Taking a break from the juggling will make you more productive.

At the moment it could be more difficult to get as much time for your business as you would like, especially if you are trying to manage home schooling.

Then I don't know about you, but that might make it difficult to focus on anything. When you're trying to support your children with their learning, work might be slipping into your head.

And when you're trying to get work done it's hard to concentrate when you have extra distractions.

There's a couple of things at play here. Firstly no matter what you think your ability is in relation to multi-tasking, the truth of the matter is that we're not built to multi-task. We work best when we focus on one thing.

That's why mindfulness is so important. It's not just a hippy dippy trend. It can actually help you be more productive. I recommend taking a moment before you start anything to put everything else out of your sight.

Give yourself a moment. Take a deep breath in for the count of four, pause, and then take a long breath out for a count of five or six, pause and repeat. Then focus your attention on what is in front of you.

Secondly, we all need to review our expectations. That's not just in small businesses but it's across the board of our entire society. The measurement of productivity in hours is just not sustainable in our world at the moment.

My business was a rollercoaster ride last year. January was amazing, classes sold out in a number of venues. Then bookings started to peter out in February as that feeling of uncertainty and fear approached. And then March fell off a cliff. Does that sound familiar?

The rest of 2020 was peaks and troughs, the highs of getting bookings for online classes, then the lows of booking in person classes and then having to cancel them. And constantly learning while juggling childcare.

I watched so little TV last year because when Síofra went to bed I was studying. Instagram, email automation, lead generation advertising, learning management systems, editing, video content, search optimisation, Google ads, automation of apps connecting with each other. I was like a sponge.

So let me help you with a few things. Because I have over twenty years of old school marketing experience. That means that I understand why you should do any advertising in the first place. It makes me channel agnostic. I wasn't created with a phone in my hand. My passion is understanding people. And why they do things and that's how I've grown my own businesses.

And... since I worked in media for donkeys years... I love a good spreadsheet and love a good system. So I could organise pretty much anything.

If you're struggling to get the social media side of your business going at the moment that's ok. You're probably trying to do a million things at the moment. Like hold on to your existing customers and just get the basics done. That's completely understandable.

But what if you stopped for a day or two and set up some systems. Automated a few things so that you had customers coming into the funnel that you could talk to about how they would benefit from your products or services?

I have a few recommendations for you:

1️⃣ I normally post my social media personally and I am on social when they go out. But at the moment I use a scheduler.

Check out different ones to see what suits you best.

I use @latermedia

2️⃣ Keep advertising. Just make sure that whatever you have out there is going to deliver a connection that you can nurture. And that you spend your time where your audience is. Let your ads do the work. Spend some time setting up some lead generation advertising.

3️⃣ Make sure that you have something ready for those new followers or subscribers to your email list. Give them something useful that will also help them to get to know you or your products. Use an automated email system.

I use @mailerlite

Make sure in all this juggling that you take a break. When we rest our brain processes everything. If you want to be creative make sure that you take a walk and take breaks.

You deserve it.

If you need help with any of this then get in touch with me. You might need a business coach to guide you in the right direction or to show you how to set up good systems.

Or join my group coaching program that runs three times a year. The next session starts on the 4th October

So visit my website and get in touch:

Marketing Mentor Group Coaching program

 Elaine