Make Your List ... and Check It Twice!

This time of year usually brings a sense of chaos, overwhelm, stress, and excitement all bundled into one confusing ball of emotion. And that’s typically just on the family side of things! Add in all the extras relating to your business and you’ll quickly find yourself on the brink of burnout.

There’s a reason why we start planning for our end-of-year tasks in September; this way, we aren’t scrambling trying to find time to get everything done. We’re actually able to unwind and relax a bit over the holidays. At least, that’s the plan. And here’s how we’re gearing up to prepare:

Schedule which day(s) you’re taking off over the holidays. No, we aren’t kidding. Look at a calendar and slot in your holiday plans. Next, decide if you’re feeling the need to hit that reset button completely, or just a little bit. Usually, those few days between Christmas and New Year’s are quiet and are a great time to block out your calendar.
Communicate your planned days off with your clients. Whether it’s all of them, a few, or just one or two, that’s up to you. We are closing our calendars to all but one over that last week, solely based on our working relationship and routines. We will scale back that week but I’m opting to still to the basics day-to-day. It also drastically helps me and my sanity to keep a bit of a routine. If I were to take an entire week completely off, well, lots of reorganizing around the house would happen (and that’s not always a good thing!).
Be firm about being unavailable. It’s so common to say that you’re unavailable, and then slyly add “… but if you really need me, I can be reached”. No. You’ve more than earned some days off so please be true to your own boundaries!
Once you’ve decided on your holiday schedule, plan your tasks to get done a few days beforehand. We say this because, well, rarely does everything go to plan and things will “always come up”. This will leave some wiggle room and allow for those extras, without encroaching on your time off.
Have a brainstorming session with yourself about all the things for your business that need be done by the end of the year. Do you send holiday cards or gifts to clients, contractors, or suppliers? When is your year-end and is there anything you can start doing now to prepare for it? Do you have your social media and/or newsletters planned for the first half of January? Have you filed all of your receipts for the month / year and tracked your mileage? (If you’ve been keeping on top of your Upkeep tasks, this should already be done!)
Automate + pre-schedule as much as possible for the first half of January. If you’re new to entrepreneurship, prepare yourself for the flurry that comes with the New Year! Everyone is coming back refreshed and ready to conquer the world, so things will get hectic! We strongly suggest you take care of the first couple of weeks before the holidays, and if you’re able to, automate as much of January as you possibly can!
If you’re planning on revising any products and/or services, and their pricing, make sure to finalize it asap! You’ll want to communicate to your customers that changes are coming and that time is running out on getting the existing offerings at their current price.
Lastly, if you’re a business owner with kids, factor in that they will likely get sick at some point over the next month, which might throw a wrench or four into your plans. There’s not much we can do about it, aside from taking advantage of the days when they can stay at school all day. With that, make a list of all the back-end tasks you need to get done, as these can generally get done even with a kiddo or two at home (as there’s no potential disruption like when you’re trying to Zoom with a client and your child starts throwing up in the background… we might be speaking from experience!). But having that list already made will prevent the wasted time of searching for what needs to be done.

We’re always excited about wrapping up another year with Avustaa, and this year is extra special as we turned FIVE – and clearly forgot about it since we’ve just been powering through #AllTheThings and dealing with #AllTheColds. Honestly, though, how many colds can one kid get before you secure them in a bubble suit?! Asking for a friend…

Thank you, though, for following along with us on this whirlwind of a journey called entrepreneurship. We are elated that you’re here and that hopefully, this blog has been helping you in some way ♥