I have been distracted the past few weeks. I don’t have any thing major going on in my life outside of the usual husband/home/business stuff that everyone deals with, I have just been spacey and distracted and dropping the ball. Over the past year and a half running my business, I have found that I do better under pressure than I thought I would. When my inbox is full of orders and inquiries for wedding favors and fairs and donation requests, I can prioritize and use my breaks between chocolate coating s’mores to get done what needs to get done. When I have fairs every weekend, I make lots of lists and get my supplies in the fewest trips possible and it seems the orders just find me. For some reason, and I am really trying to change this, when I have the space to breathe, I forget all those things that got pushed to the bottom of the To Do list and I kick back. Instead of using that down time well to evaluate my business and look for ways to improve and reach new customers, I rest on my laurels, sleep a little more, and momentarily forget that there is more to running my business than just whipping marshmallow. There are things that I make sure I do when times are slow, but the past few weeks it seems I am slacking on those too. This post is more ratting myself out and an attempt to get my butt in gear, and maybe get feed back from any other self-employed freelancers out there.
I want to remind myself of the things I have been doing well, not everything has slipped through my mental cracks . . . I have been networking more, attending functions and donating gift baskets to wonderful organizations that I love and support in Lowell. If you missed my post yesterday, I have signed up for possibly an absurd amount of farmers markets this season (get the not yet full schedule here). That means I have been in (more or less) contact with 9 different market managers and 9 different town health departments (ranting for another post). I have made some investments in my space and equipment so that come crunch time, work flows better and my apprentice and I can produce more in the same location . . . muaaha I will have a minion this summer. I am working on a fun new secret expansion that I will tell you about later, got to keep you guessing.
I am giving myself the homework assignment to write more regularly about my experience as business woman in an attempt to evaluate my skills and performance and help me be better at my super-awesome-best-job-ever. A little self-reflection never hurt any one, except maybe Narcissus.
Thanks for your help combating brownie boredom, one S’more at a time!™
-Lydia
Recent Comments