Today I am getting a little vulnerable. I am going to be pulling back the curtain on my life to show you how I juggle my wedding business amongst the chaos of every day life! I share my insider tips about how I manage my time, and how I set boundaries.
Let me know what you think of today's episode - I would love it if you could leave a review or get in touch via Instagram - I love to hear from you.
Owning your own wedding business and being
Becca:self-employed is a massive juggle.
Becca:There's so much to do and it feels like so little time to get it all done.
Becca:Last week I was speaking an event and someone asked me how I achieved
Becca:so much in my business and did I have loads of childcare help because
Becca:that must be the way that I do it.
Becca:What I told her next blew her mind, so I thought I'm gonna share that
Becca:with everyone on the podcast too.
Becca:Spoiler alert, I don't have a lot of childcare.
Becca:I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
Becca:and you are listening to The Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast.
Becca:I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
Becca:examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
Becca:If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
Becca:and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
Becca:love, then you're in the right place.
Becca:Let's get going with today's episode.
Becca:When it comes to our wedding businesses, there's one thing that's universally true
Becca:for all of us, and that's that we all have the same amount of time in a week.
Becca:It's 168 hours to be precise.
Becca:What's more important though, is how we use the time that we've got.
Becca:So often I have conversations with you where you say to me, I can't achieve
Becca:what I want to in my business right now because I've got young kids, because I'm
Becca:looking after my elderly parents because I've got grandchildren three days a week
Becca:because I've got massive health concerns, which are taking up loads of my time.
Becca:Or because I'm juggling another full-time job alongside my business, which is just
Becca:a side hustle, and I totally get it.
Becca:I have lived my life as one big juggle for the last six.
Becca:So today I want to share my story with you.
Becca:I wanna show you what it really looks like in my life and how I practically implement
Becca:things and ideas into my business.
Becca:To help me make the most of my time, I'm gonna share with you some
Becca:ideas that you can implement into your life and your business too.
Becca:I also wanna share with you how my.
Becca:Actually looks versus Instagram.
Becca:I always fall into this trap.
Becca:I think everyone understands that Instagram isn't reality, but yet so
Becca:often we look at what's happening on Instagram and make assumptions about
Becca:how people are living their lives.
Becca:So I'm gonna peel back the curtain today on the podcast and show you how
Becca:chaotic and crazy my life really is and how I've practically implement
Becca:things into my business to help get that Instagram look that you maybe see.
Becca:You may have heard of Parkinson's law.
Becca:It's the theory that says that a task takes however long we have to do it.
Becca:So if we've got a long time to do a task, we just make that task last longer.
Becca:And if we only have a short time to do a task and we've got a
Becca:tight deadline, then guess what?
Becca:That task takes us less time.
Becca:Now, we could go into the ins and outs of why that is, and you can go away
Becca:and read up about Parkinson's law.
Becca:However, I think really each and every one of us know this to be.
Becca:When we've got loads of time, we waste loads of time.
Becca:And whether we have a week to do something, a month to do something or
Becca:a year to do something, I guarantee most of us leave it until the deadline.
Becca:That is what Parkinson's law is, and that is why if we understand that we can really
Becca:work out how we can be way more productive with our time and get more done in the
Becca:short amount of time we have when it comes to being more effective, one of the.
Becca:People suggest is giving yourself less time to do tasks.
Becca:So if you are sitting listening to this podcast, or perhaps because you're busy
Becca:like me, you're doing it while in the car, on the way, somewhere else or on
Becca:a run and you're multitasking, then if you are someone that doesn't have
Becca:a lot of time because you're juggling.
Becca:All of these other commitments, Stop seeing that as a negative.
Becca:Stop seeing that as a frustration and realize that could actually be
Becca:your superpower because you are gonna be so much more effective with the
Becca:small amount of time you've got.
Becca:I'm gonna give you an example in my life about how this.
Becca:Absolutely plays out.
Becca:So a couple of episodes ago I mentioned to you one of the things I implemented
Becca:into my business more recently, which has been a massive help to me, is a cleaner.
Becca:It helps me so much because it saves me so much time.
Becca:She's amazing.
Becca:She does a great job, and she comes once a week.
Becca:Now before she comes each week, I have one hour between dropping
Becca:my children off at school and her arriving, and in that hour without
Becca:fail, I run round and tidy my house.
Becca:I achieve more in that hour when it comes to tidying than I do with
Becca:all of the other hours in my week.
Becca:Now I know if I just had to tidy the house each week, it would take me forever.
Becca:In fact, it'd probably take me a whole day.
Becca:But because I know I only have that short window of time and there's
Becca:a massive deadline on it because she's turning up at the exact right
Becca:time, then I am really effective.
Becca:I can blitz and tidy my house in that hour so it looks pristine, and then
Becca:she can come in and do the rest, it's an example of how I use that time more
Becca:effectively because I have a short.
Becca:And that will be the same for you when it comes to all of
Becca:the tasks in your business.
Becca:The less time you have to do them, the more effective you will be at
Becca:getting them done, without wasting time and without being distracted.
Becca:So how does my life look versus Instagram?
Becca:Now, if you look at my Instagram page, you might think that I spend
Becca:my days sitting on my bed on my computer putting in strategy and
Becca:going to glamorous events and parties.
Becca:In fact, one of my friends asked me the other day, if I
Becca:get paid to party for a living.
Becca:Now I understand that that is what I'm putting out online because that is.
Becca:Marketing, right?
Becca:Marketing is selling the dream.
Becca:Now, I'm not trying to sell the fact that I've got this amazing life, not at all,
Becca:because I am doing all of those things.
Becca:However, there's a whole lot of other things that I'm doing on a daily basis
Becca:that you don't see because, well, no one wants to see me running around on
Becca:the school run or running my children back and forward to gymnastics.
Becca:It's nothing to do with my business.
Becca:I wanna keep my personal life separate.
Becca:And quite honestly, it's not that interesting.
Becca:But that is the reality of my life.
Becca:And so if you look at my Instagram, like the person did at the event, I
Becca:met the other week, and just think that's all I do, then you will make
Becca:assumptions about me that I have all this childcare and I have all this help,
Becca:and that maybe my husband's at home all of the time doing all the house
Becca:stuff so that I can run my business.
Becca:And I wanna tell you, that's absolutely not true.
Becca:So how does my life really look?
Becca:Well, for a start, I have very little help with childcare.
Becca:In fact, out of all my friends with children of the same age,
Becca:I have probably have the least amount of help with childcare.
Becca:We don't have a lot of childcare at all.
Becca:In fact, 95% of our childcare is either myself or.
Becca:Or my husband now, we have young children.
Becca:They are six and nine, and they do now go to school full-time, which
Becca:has freed up a lot of time, and I'll talk about that preschool phase for
Becca:anyone that's in that right now, a little bit later in the episode, but
Becca:right now they're in school all day, but we don't have any childcare help.
Becca:So we are doing everything ourselves 95% of the time.
Becca:In that extra 5%, I may pay a babysitter for an evening so that we can go out
Becca:together, or one of my friends might walk the children to school and I'll
Becca:do the same for them the week after.
Becca:So it kind of works in kind.
Becca:But most of what I do, I do it myself.
Becca:So I take my children to school every morning.
Becca:I pick them up every afternoon.
Becca:So I only have between the hours of nine o'clock and three o'clock on a
Becca:daily basis to get my work done once I pick the children up from school.
Becca:My life is just completely chaotic.
Becca:We're going from gymnastics to dancing, to singing lessons,
Becca:to piano lessons and swimming lessons and everything in between.
Becca:I'm then coming home, making them dinner, sorting their bags out for
Becca:the next day, doing the schoolwork, and then getting them into bed.
Becca:I.
Becca:I then have some time in the evening to do some work.
Becca:However, I don't have, every evening I'm currently practicing for a
Becca:Performance of Sister Act with a local drama group, and that is happening
Becca:twice a week, so two evenings a week.
Becca:At the moment, I am out and I'm doing that for my own fun.
Becca:And leisure, so that takes away a couple of evenings.
Becca:I also try not to work for my business on the weekend evenings so that I
Becca:can spend some time with my husband.
Becca:So really there's only one or maybe two evenings now that I can work in the week
Becca:and where possible, because the kids are in school, I try not to work any
Becca:evenings at all, or only once or twice.
Becca:A month, so don't be fooled.
Becca:I don't have unlimited time to run my business.
Becca:I really do have between nine o'clock and three o'clock to get things
Becca:done and the occasional evening.
Becca:I also have little to no childcare when it comes to school holidays.
Becca:So for me, I have six weeks in the summer where I basically have them at home
Becca:all of the time and I have to juggle.
Becca:This summer, I had them for the whole six weeks.
Becca:We went away, we did things, we had fun.
Becca:I had no childcare.
Becca:The only childcare I had was for a couple of days when my parents took
Becca:them away for a few days and we actually went away ourselves, me and my
Becca:partner, and had some times to ourself and one week where I booked them.
Becca:Dance camp that they wanted to go to for a few hours a day, and so I did
Becca:get some time back in my business.
Becca:Most of the school holidays though, I just know that I've got them at home.
Becca:So that's what my life looks like.
Becca:It is one chaotic juggle with small children at home.
Becca:We are going here, there and everywhere.
Becca:School runs, picking them up.
Becca:If a child comes home sick, they're at home with me.
Becca:If it's school holidays, they're at home with me and I just make
Becca:my business work around it.
Becca:Now, like I said, if you look at my Instagram, you might think that that is
Becca:not how I live my life, but I want you to know this is the truth, and I'm being very
Becca:open and honest with you here because I want you to understand that all of us have
Becca:this chaos going on in the background.
Becca:Even if it's not children that you've got, Perhaps you've got other
Becca:things going on with your health.
Becca:Maybe you've got another job that you're trying to do alongside setting up your.
Becca:And so you need to look at the time you do have available and look at
Becca:how we can use that more effectively.
Becca:And that's what I wanna talk about.
Becca:Now.
Becca:I'm gonna share with you some of the things that I've implemented
Becca:in my life over the last six years to help me run my business, whilst
Becca:also having this constant juggle of children going on in the background.
Becca:So the first thing is that I set the boundaries and the
Becca:boundaries shift with me over time.
Becca:I'm gonna say that again.
Becca:I set the boundaries in my business and the boundaries shift with
Becca:me over time because my life circumstances are always shifting.
Becca:So when I gave up my job, In radio and went self-employed.
Becca:One of the primary reasons was so that I could be more flexible.
Becca:In fact, that's why most of us start a business.
Becca:But it's very easy early on to get sucked into ending up working more
Becca:on your business than you did in your office job and being tied to
Becca:doing certain things and feeling like you're working all of the time Now.
Becca:, I understand starting a business and running a business is hard work and
Becca:you have to put the hours in because I've done it myself and I still do.
Becca:But you do have some flexibility and you can set the boundaries
Becca:in your own business.
Becca:So for example, when I first started my business, I actually was
Becca:pregnant, uh, with my second child.
Becca:And so I then had a newborn baby when I first started, what I do now.
Becca:And so I set some really strict boundaries in my business for a start.
Becca:Business wasn't as big as it is now, and I did that on purpose
Becca:because I knew I didn't have loads of time in my week to grow it.
Becca:So I had it at the level that was sustainable for me in that period of life.
Becca:I also chose to run all of my events in evenings because I knew
Becca:that's when I could get childcare.
Becca:My husband had a normal nine to five job and he was home most evening.
Becca:So I could have my networking events and any training and things like
Becca:that that I did always happened in the evening or um, on the weekend.
Becca:So that's what I did to start with, and I said it around that now.
Becca:People were asking me all the time, Can I do some events in the daytime?
Becca:Can I do some training in the daytime?
Becca:But I had to say no.
Becca:I knew my own boundaries and I knew at that point I wasn't able to do that.
Becca:So I just said it around me.
Becca:Now you might be thinking, Yeah, Becca, but I'm working weddings,
Becca:so I have to work all the weekends.
Becca:I have to work the peak times.
Becca:I totally understand what you're saying, but equally,
Becca:you don't have to do anything.
Becca:It's your business.
Becca:You can run your business however you want to.
Becca:Yes, it might be different to how other people are doing it, but if you choose
Becca:to only do five weddings a year at a premium rate because that's all you
Becca:have time for, then great, go for it.
Becca:You don't have to do what everyone else is doing if you decide to become the person
Becca:who is the specialist of weekday weddings, so that could be your marketing message.
Becca:I only work weekday weddings.
Becca:I don't do weddings at weekends, but if you are getting married in the
Becca:week, you'll get great value from me.
Becca:I specialize in weekday weddings.
Becca:Let's chat.
Becca:Okay?
Becca:You can do whatever you want.
Becca:We don't have to do what everyone else is doing.
Becca:You just need to find something that works for you within your boundaries and within
Becca:your family life, and that's gonna be different for each and every one of us.
Becca:Now, as I said, this then evolved with time.
Becca:So now I don't have such small children and my children are in school, and so
Becca:now our boundaries have shifted again.
Becca:Whereas I used to do things around naps and around when my husband was at home.
Becca:Now I've shifted my business to be much more during the day,
Becca:so I do less evening events.
Becca:I do more things during the day, more of my training sessions.
Becca:Take place during the day, and that shift has happened because my life has shifted.
Becca:I haven't particularly told people that's why it's happened.
Becca:You may only be learning this by listening to this podcast, but
Becca:over time, I've shifted things so that it works in line with me.
Becca:So when it comes to your business, think about the boundaries you have.
Becca:Think about the size of the business you can manage right now
Becca:with the time that you've got.
Becca:And set yourself some boundaries and stick to them.
Becca:They can shift and they can change over.
Becca:Everything in life is a season.
Becca:I really believe that If it's a difficult season, sometimes we can do
Becca:less, but then other seasons will open up and we'll have time to do more.
Becca:And you might be right in the middle of a really difficult season right now.
Becca:You might have really young children, You might have a really
Becca:sick relative or family member.
Becca:You may be going something.
Becca:Really difficult personally, and that's okay.
Becca:And I wanna say to yourself, just be kind to yourself and look at
Becca:what you can actually manage, but also don't use it as an excuse.
Becca:If you can't manage as much, that's fine.
Becca:Be kind to yourself and set those boundaries.
Becca:There will be a season when you have more time and you can grow
Becca:back into your business again.
Becca:Okay.
Becca:The second tip I have for you is that where possible,
Becca:in my business, I automate.
Becca:I automate as much as I possibly can because I'm short of time.
Becca:Automation is not as scary as it sounds, and there are little
Becca:things you can automate in your business to save yourself time.
Becca:So things like setting up a scheduler or setting up a calendar so that people
Becca:can just come in and book an appointment straight away, rather than having to go
Becca:backwards and forwards A lot of times.
Becca:Email, setting up payment pages on your website using something like QuickBooks,
Becca:where it's really quick and easy to send your invoices automatically sending
Becca:people emails when they buy from you.
Becca:Having templates saved so when people ask for something, you've got it to hand.
Becca:Having really simple.
Becca:Email folders and systems where all of your contracts and things
Becca:are held, so it's quick and easy for people to find what they need.
Becca:I automate and simplify as much as I possibly can.
Becca:Now, not everything can be automated, but a lot of things can be.
Becca:So look at the tasks that you're doing all of the time and save
Becca:yourself those extra minutes by looking at how you can automate.
Becca:If you automate something once, yes, it takes you time to get it set up,
Becca:but then you can use it time and time and time again without having
Becca:to put the effort and the hours in.
Becca:And when you're short of time like I am, then all of the automation
Becca:is really, really helpful.
Becca:Okay.
Becca:The third thing that I use in my business is that I'm only
Becca:available when I'm available.
Becca:And I'm okay with that.
Becca:So many conversations I have with people are around when they're gonna fit in their
Becca:client meetings because they're so busy and it's because they're letting their
Becca:customers decide when they want to meet.
Becca:However, in my business, I don't let people make the decisions.
Becca:I make the decisions for you.
Becca:Now again, I just talked about automation and calendars.
Becca:So if you wanna book in with me to do a podcast recording or to have
Becca:a discovery call or a one-to-one.
Becca:I have a calendar set up, but that calendar availability
Becca:is all built around my life.
Becca:So you can't meet with me at eight 30 in the morning because
Becca:I'm taking my children to school.
Becca:You can't meet with me at four o'clock on a Wednesday because I'll probably
Becca:be at my daughter's singing lesson.
Becca:So you can.
Becca:Only book times when I'm available, so I will put into my calendar times between
Becca:nine o'clock and three o'clock, and then I will put in the occasional evening
Becca:slot when I know I'm available for people that struggle to meet during the day.
Becca:But I set the times that are working for me.
Becca:Now people don't look at my calendar and think, Wow, she's
Becca:really stingy with her times.
Becca:She can only meet me between nine and three.
Becca:She must be doing something else.
Becca:She's really unprofessional.
Becca:Okay.
Becca:That's not true.
Becca:People don't look at it like that.
Becca:People look at a diary and they just pick the time that's most convenient to them
Becca:from the times that I have given them.
Becca:And this is the same for you and your business.
Becca:Don't ask people when they wanna meet you and then have to run around
Becca:juggling everything to make it work.
Becca:Tell them when you are available.
Becca:Look at your own life.
Becca:Work out when you have spaces in your diary and either set up a calendar
Becca:or send them the times that you have.
Becca:When we ring up to book a dentist appointment, they don't say
Becca:on the other end of the phone.
Becca:Great.
Becca:When are you free?
Becca:Do you wanna come?
Becca:And I say, Yeah, nine o'clock on Friday night.
Becca:That's not how it works.
Becca:We don't expect that.
Becca:We ask what availability they have, and then we choose the
Becca:appointment that works best for us.
Becca:It's exactly the same in business.
Becca:So make sure you are telling people when you're available and you're
Becca:only available when you're available.
Becca:Okay.
Becca:The next thing that I do in my household is try as much as possible
Becca:to plan things ahead of time.
Becca:We need to make sure my business and my husband's work and the children's
Becca:schedule all fits together well.
Becca:And when we don't communicate that well, that's when it all starts to fall apart.
Becca:So we try and sit down together, either at the beginning of the
Becca:month or a beginning of a week.
Becca:As much as possible and talk through as a couple what we've got coming
Becca:up and how we're gonna manage it, how we're gonna make these things
Becca:work, and who's gonna be doing what.
Becca:Sometimes we have to write it all down on a piece of paper to make sure it all fits.
Becca:So for example, if I'm going away to speak at a conference, perhaps
Becca:we need to sit down and work out.
Becca:Whether my husband can leave work early to pick the children up and what days he
Becca:could work the extra hours to make it up.
Becca:It's practical, simple stuff, but by talking and working together,
Becca:we can solve problems much easier.
Becca:If you think ahead and plan ahead and look at what's coming up rather than
Becca:just working in the moment, it will make your life so much better Now.
Becca:That really is how my life works.
Becca:It is a massive juggle.
Becca:The children have to be in all sorts of different places at all sorts of
Becca:different times in all sorts of the right uniforms and shoes, and make sure
Becca:they've got the right equipment with them.
Becca:And so we just write it all down on a piece of paper.
Becca:So that we remember what we're doing, because otherwise it will all fall apart.
Becca:So between us, between me and my partner, we get them to all the places
Becca:they should be with the right things.
Becca:Not because we are superhuman, but because we write it down and we
Becca:plan it out, and we talk about it.
Becca:I know it sounds simple, but maybe that's something you need
Becca:to start doing at the beginning of a week or beginning of a month.
Becca:Sit down with the other people in your house and just talk about how you're
Becca:gonna make this work between you.
Becca:Who's gonna be cooking the dinner that night?
Becca:How are you gonna make it?
Becca:Is there someone else in the household that can help you in certain areas
Becca:to free up some time for you?
Becca:Okay.
Becca:My next tip for you is that I am transparent about my situation as
Becca:much as I possibly can be because that helps me and helps my clients and
Becca:people understand what I'm all about.
Becca:Now, let me explain.
Becca:What I mean by that is I don't pretend to be something I'm not.
Becca:Now, obviously this hasn't worked for me as well as I thought it was because
Becca:people still think that I must have all this super help behind the scenes,
Becca:which I absolutely don't, and that's one of the reasons I'm doing this episode
Becca:for full transparency to show you that it is possible to run a business and
Becca:have an absolutely crazy, chaotic life.
Becca:In the background, but I think it's helpful for me to be transparent
Becca:and open with the people that I'm working with and not try and
Becca:pretend to be something I'm not.
Becca:Often, when we are running a business, we try and allude some kind of super
Becca:humanness to our clients, to our couples, to the people that we are working
Becca:with, as if we've got it all together.
Becca:And I understand why we wanna do that because we wanna come across
Becca:professional and that's really important.
Becca:But sometimes it's actually more relatable for people.
Becca:When we are honest with them, we don't need to hide the
Becca:fact that we've got children.
Becca:We don't need to hide the fact that we've got another job.
Becca:We don't need to hide all these, these things.
Becca:Yes, we might not wanna shout about them, but we can also be honest and transparent.
Becca:When we start telling lies or covering things up, we start to
Becca:get ourselves in a big pickle.
Becca:If, for example, I'm recording a podcast with someone and they say to
Becca:me right at the beginning of the call, just to let you know I've got a baby
Becca:in the next room, or I've got a dog next door that might start barking.
Becca:Please let me know if you hear anything, and I'll go and sort it out.
Becca:I would much prefer that for them than them to be pretending that everything
Becca:in their house is silent and then looking really shifty and trying to
Becca:work out what to do when something goes.
Becca:Be upfront and be honest.
Becca:Now, I had a situation, just today where I decided transparency
Becca:was absolutely the best answer.
Becca:I had this nightmare scenario whereby I had a video call with my members at
Becca:10 o'clock in the morning for an hour, and it was an interview with a guest,
Becca:uh, coming in and talking to them.
Becca:About branding.
Becca:Now, during that time, I also knew I had a plumber that was gonna be
Becca:turning up and I didn't exactly know what time they were going to be coming.
Becca:Now, I could have pretended that that wasn't happening and hoped that I could
Becca:remain professional, and hopefully no one would notice that that was going on.
Becca:But I knew that my stress levels would be absolutely raised and my life
Becca:is a little bit chaotic sometimes.
Becca:So I decided transparency was the answer and.
Becca:I just owned it.
Becca:I said at the beginning of the call just to let everyone know, unfortunately,
Becca:I've got a plumber coming to my house.
Becca:I don't know when they're coming.
Becca:They're gonna come as part of this call.
Becca:So if I suddenly have to disappear and leave you with the guest for a
Becca:moment without me, that's where I am.
Becca:And that definitely was the right thing to do.
Becca:What happened was I went on, I went live, the guest came in, I handed over to him,
Becca:and then the plumber knocked on the door.
Becca:So the timing was perfect, but then I came back and just explained to
Becca:everyone, yeah, the plumber's here now, so I might have to disappear
Becca:again, but I am paying attention.
Becca:Now you may listen to that and think, Well, that's a bit unprofessional.
Becca:But in that moment, it was much better for me to be open and honest with my audience
Becca:about what was happening than trying to pretend that I was something I'm not.
Becca:And you know what?
Becca:That's really relatable because they're all sat there listening
Becca:to the training as well.
Becca:Maybe you were there too, and you've probably got other things
Becca:going on in your life as well.
Becca:Maybe you've got the doorbell going off, an Amazon parcel being
Becca:delivered, you've gotta go and get.
Becca:Dog from the vet all whilst trying to listen to the cool,
Becca:and people relate to it.
Becca:They don't wanna work with me because I'm superhuman.
Becca:I guess they wanna work with me because I'm just me.
Becca:And that's the same with your couples.
Becca:If you can be relatable to them, if you can find common ground, if
Becca:you can get on with them, sometimes being transparent about your
Becca:circumstances goes a really long way.
Becca:Yes, maybe you might lose a couple of people for not being as super professional
Becca:or mentioning that you've got children.
Becca:However, for me, those are the clients that I don't wanna work with
Becca:anyway because ultimately if they're that funny about it, then they're
Becca:probably not my kind of person.
Becca:Okay, next up is that I'm selective with what I say yes to, and I've
Becca:learnt to say, no, I get it.
Becca:Saying no is one of the hardest things, especially when big
Becca:opportunities come around.
Becca:But sometimes we gotta be realistic.
Becca:If you know that your editing time is short and you can only manage one wedding
Becca:in a weekend, take the one wedding in the weekend and then don't take another one.
Becca:You'll live and learn that it's best to say no, rather than stretching
Becca:yourself into time you don't have.
Becca:This is when setting those boundaries is really important.
Becca:If you know you can't do something because it's your child's birthday or you've
Becca:gotta look after your mum, or you've got a health need that's gonna take priority,
Becca:then sometimes you've just gotta say no to opportunities and that's okay.
Becca:Or maybe it's a not.
Becca:I got invited to speak at an event this weekend, but it's my son's
Becca:birthday and so I turned it down because for me that's a hard no.
Becca:I'd much rather turn down the opportunity and spend the time with
Becca:my child on their birthday, and I was honest about the reason why I said no,
Becca:and they were totally fine with it.
Becca:And I said, If you do another event and it's in a different day,
Becca:or the date changes, get back in touch and let's work together.
Becca:And they said, Yeah, we'll absolutely do that.
Becca:So you've gotta be selective and you've gotta say no.
Becca:The other thing I say no to now.
Becca:Things that waste my time ultimately.
Becca:So I won't just have loads of coffees with random people or jump on calls
Becca:with people unless I understand why that is, what the objective is and
Becca:what I'm gonna get out of that time.
Becca:I don't have the time to have loads of pointless conversations
Becca:if I'm quite brutally honest.
Becca:I have to be really careful and precious about my time because I have so.
Becca:It.
Becca:I will jump on calls with people.
Becca:I will have meetings with people, but I have to understand why and whether or not
Becca:it's worth giving up some of that precious time in order to have that meeting.
Becca:So if you are someone that has very little time, don't waste your time.
Becca:Think strategically about what conversations you have, what
Becca:projects you say yes to, and what projects you say no to.
Becca:Why you are saying yes and why you are saying no.
Becca:How does that fit in with your schedule and can you manage it?
Becca:It's okay to say no.
Becca:Sometimes it's okay to say not right now sometimes, and if you can get.
Becca:Better at that, you will use your time much more effectively.
Becca:And again, I'm really open and honest about that.
Becca:I will tell people I'd love to meet for a coffee, but I'm very short of time.
Becca:However, is it something we can sort out over email?
Becca:Could we do something on Zoom?
Becca:I've got 15 minutes on Zoom and I'm really strict with that.
Becca:And just be really careful about how much of your time
Becca:you give away to other people.
Becca:The next tip I have for you is to outsource where possible.
Becca:This is something that I've got better and better at over the years because
Becca:I've realized my time is finite, right?
Becca:I don't have loads of it, and I'm gonna run out of it if I try and do
Becca:all of the things all of the time.
Becca:So if I wanna grow my business and develop my offerings, then I'm
Becca:gonna have to do something about that, and I've had to outsource.
Becca:I found this really hard in the first instance because ultimately
Becca:I know that I can do all of the tasks I outsource myself.
Becca:I may think that I can do them better, although I've been proved
Becca:wrong over time and realized other people can do things better than me.
Becca:But we are very protective about our own businesses and we feel like we have
Becca:to do all of the things, and we're also very reluctant to pay someone else to
Becca:do something that we know that we can.
Becca:However I've learned sometimes in life, you've got to speculate to accumulate.
Becca:There are some tasks in your business that someone else could do for you.
Becca:There are some tasks in your business that you have to do yourself, and
Becca:if you can do more of the tasks you have to do yourself, which leads to
Becca:more sales in your business, and in the meantime, outsource some of those
Becca:smaller, less important tasks to someone else, you'll end up making the money
Becca:that you are spending on outsourcing.
Becca:And I'm always looking at things I can outsource in my business now, things
Becca:that take a lot of time that maybe I could be doing something else with
Becca:that time, instead either spending it with my family or using it to build my
Becca:business and grow and make some money or change my offerings or whatever it is.
Becca:For you, outsourcing is one of the best things that I've done, and
Becca:it's something I highly recommend.
Becca:If you feel like you're really stretched for time, have a look at
Becca:who else in your life could take some of those tasks off of you.
Becca:Perhaps you've got someone in your family, a niece, a nephew, a cousin, a teenage
Becca:child who's looking to earn a little bit of extra pocket money and could
Becca:do some of your basic tasks for you.
Becca:You're helping them out because they're gonna get some extra
Becca:money, and it's massively helping you out because it's saving you.
Becca:Outsourcing doesn't have to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds.
Becca:It could be 20, 30, 40 pounds a week for someone to just take a
Becca:little bit of work away from you, freeing you up to have more time to
Becca:do the things you want to be doing.
Becca:Have a think about everything you do in your business.
Becca:Take note of what's taking loads of time, and think about what
Becca:somebody else could be doing.
Becca:Okay.
Becca:My final tip for you today is that I write a lot of lists and I prioritize
Becca:when I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that I've got going
Becca:on or all of the things in my head.
Becca:I write everything down and then I look to prioritize it.
Becca:Sometimes we've got things on our to-do list, which actually aren't
Becca:essential and are just wasting time.
Becca:Are there things in your business that you could stop doing entirely?
Becca:Either outsource.
Becca:Actually, they're just pointless and you don't need to be doing them anymore,
Becca:and you can erase them from your list.
Becca:Are there things that you could be doing more effectively or are there things
Becca:that you could start doing which would actually be better uses of your time than
Becca:the things you're doing at the moment?
Becca:Have a look at which of the tasks you write down will move
Becca:the needle of your business.
Becca:Forward, what things will have a big impact on your business?
Becca:What things will bring in money into your business?
Becca:What things will grow your business?
Becca:What things will grow your network, and what things are you just
Becca:procrastinating over and using a lot of time on unnecessarily?
Becca:We get that shiny object syndrome, don't we, where we see
Becca:everyone's doing Instagram reels.
Becca:So we spend loads and loads of loads of time doing Instagram reels
Becca:and it wastes loads of our time.
Becca:And yes, it might help.
Becca:But also maybe your time could have been more effective by spending that
Becca:same amount of time, meeting with a venue coordinator about getting on their
Becca:recommended suppliers list, or being part of a style sheet where you're gonna get
Becca:loads and loads of photos that you can use on your marketing for the next year.
Becca:Think about the tasks you're doing.
Becca:Think about which ones you don't need to be doing and which ones are the priority.
Becca:Then when I get down to what I need to do on a daily basis, if I've got a
Becca:lot to do, I write everything down on a piece of paper, and then I go back
Becca:through that list and start prioritizing it, and I give everything a number.
Becca:1, 2, 3, 4.
Becca:Number one is the task I do first.
Becca:And so on.
Becca:I put my phone on airplane mode.
Becca:I turn off the distractions, and I just start going through that list one by
Becca:one by one in the order that I've set.
Becca:Nothing else can take priority because I've already chosen the priority order.
Becca:And when I do that, I get so much more done in a day.
Becca:Why?
Becca:Because I've given myself less time to do it, and I've decided what
Becca:I'm gonna do when, and I tick loads off, and I feel so much better.
Becca:So if you are feeling overwhelmed and you've got loads of tasks
Becca:on a list, I highly recommend.
Becca:Out of your head onto paper, choose which ones need to be
Becca:done today and then prioritize.
Becca:I hope you found today's episode helpful.
Becca:I hope it's helpful for you to understand a bit of my story
Becca:and how I run my business.
Becca:I don't want you to look at me and think I've got it all together.
Becca:I really don't.
Becca:My life is total chaos behind the scenes.
Becca:Like I said, I'm in this season of life where I'm running my children backwards
Becca:and forwards here, there and everywhere all of the time whilst trying to run my
Becca:business and be in a show at the same time and have date nights with my husband.
Becca:But I do make it work because of all of these things that I've shared with you.
Becca:Whenever I'm vulnerable like this, I love to get feedback from you.
Becca:Obviously I'm talking to the ether and I never really know who's
Becca:listening, so if something in this episode has resonated with you
Becca:today, I would absolutely love it.
Becca:If you could reach out to me, drop me a message on Instagram and let me know if
Becca:there's something in here that's been helpful to you to help you move forward.
Becca:I understand how overwhelming it can be to be a business owner.
Becca:I'm right there with you myself, but you absolutely can do it, and you've
Becca:just got to prioritise, set those boundaries and make it work for you.