So I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like things were falling apart all around you? The expression “when it rains, it pours” is along the lines of what I’m referring to here. Now in this, I’m actually not just referring to business. I’m more talking about life in general, that inevitably spills over into business.
Although it sounds awesome in theory to have super smooth sailing 24/7, that’s just not reality. In reality, there are seasons in life. And some are more bumpy than others and some are just plain hard. And when those difficult seasons hit, it can be easy to let business fall by the wayside. After all, if you’re struggling to keep your own head above water, you’re probably not in that stage of enlightenment or hitting peak creativity that you can use for your business. And you may also just find it plum hard to show up for the business.
Now obviously letting your business fall by the wayside is not ideal. So that begs the question – how in the world do you keep maintaining business momentum even when life happens? That’s exactly what we’re diving into today.
There is a lot of hustle mentality out there these days. “Just push through.” “Stop making excuses.” “Go go go.” And while there may be a time and place for that (may be), this truly isn’t always realistic. For example, the passing of a close family member or friend, a loved one getting seriously ill, or significant life change that you have no control over. It’s life. It’s not a question of if one of these things will happen. It’s a question of when. And when something tragic happens, 9 times out of 10, that is going to take priority. At least for a short amount of time.
Now you don’t have to have something tragic happen in order for business to take a back burner. I’ve had clients who had things planned for months, but then things didn’t go according to plan or their timeline was moved up. For example, going into labour early and needing to be in the hospital with their preemie months earlier than planned. Or preparing to sell their home, then the market was on a high and they received an amazing offer. Exciting, but that meant needing to move earlier than planned and it was a bumpy transition.
It also doesn’t have to be something so life-changing. Maybe you just pick up a cold or your babysitter goes on vacation. In these instances, life takes priority and there just may not be enough time or brain space left to fully focus on the business.
Additionally, different people have different capacities. Some people can hold more than others. That doesn’t make anyone right or wrong, but what may throw me off and be a bit much to handle may not even phase you. So part of this is also knowing how much capacity you realistically have when shit hits the fan.
Sometimes life just happens and throws us a curveball and we have to figure it out as we go. So, when life happens, how can you maintain momentum in your business?
First and foremost – plan for it now. Again, it’s not a matter of questioning if life is going to happen, it’s when.
So right quick let’s dive into momentum. I was having this conversation with a team member a couple of weeks ago and she compared business moving forward with getting a car going by push-starting it.
So when you first try to get the car moving, it takes a ton of effort, right? But once you have it started, it’s relatively easy to keep it going as long as you keep your foot on the gas. It’s the same with momentum in your business. It can be really hard and take a ton of effort and discipline to start to get things going, but once you’ve got it running you just need to keep your foot on the gas. And this is relevant for anyone in business. Those starting out and also those who are already well-established but just looking to add in something else to the business.
Now when life happens, it can be the equivalent of taking your foot off the gas. Okay so what happens if you take your foot off the gas of a car moving forward? It slows down and eventually comes to a halt.
It’s the exact same in your business. So maintaining that momentum even when life happens is sort of like the equivalent of putting your car on cruise control.
Doing things consistently in your business helps to keep that momentum going. So we really want to keep that consistency up, and planning for it now is what can be the difference in keeping it going or having it come to a screeching halt. And if it comes a screeching halt, it can be even more difficult to get that momentum going again, so we really want to be proactive in order to keep that from happening.
So what does plan for it now look like?
Well that’s really going to vary based on what business you have, what type of model you’re running, and the kinds of support that you offer clients. But typically, planning ahead can fall into four categories.
-structure
-support
-systems
-working ahead
These can overlap and your business may utilise all four of them, or it may only utilise one of them. Professionally-speaking, I do think it is in your best interest to incorporate all of them, especially as your business grows and as you’re trying to scale. But if you’re not quite to that point yet, pick the most relevant one for you and you can continue to build from there.
Nevertheless, planning ahead and actually implementing whichever one or more of these fit your business can literally be the difference in a smooth experience for your clients, continuing to run business as normal, and maintaining that momentum in the business when shit hits the fan personally for you.
Alright let’s throw in a couple of examples.
Let’s say you offer done-for-you services for your clients that require you to be in most of the day-to-day, and something happens. Having a solid structure, including documented procedures of the things that you’re doing can be the difference in everything falling apart or allowing someone else to step in in the interim and keep things going.
Now this one can still be messy because it is done-for-you and maybe there isn’t a team member who can readily jump in. However, I have seen business communities and networks and even life partners step up and step in when unpredictable life challenges happen, and as long as you’ve got that structure, the business can plod along for a bit of time until things calm down.
So that’s the first one, documented processes and procedures.
Moving right along, let’s say you’re a coach and you primarily run 1:1’s or Masterminds. You can be proactive by bringing on support – either in the form of a OBM or a VA or even a support coach for your clients. If and when something happens, your OBM or VA has autonomy to handle things, communicate and even reschedule your clients, or your support coach can actually step in and continue to support your clients even while you’re out.
So that’s number two, solid support as your team.
Next, maybe your primary business model is based around launching and getting people into your program every few months. You can be proactive by shifting things to rely more on systems versus you doing everything manually. So if life happens, you can still be enrolling people into your program because you’ve added in systems, like Dubsado, for example, to help with that process.
So that’s number three, systems.
Finally, working ahead. This one can literally be as simple as pre-recording a podcast episode to use if life happens, or even just set yourself up to work ahead by a couple of weeks so you have a buffer. This same concept can be used for planning and scheduling your content and all of your marketing. So your business is still able to run like a well-oiled machine even if you’re not around or available.
So that’s number four, working ahead.
Okay so once you’ve planned for it now, and seriously I urge you to really focus on that one first and foremost and go ahead and start putting things in place for that before you move to this next one. But once you’ve done that,
Focus on the have-to’s.
What are the things that HAVE to get done? These are the things that are your revenue-generating activities or serving the clients who have already invested with you.
Many of these may already be handled by structure, systems, support, or working ahead. But for those few that are not and that require you to be the one doing or handling them, focus on the things that are imperative to the business.
What about you? Have you had a significant life something or another happen? How did your business fare? I hope that you had some of these in place, but if you didn’t, there is no time like the present to start getting them in place.
If you need help with that, it would be my pleasure to chat with you and to support you get your business “life ready” so that you can maintain that momentum even when shit happens.
I support business owners with the structure of processes and procedures, the support of a team implementing behind-the-scenes, setting up systems so you don’t have to hold it all, and strategising about how and what you can do to work ahead. You can pop me a message or book a call.
Thank you so much for being here and for tuning in today, I really hope that this was helpful, and I’ll see you next Monday.
