Preparing for Summer as a Mom Boss!
Having a business and/or working from home can be a challenge for many Moms.
For over 15 years I have loved the ability to work around my family, work from home, have flexible hours and truly design my life, my schedule and be family centered while creating success from home.
While there are so many benefits, it does not mean it is easy or that flexibility is care free, there were many times I had to struggle with the juggle, and have had to miss important things with my family in order to be successful and grow as a leader and create a thriving business.
As a Mom Boss, I have had 15 summers of planning for work, 15 summers of planning for family life, 15 summers of making memories, making business grow, and some how, making it all work, from babies to now teens. I have made mistakes, I have been held captive in my home office, I have had incredibly successful summers in business, and ones which were not so successful. I have also experienced the joy of figuring out how to work smarter and more focused—and also coaching many women and moms how to do the same. The summer months are a different animal, schedules are completely different, business can be really good but you really need to make that your intention and go after it and hustle for it. Summer months can also be a great time for you and your family, to go on vacation, build memories and truly live in the moment with those you love—this is sacred time. Over the years I have figured out how, and have also helped many Moms implement strategies to have a successful summer in business and at home as a Mom.
Here are 5 HIPP TIPPS to prepare for your summer as a Mom Boss:
1. Establish Office/Work Hours
This is so important to your success this summer. Establish hours of when you will work, and make sure you have coverage or child care for your children during these pockets of time. Also schedule in time for you, for exercise, meditation, reading non fiction content that inspires you.
2. Lazer Focus & Power Hours
Work smarter not harder! Make sure the activity you do actually is income producing to your business and not busy work or administrative work (save that for either early morning or late night outside of your prime time work hours).
3. Increase Your Activity
My most successful summers in business have been when I have turned up the heat on my business, filling my calendar with more activity, and taking advantage of these awesome months to grow my business especially when others are not. Also removing busy work, I will catch up with that in the Fall. It is a mindset.
4. Create A Summer Top 10 List
This has been really important to making sure we don’t miss out on the important things that we want to do as a family in the summer (or the very least, things I would do with the kids). Sometimes it is a bigger adventure and other things on the list might be “picnic at the park”. It is awesome to create with your kids, hang in the kitchen and check things off as you do them. This guarantees fun family time & summer adventures and also helps to keep you family centered this season.
5. Daily Summer Fun!
Each day I would be sure that I was available to do something fun with the kids. It could be a few hours on the beach, it could be a trip to the park, it could be going for ice cream, or just blowing bubbles in the back yard when they were little. This is the time you shut off your phone and be present with your kids.
My Mentor Rita would tell me that we only have 18 Summers with our kids. I can’t believe the little girl in my tribe will turn 18 next month. It does go by in the blink of an eye so don’t miss out on being there, being present, and also know that you can build your business, you just need to get really good at planning, and working with extreme focus and tenacity (busy work does not work well to achieve all of these things).
I have a saying, and it is “operators are not standing by”. Meaning, put boundaries in place with your business or job, don’t always be available by phone, and responsive to every request, call and person that reaches out to you. Unless you are a brain surgeon (which you are not), it can wait. Be present, let texts come in, calls go to voice mail, and be present in the moment with your littles. You can follow up in the evening or perhaps when they watch a show before dinner time. Your office hours are your time to dedicate to work, and your family time is your time to be present with the kids, and I have done both (meaning present and interrupted, and the being present truly brings so much joy to you and your kids).
When you feel stressed or overwhelmed, which more than likely you will at times this summer, try and remember how fortunate you are to have the ability to work from home, plan your day, your schedule and be able to be there for the memory builders, even just the ordinary day, which to many of us, is the true memory that we hold on to.
XO