With being an entrepreneur who still works a full time job, it is a uphill battle with work and life balance. Before I begin, I am no expert, I am actually writing this to help/ warn anyone who may have this happen to them in the future.
I am currently sitting here on Christmas eve, at work, on my break, ready to pull my hair out and just ball up in a corner and just cry. Why? Because besides the fact my hand drawn coffee mug business is doing excellent this holiday season (I am super thankful for this), in turn my own holiday is falling to pieces. I've worked so hard cranking orders out that I literally had no time to do any of my own families holiday traditions. No grocery shopping done, only half of gifts are purchased, none are wrapped, tree still in box. (We did manage to decorate Santa hats and the stockings though). See my frustration now? How did I manage to find myself in this position. Me! An event planner. My job is to plan and schedule, where did I go wrong? Then it hit me, I just failed to respect my time. No, not schedules and time blocks. I did not give myself a cut off time. I accepted every last minute order up until the day before Christmas Eve. Crazy right?! So what to do now to prevent this from happening in the future:
1. Give yourself a cut off time (2 week prior to the holiday): Maybe state at the beginning of the holiday season when will be the last day to accept holiday orders. This gives ample time for your customers to place orders.
2. Set office hours: As an entrepreneur, its so easy to find yourself working at 3am. It's even praised upon. Sometimes its necessary, but lets not make it a habit. Set hours to answer emails and return phone calls. This will help to provide structure and your customers will get use to knowing when you will get back in touch with them.
3. Start holiday shopping early: We all say we are going to do this. How about actually doing it! Not only will you have less stress when the holiday comes but you will more than likely will be saving money in the process.
4. Buy help: But I can't afford that! Well if you noticed, I didn't say "hire", I said "buy". Purchase items that will allow you to do your job more efficiently. In my case it would help if I just would do all my shipping from home. Purchasing a scale and supplies from stamps.com would eliminate the time used running back and forth to the post office. Find services that will help you to work smarter not harder.
This is just a short list but I hope this can help someone to avoid being in the position I am in at this very second. Happy Holidays!!!