Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, then you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast.
Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And today we're hitting part two of our little mini series of how to prep for busy season. Last week, we talked about how to prep your business for Fall busy season. And this week, we're talking about how to prep your family for Fall busy season. So we've got some really awesome tips to get into. But before we do, I wanted to let you know about my free mini sessions class. Now is a great time to take it if you haven't already, it is the three steps to fully booked mini sessions. And so you can find the link to join below. Or if you want to type it in. It's Rebecca rice photo.com/minis-class. But now is the time to dive in and learn all you can about marketing your minis, well because many sessions season is upon us like you should be booking your minis right now. And if you aren't taking my free minis class, I'll walk you through the steps and you can implement it like immediately. Make sure you sign up for that the link is below and you won't want to miss it. So let's get in to the nitty gritty here last week was a lot of like practical business steps that you can be taking to really make sure that you're good to go for busy season. But this week, I wanted to talk about the other side of that coin, which is prepping your family for a busy season. I don't know about you. But for me, my family is I mean, that's the most important thing in my life. And I in the past have done busy season, I've done busy seasons well. And I've done busy seasons not well. And my family suffered during those seasons where I did not handle it well. And I took a look at the end of the day and didn't like what I was seeing. And so I knew I had to make a change. And there were some like very practical things that I did to change. And I'm not gonna say I'm perfect in this area. But I've definitely gotten better over the years than I used to be. And I feel like my family, you know, they are happier because of that, and I'm a better wife, I'm a better mom, because I took steps to intentionally protect my time and my energy during busy season. So that I wasn't sacrificing my family in the process. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much revenue you bring in, that's not worth the trade off of losing your family in, in the wake of that. And so you want to make sure that we're taking some intentional steps to protect your family in the midst of busy season. So I'm going to give you a few like practical things that you can do now to be prepping for that busy fall season that is right about to him. So the first thing is to talk about family rhythms now. So there are no surprises. Communication is so so important. And this is something that I am not great at naturally. I tend to like make all these plans in my head and not or maybe even like on a calendar but not vocalize them to my husband. And that causes friction. Because there's two of us, right? I am not the world does not revolve around me. And so it's not fair to him when I don't take his schedule into account or his, you know, business needs or things like that. So talking about family rhythms has been so integral for us. Now, I don't like to use the word balance, like you know, or routines, I like to use the word rhythm. Because a routine is like set in stone, it's not flexible, is what it is. Whereas rhythms, kind of just like in music, the rhythm of music can kind of flow it can speed up and slow down. And that's the balance to it all is that there are some seasons where it's faster, some seasons where it's slower. And so I'm a huge fan of having family rhythms that have some flexibility to it. So in busy season some of our family rhythms for example, if I am shooting on the weekends,
In the summer, I'm not usually shooting on weekends, maybe the occasional full session, but it's just too hot for that I, most of our shooting is done in the spring in the fall. And so I have to like, let my husband know that he can expect that I will be shooting more on weekends, once busy season hits.
You know, that's gonna mean either he is solo with the kids, or if he has, you know, gigs or stuff going on in the weekend, because he's a musician and producer and things like that. So if he's got stuff going on, then that means we're going to either need to have the kids with my in laws or hire childcare, whatever that looks like. But it's so important to talk about those rhythms now, so that he's not surprised when all of a sudden, because he's not in the photography world. He does some work with my business, but not really on the photography side, he, you know, produces this podcast and behind the lens and things like that. But he's not in the day to day of when busy season is. And so I've got to communicate that to let him know when our family rhythms are going to be shifting a little bit during busy season, it's going to mean that during the week, I'm going to be a little more busy with, you know, delivering galleries or, you know, communicating with clients or checking my workflows and stuff like that, that usually during like slower seasons is not as urgent, whereas now it's super urgent. And so those kinds of things, I just let him know, so that he knows what to expect during those times. It's also a good idea to, like set boundaries, together with what you want your work schedule to look like. So I know for our family, my husband doesn't really like he wants my workday to have an end. And so I know some, so my friends like them and their husbands, they can talk about business like over dinner, and they love it. For us. It's just not how we rock. And so we like to, you know, keep business during like business hours, and then have family time be family time. And so talk about what those boundaries are going to look like for us, I try really hard that when my workday is over, I close my laptop, I leave it in my office and I don't bring it out again, occasionally, I'll have to, you know, work in the evenings or something. But usually that's like, if my husband is down in the studio working, then I'll pull my laptop out to work. But if we're like watching a Netflix show together, that's not the time that I want to be on my laptop working. So and that's the boundaries that we've talked about, that we've kind of set. And so whatever works for your family talk that through, if you have a full time job outside of photography, then it's unavoidable to have to work, you know, evenings or whatever that looks like for you. You know, maybe it's the laptop gets closed at 11 or whatever, set the boundaries, but talk about it together so that you guys have your family rhythms set, when busy season hits. Another thing that I would mention is sit down and plan out dates that you'll be shooting to make sure that you schedule in family time. So what we like to do is take a look at the actual calendar and I'll say, Okay, I have my mini session dates penciled in, I'll say okay, this is what I'm planning on doing minis Do you see any conflicts? Is that okay? And my husband has the right to veto. So if he says that seems like too many, or we're planning on traveling that weekend, so let's not do that weekend, whatever we sit down and we do it together so that we make sure that we have enough family time scheduled in so I'll take August, for example, we call August cake month, because there's like a million birthdays in our family and our friend circle. That happened in August. And so I know that like when it comes to scheduling family time, August is like huge for family time for us. Whereas timber we don't have any birthdays in September. So we have you know a little bit more flexibility there. Things like that, whatever that looks like in your family. If you know that you have three birthdays in October, then be like aware of that when it comes to scheduling your sessions and decide together, you know, what days would be okay to schedule sessions and went, what days you guys want to protect for family time. But just having that conversation and that communication together really makes a big difference. The third thing that I would say is and this is, if possible, look into potentially getting childcare in place if needed. And so I know that childcare isn't feasible for every family, but if it is feasible for your family, or like you can maybe bake it into the price for like your photo sessions. Because if you know you're going to need childcare for when you shoot minis or whatever it may be, you can consider how much is the childcare for that time and raise your mini sessions price accordingly so that it's covered. If you could get that childcare in place. Now that'll really help as you get into busy season. Now if it's not an option for you, like you can't get childcare during the week or whatnot, that's okay. Do whatever works for your family. But if it is an option, then I would consider doing getting some time
care even if it's just like one or two days a week, because during that busy season, it'll help to have more focused time to be able to work on your business. Now, the last thing that I want to mention is, you know, to prep your family for a busy season, understand that you're going to be in a season of hustle for a little bit, what is that going to look like? And when is it going to end? Those are the things you want to communicate to your family. So you know, what is your season of hustle going to look like, you know, I mentioned, maybe it looks like you have, you're pulling extra hours, you're working a little bit later than you usually do. You're working more on weekends, things like that. As long as you communicate what that looks like, then there won't be surprises. And then when will the season of hustle end, I want you to like literally circle a date on your calendar that it's like my hustle season ends here. For us. That's usually either the week after Thanksgiving, so that first week of December or the week before Thanksgiving, it just kind of depends. Sometimes we do some extended family sessions after Thanksgiving or whatnot. But we don't do any sessions, any sessions after the first week in December period. That is like, that's just like a rule in our business. We just don't do it. So we know that our hustle season is going to end the first week in December. And now we do a big team retreat for my staff that first week in December. So that kind of like is our huge, like, significant moment that like ends the busy season. And starts like our holiday season, we take the entire month of December off, and then get ready to jump back in for January. And so you know, in all of that my husband knows that the first week of December, that's when hustle season ends. And so if you know I was pulling extra hours in the evenings, or you know, working more on the weekends, things like that, that it's expected to come to an end that first week in December. And we'll get back to our like normal family rhythms. Setting that date is sort of acts as like, the light at the end of the tunnel, that when things get hard, you have an end date to be able to be to be able to look at and say Okay, we're almost there. three more weeks, two more weeks, one more week, okay, we're there, we can like take a breath again, and busy season is over. So set that date and really hold true to yourself that you won't book anything after that date, no matter what inquiries come in. And that can be hard. But I promise keeping that boundary is going to make a huge difference with your family. Because hustle culture is like a thing right now where people are like you should, you know, hustle and grind and go really hard and blah, blah. That's how you build a business. Like I get it. There are seasons of hustle in businesses, but it's just that it's a season, and it needs to come to an end for your own, like a mental health. Because of hustle season doesn't come to an end and you're just on this never ending hustle. It's like you're spinning on a hamster wheel and you're gonna burn out. And so set the end date for hustle season and stick with it not just for you, but for your family to because it's going to make a huge difference. So those are just a handful of like really practical things that you can do. Right now to prep your family as busy season is coming closer, I highly encourage you to take the time to do that. Don't just do the stuff from last week's episode the business stuff and forget about family because you guys this one is I would argue to say that it's more important than prepping your business prepping your family is going to make or break you because at the end of the day, when the business has come and gone, your family is still your family. So you want to be sure to protect them, protect your time with them, and your future self will thank you for that. We're gonna with that, go ahead and wrap up this episode. I hope that it was helpful for you and you're able to take some things and apply it to your own business and your own family. And if you have any questions at all, or we'll just want to like chat through some stuff. I'm always available on Instagram at Rebecca rice photography.
We can chat through it and see how I can help. So with that, we'll go ahead and close out for today and I'll see you back with another episode this time next week. Bye guys.
