023 | Business model

“Whatever you do, be different — that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.”
~ Anita Roddick

As a business coach and more importantly, as a business owner, I’m pretty obsessed with the importance of having a sustainable business model.

I started out as a brand new coach over a decade ago and between then and now I’ve pretty much made all of the business model mistakes a business owner can make.

Copying other people’s models without knowing the full picture, undercharging and overgiving, overcharging and under delivering and many more besides.

From it all, the greatest lesson I’ve learned regarding business model is the importance of sustainability.

A business that not only sustains you financially but that fulfils you personally. A business that gives you energy, rather than drains you of it.

A business that you actually enjoy showing up for, week after week, month after month, year after year.

So what makes a sustainable business model?

Most newer business owners, trying to figure out how to make money, will jump straight to looking at what combination of products and services they will offer, asking themselves “what can I sell in order to start bringing money into my business?”

And with this question comes a tendency to look around at what others in our field (particularly those who are more successful) are offering and try to copy it even when what they are copying might be totally unsuitable for the individual business owner.

My alternative to this is to take time to consider the following elements in order to create a business model or offering that is unique to you.

What stage of business are you at?

If you are brand new in business, the types of offerings you want to be considering will be significantly different to those for a more established business owner. My recommendation to people early on their business journey is to focus on a simple but impactful 1:1 service (like my subscription model).

When you have a small audience, it’s far easier to get 1 person to sign up for coaching with you, than it is to get 5–10 people into a group program, even if the latter is cheaper for the customer. I’ve seen many newer business owners get burned by trying to do group offerings too soon.

Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule so the important thing is that you consider your unique situation rather than follow blanket advice.

What would you enjoy to create and deliver?

When you seek to create a new offering, rather than copy what “seems” to be working for others in your field, it’s crucial that you take into account your own gifts and strengths, preferences and tendencies. Are you a gifted speaker, for example, who thrives when teaching a room full of people? Or do you come alive when working 1:1 and going deep with individuals? Are you introverted or extroverted? Does lots of contact with people drain you or sustain you? These and so much more are really important things to consider as you design your next product or service.

What your audience wants (and needs) and would be prepared to pay for?

As business owners we often assume we know best when it comes to what our clients “need” but this isn’t necessarily what they want or what they are willing to pay for. What is key here is doing some research with your people before you create something. Most business owners do little audience research before creating and launching a new offering and the effects of this are few if any sales.

What your audience would be able to bear in terms of marketing?

This comes into play when we consider the product or service we want to create and sell. With a small audience, getting a new 1:1 client a month may still be pretty achievable. A small or stagnant audience, won’t however bear a big group launch 2 or 3 times a year. Here you want to be taking into account not only your audience size but it’s rate of growth. How many new people are getting to know you each month?

What marketing the business owner can bear or afford to do?

This is the one that tripped me up in the early days of my business. I got all excited when I came across a business membership for female entrepreneurs. The founder had hundreds (if not thousands) of members all paying less than £40 a month and I thought it was genius.

I figured I could make a membership for ethical and conscious business owners and I wouldn’t need half the members they had and could even charge less. To begin it was great — I had nearly 20 members sign up from my tiny list but pretty soon I was completely burned out from creating content and trying to retain the members I had (most of whom had paid a super low beta rate). Plus I didn’t have the energy or the desire to do the marketing required to enrol new people. A year later I had to close it down as it wasn’t financially sustainable.

All products and services require different levels and types of marketing to be successful. Make sure you take this into consideration before copying someone else’s business model. If they’ve been in business a while, they may have a whole team and advertising budget to support them (like the business I was seeking to emulate!).

The problem with copying

When you are early on in the business journey, it can take a lot of courage to ditch conventional advice and forge your own path.

I remember myself when decided I wanted to move away from the classic 3 and 6 month coaching package and instead offer a coaching subscription, I was actually terrified, it took me a year and lots of testing behind the scenes with existing clients before I changed my business model and made my coaching subscription the only way people could work with me 1:1. My business took off from there.

Creating something unique

It can be hard to create a unique business model or offering when we see nearly everyone doing the same thing. So I wanted to share some examples of unique (and successful) offerings that demonstrate how it can be done.

My subscription model for 1:1 coaching. When I realised that my clients weren’t able to achieve results in an arbitrary 12 week timeframe, I ditched the traditional 3 month coaching package in favour of a lower priced ongoing subscription and the results have been amazing both for my business (more clients + more income) and for my clients. Because of the lower price point, they’re able to stay with me longer and therefore get better results.

My favourite ethical copywriter Lauren Van Mullem realised that she didn’t only want to do full service copywriting for people and wanted to find something less intensive for her and more affordable for her clients so she created Loom Reviews. Lauren also ditched convention with her freebie. Rather than a “5 ways to make your copy stand out” PDF, she created Craft and Copy hour. A way for her to make time for her love of crafts, a chance to meet Lauren, do some crafting with her and ask her any copy related ideas you have. Talk about unique!

Tad Hargrave found he didn’t want to spend so much time in front of a computer, he wanted a less
cluttered home but resented tidying AND that some of his people couldn’t afford his full 1:1 coaching rate of $300 an hour so he created puttering sessions — a unique solution to all of the above. Lower priced coaching sessions, because Tad will be puttering around his home tidying up while he talks to you! Genius.

All of the above, hopefully demonstrate what’s possible when you create something that is truly unique to you!

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY

 

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

Balance Work Life

Balance Work Life

by | Aug 31, 2022 | Business Growth, Sustainability

“Life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. I am learning to live between effort and surrender.”
~ Danielle Orner

 

In this blog, I share with you my thoughts on work/life balance and a few practical strategies to better manage your business when life seemingly gets in the way.

Let me begin by sharing something I heard many years ago from Danielle Laporte.

Balance is a myth.

I remember being struck by those words and whilst I don’t remember everything she said on the topic I remember feeling the truth of those 4 words deep in my bones.

The idea here is that we don’t get to a place where work and life are perfectly balanced, without one taking up more space than the other. Instead the balance tips in favour of one or the other at different points in time. Allow me to explain. If you are sick or need to take care of a sick loved one, then for sure life is going to take priority. It has to.

If all is well on the personal front and we’re in the middle of a big launch in our business, then the scales are going to tip on the side of business for a while. That’s inevitable.

The liberating key here is to acknowledge that. To understand that the balance we often strive for is a myth. That then frees us up to figure out how to better manage things when the scales are tipped one way vs the other. I.e. how do we not drop all the balls on our business when life is feeling full on? And how do we not lose ourselves in our work when business is full on?

I can’t claim to have all the answers here, but for what they are worth, here are my thoughts for how to stay connected with your work when life is fighting for your attention.

Manage your expectations

Whilst on a call with a fellow business owner whose Dad has been seriously ill and who is herself recovering from a second bout of Covid, she shared that she hadn’t been feeling the ability to create content lately, which has never happened before and was asking how she might get her inspiration back. When I reminded her how much she is dealing with on a personal level and how normal it is therefore that she isn’t feeling creative, she broke down in tears.

I see some version of this all the time.

We don’t acknowledge what is going on for us and then on top of everything we might already be dealing with on a personal level, we have unreasonable expectations of ourselves to keep on keeping on. When we can truly acknowledge that our capacity for work may be limited, we’re better able to do the bare minimum than when we try to carry on at full capacity, which just adds more weight to an already unbearably heavy load.

On this same call, I was asked what I wanted to commit to for the next two weeks and without missing a beat I said: maintaining my business until our house renovation is complete. That means nothing extra, no big launches, no working on new things, no bold moves, or big steps. As boring and as safe as it might sound, my only job for the next month is to stick to my content schedule and serve my existing clients.

Even though that is more than enough, there still was a voice that whispered but you should be doing more.

It’s so important to be aware of that voice and to gently and respectively ignore her.

Plan ahead

This one is a work in progress for me but making the most of the extra time I have in my business when things are quiet on the personal front is key to feeling less stressed when life gets busy or challenging.

That means that when I know I’ll be taking time off for a planned holiday, I can, for example, work a bit harder in advance to prepare content to be scheduled in my absence.

Much like it was in my old corporate life when I knew I had to take leave, there would also be a little bit of intensity ahead of the break, getting things set up for when I wouldn’t be there or handing stuff over to colleagues.

This doesn’t necessarily help when unexpected things happen like sudden sickness, but if you can endeavour to get ahead of yourself in for example your content creation, then you’ll have some leeway to work with when you suddenly find yourself busy with personal things. The trick is to be more productive when the space is there to do it so that you can step back when you need to, without dropping your business essentials.

Get help

Even though most of us work solo in our business that doesn’t mean we can’t recruit others to help take up the slack when we need to take a step back. There are several things you can do to find cover for while you are away that doesn’t require too much work up front for you.

You might, for example, invite a colleague to do a content takeover for your newsletter. This is something I’ve done for my dear colleague Eli Trier in the past. When she was busy getting married, she invited two or three of her most trusted colleagues to come in and write a newsletter on a topic relevant to her audience that she could schedule to go out while she was busy with her wedding. It was great for us as we got the opportunity to be exposed to a new group of people and could share links to our business and therefore get new followers and it was great for Eli, who had three weeks of quality newsletters she didn’t have to write or pre-prepare.

You can even do this with services. Years ago when I was on maternity leave with my first son, I was running a women’s circle with weekly calls. I invited 3 of my dearest colleagues to host calls in my absence and it was great, my women really appreciated that the calls continued while I was away bonding with my baby and my colleagues loved the opportunity to host a group call and share their skills.

And inside my mastermind program, I had a week off and had to miss one of the group calls, instead of cancelling it, I invited one of the amazing women inside the program to test out her new workshop on her fellow mastermind participants, meaning that the women benefited from her wisdom and she was able to get some validation and feedback on her new workshop. So it was a win win, with no extra work from me.

Give yourself grace

Always important but specifically relevant for those times when planning and calling in help just isn’t viable, it’s important to give yourself some grace when navigating difficult personal issues like illness, death of a loved one, birth of a child, children home from school, moving house (or house renovations!!) and all other big life events that inevitably mean our work has to take a back seat.

We would never be hard on a friend or valued colleague during times like these and would find it super easy to show empathy, understanding and love to someone else in this situation. Why then is it so hard for us to extend this kindness to ourselves?

Next time you find yourself in a situation where you’re dealing with some big personal life issues and catch yourself being hard on yourself about work, remember to show yourself some compassion. All being hard on ourselves does is make things even harder. In my experience, the more you’re able to lean into self-compassion, the sooner you’ll be ready to get back to doing what you can.

And there you have it, three things you can do to survive in business when your personal life is a struggle. Is there anything you’d add to this list? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

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