During what has been a year like no other, what does the end of lockdown mean to you?

With lockdown now easing into new measures to allow us some freedom – I’ve been reflecting on the last year and how lockdown and COVID has impacted my business.

And I can very thankfully say, in terms of how I work and how I deliver my work – not a lot has changed!

I was lucky enough to have known a WFH routine since 2012.  I know the online technologies needed to run a business online like the back of my hand, and for the most part, my clients were receptive to moving online if they weren’t already (they didn’t have a great deal of choice if they wanted to continue to bring in revenue!)

What impacted me much more was the disruption to my routine.  It has taught me so many things.

I have learned that my body and mind can only cope with so much.  During the first lockdown with 3 small children at home, no support bubble, and a key worker husband out at work every day, I was flying solo with the childcare and then working evenings and weekends, none stop! I was on autopilot, same routine day in and day out with no break, for 12 weeks.  And my situation was far from unique.  There are single parents out there doing this thing 365 days a year…

One of the many reasons why I now run.  It helps clear my mind, and keeps me (a little bit) sane.

During the last year, I have reduced some hours with a client.  It was the right thing to do and actually gave me the breathing space that I needed.  I took a financial hit, but it allowed me room to actually work on my business, rather than just be in it.

I truly recognised the importance of having a team.  I work with a small group of associates (who rock!) and help keep the many spinning plates of my clients turning, but I also realised that a lot of my time was spent doing stuff that I could quite easily hand over to someone else.  And so I hired my own VA.  Lisa is amazing and I love having her on the team.  We’re building a stack of processes and ongoing tasks that she can do to help me and the business move forward.  

You might see this as an expense that you cannot afford, but I actually see it as a great investment.  In the time I would spend doing some admin tasks, I can actually hand them over and work on my online course content, or free up more time for prospect calls.

I think it’s a given, but the whole situation re-iterated to me how important communication is; amongst your team (if you are lucky enough to have one) and also with clients.

It can be as simple as ‘hey I’m offline for the next few hours so I’ll be quiet, but I’ll be working on X,Y,Z this evening so that will be done by the morning.  

I’ve fallen back in love with asana for task management, and slack is a great tool for team communication, I recommend both!

The last year has helped me to gain some real clarity about where I want to be in the next 12 months.  I’ve been creating online courses now for a few years via a plugin called learndash that sits alongside my wordpress website. But I’ve put on my big girl panties and I’ve moved to a full CRM membership system (Kartra – affiliate link just for transparency) and I’m going all out – so watch this space!

What have been your highs and lows of your lockdown in terms of your business?

I really think it’s worth taking 20 minutes to think about what worked, what didn’t, what you can change and where you want to be this time next year.  I’d love to know.  Share them on instagram and tag me @boostandbloomflourish

If you need a power hour to get some real clarity on what you need to do in your business to push it forward, find out more here.