The two questions that will help you run a GREAT business while you also raise a family!

If you’re running a business while raising a family there aren’t Enough Hours In The Day to do everything. Really. There aren’t! But it’s not all bad news,  you can still DO it! You just need to do THIS too!

Not enough hours in the day!

I have four children, I run The Business Bakery, I do public speaking, I do coaching, I write a bit. I do a little TV. Sometimes Most of the time I have too much to do! Sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming, but mostly it’s manageable and even FUN, because I DON’T DO EVERYTHING!

Indeed! There’s lots of things I don’t do!  And that’s the BIG secret to running a business while raising a family: Don’t Do Everything!

I wasn’t always like this! I used to do everything. And I wanted to do everything! Oh yes! I am a bit control-freak-y like that. But eventually I kinda worked out that, no matter how early I got up, or how late I went to bed, I just Couldn’t. Fit. Everything. In. So I decided to do things differently! I decided to see if it was possible to do less!

I started asking myself these two questions before I did any task or project:

• Does this really need doing?!
• Does this really need doing by ME?!

And ta-da! All of a sudden I found a whole lot of stuff I didn’t need to do! Really!

So if you’re feeling a bit Not-Enough-Hours-In-The-Day-y, try this. It works!

Question 1: Does it really need doing?!

This is such GOOD question to ask yourself, but  -OH MY- if you’re a very diligent, attention-to-detail kinda person then it’s hard to find anything that doesn’t need doing! YES?!

But there ARE things you don’t need to do!

There are BIG things you can stop doing (like, say, working with a tricky customer, doing markets, marketing via Facebook – whatever) and little things (like checking email 100 times a day).

The trick is to stop yourself just before you start doing something, and say “Does this really need doing?”

Fancy giving it a go? This week ask yourself “Does this really need doing?”  before you start a task and see if you can find 10 new things to STOP doing! It’s very freeing!

Does it really need doing by ME?!

OK, so there are LOTS of things that DO need doing. Shame!  But do they really need doing by YOU? Often (especially if we’re control-freak-y) we do everything in our businesses even though our businesses would be better if we didn’t!

I have a little rule for when I think work should be done by someone ELSE, it’s:

1. When the work needs an expert! (Like website techie things!)
2. When the work is very routine and can easily be done by someone else (Like packing goods to be sent out)
3. When you hate doing the work! (Yes! It’s TRUE! There are things we have to do which we don’t like doing!)

I know it costs to pay someone to do stuff for us but if they are better at doing it than us, or they free us up to work on the stuff that only WE can do, or they are taking work off us that drains and saps our energy….,  well then it’s money well spent. YES?!

So this week – see if you can find 5 things to outsource to someone else. You’ll be totes happy you did!

♡ YOU! ♡

Do you feel there are Not Enough Hours In The Day?! Got any tips you’d like to share?

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