Have It Your Way During the Holidays
There are a million advantages to working for yourself, but there is a downside or two. One of them, depending on how your pricing is structured can be no work, no pay. If so, holidays and vacations often don’t mean days off unless you have enough decent contracts to cover a couple of days without earnings, or are willing to work like a dog for as long as necessary to cover it. Most of you have probably chosen Option B more times than you’d like to admit.
It’s especially challenging at year end when Christmas and New Year’s mean there are days, and possibly weeks when you can’t reach clients (a mixed blessing at times), not only because offices are closed, but because many have holiday parties during business hours. On the plus side, you’re less likely to be interrupted, assuming you haven’t set non-negotiable boundaries around communication and response time.
Set Your Boundaries
One of the things I’ve done wherever possible is to charge by the task, rather than the hour. It allows me to set my own hours, and take the amount of time I need to complete something, as long as I have it in the client’s hands on or before the date promised.
I also set boundaries from the very beginning. I don’t answer emails or phone calls on the weekends, holidays, or outside business hours. That doesn’t mean I don’t read emails, and even do some research or draft a response. My clients often email after hours because that’s when they, themselves have time, but as a rule, they don’t expect a response until the next business day, at the earliest because I put my boundaries right into the contract.
As I work about 90% virtually, and many of my clients are 3 hours ahead of me, it’s easier for me than most to adhere to those boundaries. However, I’ve also learned there are few times a client actually needs an answer immediately, and frankly, I’ve stopped attracting the people who require immediate attention anyway. It feels too much like bosses I had when I worked as an employee. One of the many reasons I struck out on my own was so I’d never feel like someone else’s pawn again.
Catching Up While You Can
Many of you have learned to appreciate the relative quiet, business-wise during the holidays because it gives you a chance to catch up on things you’ve had to push aside, or work through something with less pressure, knowing your client won’t expect completed tasks until they return from whatever time off they’re taking.
It might also be a time when you get your own books and records in order, work on your marketing plan, or a dozen other tasks which drop to the bottom of the list while you’re focused on client work. While you’re waiting for signatures on new contracts, or contract renewals, you have a little breathing room to line up your ducks for the next wave of work, demands, and deadlines. This is especially true for the December holidays, as many companies initiate new goals in January.
I have noticed many businesses have come out of the lock downs, supply chain challenges, and work space requirements like they’re riding a bullet train to new ideas and opportunities. I’m seeing more new contracts being signed, and more outsourcing happening than I have in a couple of years, and I’m happy to see it. Those of us who hunkered down, perhaps taking advantage of various State and Federal programs until the dust settled, are starting to see an up sweep in business opportunities coming from multiple directions.
Holding the Dream in Good Times and Bad
If you ride out the storm, never giving up on your business or your dreams, you have all the more reason to put in some time during the holidays out of appreciation for seeing the end of your financial drought fading away in the rear view mirror.
It’s almost like coming out of hibernation when the first thing you want to do is feed yourself, and the second is to sweep away the dust that accumulated while you slept. For many of you, it may be as simple as re-organizing your office, updating software, or setting up new systems for projects you’ll be starting the first of the year. Maybe you’re even using the time to interview people to take over things you’ve been doing yourself, but won’t have time for when new projects begin, and you’re on boarding new clients the first few weeks of the new year.
For those who’ve been, as a friend of mine used to say, “busier than a one-armed paper hanger” through all the turmoil and chaos of the last two years, you might decide to follow the lead of some of your clients, and shut down for a week or two during the holidays to rest, or catch up on personal business and chores. It might even be a time to look at your client list, and trim a few branches, or at your offerings and pricing, and make some long overdue changes.
Having more than enough business, and being able to take time off comfortably are two things I’ll never take for granted as a business owner. Both are perks you earn by putting in the time and effort, and weathering a few storms to be your own boss.
Wherever your business is going after the holidays, don’t forget to stop and breathe. From where I’m sitting, those moments may soon be few and far between, and that’s not such a bad thing!
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.
If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
