Business balls everywhere
Being your own boss isn’t easy, we know that. But when you’re self-employed — faced with an overwhelming workload AND a heatwave. Well, pass me the mini magnums, I’m done.
This is a vulnerable one and I'm sharing because from the conversations I've had with lots of you recently, you're feeling the same. So I hope this provides a sense of solidarity?
I am dropping balls all over the shop. Some have been intentionally put down, some of them have spilled out of an already very full basket of bouncy balls. There's just balls everywhere, ok? Balls balls BALLS.
This is because life has thrown me a couple of curve... balls too (christ). One of them is the exhibition, but the other was the heatwave.
I gave myself permission to move things around, to not work and to just stay still or go hunting for air conditioning. But it's thrown everything out of whack. I'm behind on plans for Wild and painting but the former is hanging around my neck like an anchor of guilt. I don't think many people would notice but it won't be a shock to know the to-do list hasn't magically shrunk. And that quite frankly is just plain rude.
So, what am I doing to solve this? Well, I've realised I'm already working at capacity, so these are the actions I'm taking and the things I'm telling myself:
1. I've spent some time working out: What's urgent and has to be done by me. What's important and can be done by someone else. And what was in the plan but now needs to wait. The priority is you and making sure we're providing the service you pay for is all that really matters.
2. I'm reminding myself it's not that deep. Nobody is going to die because I've not executed my marketing strategy properly for a couple of weeks.
3. Things will just have to be slower, that's life and the combination of me aggressively saving for tax and the profit dropping because of the changes I made at the beginning of the year have actually balanced each other out. Who knew a strategy works?? Me. I knew.
If it wasn't for Wild VA Meg and our Community Manager Paulina, I would be in tatters. So making sure I keep asking for help is the only way I can get this done.
So if you’re functioning on the bare minimum, that’s more than enough. Just hold on tight, we’re in this together.
Jess (Wild Founder) xx