Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a small business owner is like? I've put together a standard good day for you to see.
Now I say good day, because one of the many drawbacks of dealing with some health issues is the unpredictability, but working for myself on a flexible schedule gives me the best chance at getting stuff done, and not letting anyone down. This may mean that for some periods I time I work really late into the night and wake up late, but at the moment I'm enjoying a span of getting up early and winding down in the evenings.
8AM
I usually wake up around 8AM at the moment, it's really cold at the moment, so I leave my dressing gown and slippers as close to the bed as possible so I can wrap up and go make a cuppa. I usually cook some breakfast, eat it at the table, and put some Netflix on (Or Amazon Prime right now, Season 7 of Charmed, you can read a little more about good things to watch while you craft here ).
I usually then take a second cup of tea to the sofa and check the plan for the day in my diary before I get started.
9AM
Admin Hour, a recent addition to a work day that helps me keep on top of everything day-to-day.
At the moment, that has included reviewing and adding up my giveaway entries, checking how my ads are doing and also making sure my email inboxes are nice and empty and sorted, which I admit I'm pretty terrible at.
I find Admin Hour a great way to start the morning, because if it's feeling like a slow start to the day I can just get through the list slowly, or if I'm feeling like I want to get going, I do my admin quickly and start the next task, which puts me ahead already.
My handy calendar and weekly to-dos I keep above my desk, so I know where I am and what to expect out the days ahead.
10AM
Work begins, this could be sewing, packaging orders, social media stuff, designing, what I like about my days is how different they can be from each other. I usually continue to split up the morning into hour or two chunks, just to keep myself going. So if I was doing a batch of sewing one day, I would start with an hour of cutting out, an hour of sewing, an hour of finishing etc, which usually works out about right.
I do like to throw in a half hour task in the middle somewhere that takes me away for a little break, so if it was a sewing day, I would put something like 'Plan bullet points for Saturday's newsletter', which just takes me away from the sewing backache for a little while.
1PM
Lunch Time!
I used to be the worst culprit for working while I literally ate, which just wasn't healthy, and also I used to get crumbs in my keyboard. So I decided that lunch time was a break from work, and a chance to do a few household jobs while something is cooking.
So this tends to just be some decluttering and tidying, cleaning up the kitchen and doing dishes, writing a shopping list, and then I usually eat my food with some TV on and kinda reflect on what's been done this morning and what I need to be carrying on with.
2PM
Starting work again, usually with a big teapot of tea ready. I try and split my time so if I sewed in the morning, I'll do something else in the afternoon, perhaps on the computer. This is also the time I tend to go to the post office, straight away after lunch when it is quite quiet and I won't be suffering from low blood sugar if I have to wait a little while.
4PM
Ideally at 4 I want to start focusing on my classes, I attend some courses online that are in my own time, but I would really like to get a move on with them to further help some aspects of my business. This doesn't always work out if I suddenly get a few orders in and need to package them up, or at the moment I'm going to be preparing for a gallery exhibition and some Christmas Markets so I suspect these will be put on the back burner a little again.
6PM
Generally when I start winding down for dinner time, which again I use to get some tasks done around the house that need doing. After this I tend to chill out, maybe go swimming, have a bath, and prepare my diary for the next day and tick off everything that I managed to get done today.
I love diaries, they really help me to stay focused on what I need to do, but also I think it's important to not beat myself up over not getting something done, whether it's simply because I run out of time, or am having a bad day.
So there we go, a pretty simple view of a standard good day in the business, I'd love to do a little series of some more varied days on reels over on Instagram too, so keep an eye out for those!
