Concerned that you won’t be able to keep up with your client load working part time hours?
In this episode, I am sharing my best tips and tricks for managing your clients when you only have 20 hours a week to work.
Even with both of my kids in daycare now, I still work about 20 hours a week, give or take. We’re currently in the midst of trying to sell our house so I spend a lot of time making sure it’s pristine and am also having to leave at least once or twice a day for showings.
In addition to that, I’ve been working to prioritize my own mental health more because I am on the cusp of burnout so that means giving myself at least an hour of nonwork time during the day when the kids are still at school so that I can decompress and just fill my own cup which means I’ve been reading anywhere between 4-8+ books per month.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s jump into the content of the episode.
Be really clear on what your goals for your business are //
First and foremost, I think it’s super important to get really clear on your goals.
Ask yourself questions like:
- How much money do I need to bring in every month?
- How many clients can I take on realistically?
- What kind of content do I want to be creating and what marketing channels should I prioritize?
Really go deep and figure out these core details so that your work hours can be truly focused and you know exactly what you’re working towards each day, week, month, and quarter.
Focus the majority of your time on income producing activities //
Obviously client work is an income producing activity, but it’s not the only income producing activity we need to be focusing on.
I think so many service providers get so bogged down with client work that they forget about marketing themselves and that’s fine when you’ve got a bunch of steady clients, but if you let it get to the point where your leads start drying up, then it can be really hard to get back up from.
As a good baseline, client work should make up about 75% of your working time while your other 25% should be spent on marketing tasks. You can always adjust those percentages as needed but I think that’s a great place to start.
Streamline communication //
When working more limited hours, you want to make your communication as streamlined as possible. Give your clients one place where they can reach out to you so you’re not trying to check your email, project management tool, Slack, etc. for responses from different clients.
I personally direct all of my clients to communicate with me on Slack as that’s where they will get the quickest response since I loathe email and try to spend as little time in my inbox as possible.
Set clear boundaries //
Streamlining communication is just one part of setting clear boundaries. Aside from that, I highly recommend setting boundaries around your working hours among other things so that you aren’t feeling stressed out the second you sit down to work.
Automate what you can //
Don’t be afraid to automate some things. When you’ve got limited time, you need all the help you can get and automation tools can really give us more time back without costing an arm and a leg.
Some things I like to automate:
- Potential client lead capture
- Sequence to turn potential client into buyer
- Client onboarding
- Client offboarding
- Monthly invoices
- Sending out newsletters
- Call reminders
- Email management
- Etc
Outsource //
Of course, not everything can be automated so if you’re still struggling to keep up with all the things and have extra funds, outsourcing to another person can be extremely beneficial.
You might want to bring a VA to help with tasks you just don’t have time for or maybe even someone to assist with actual client work. It all depends on your individual needs and budget.
I know I couldn’t run my business completely solo. I’ve had some type of help in my business since 2019 and I am so grateful because there’s no way I would have survived maternity leave and Everett’s first year of life without a little help from my team.
Evaluate and adjust as necessary //
With each season, things will change. Maybe we’ll have slightly more time to dedicate to our business or maybe it’s a season of less than 20 hours per week. As things happen, make adjustments as necessary.
Links Mentioned:
Moms Make Money Monthly Networking Event
Connect with Us:
Moms Make Money Collective FB Group
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