Micro Business Update

Updates

This month I'd like to share some updates and then tell you all about how I'm handling being on vacation and working on my micro business. 

Let's begin with the blog, since it has seen a lot of small changes over the past month. You may not notice them all, but i hope you like the ones you have noticed. I'm certainly happy with them.

I also managed to send a pattern off to my tech editor and I can't wait to get it back, get some test knitters on it and find an adorable baby to photograph it on. 

This month has also proven very productive in furthering my knitting education. I've finished taking both Sizing Knitwear Patterns with Faina Goberstein and How to Say It: Pattern Writing for Knitters with Edie Eckman. I've learned a lot from both classes and although they take you all the way from complete beginner in these areas, I think almost anyone could learn a few great things from them. I certainly did.   

And now on to the vacation bit. 

Vacation time

Ahh, vacation time, long days with no solid plans. Wandering around cities taking in the beauty and noise, finding rest at the local parks or on long forest walks. Spending some much appreciated and needed time with your family. One wouldn't think that being on vacation would prove immensely beneficial for a small business owner, but it has for me. If you, like me, have a side hustle, being on vacation is the best thing. 

Benefits of taking a vacation

Of course there is the most obvious benefit of taking a vacation: it allows you, to spend all those hours, usually devoured by your full-time gig,  on your side hustle.  You can of course choose to spend your vacation working as many or more hours than you do when you are not on vacation and no doubt your business would prosper from it, but it may lead you to ask: What happened to long days with no solid plans?

Time, being without a doubt the most important benefit of being on vacation, is not the only benefit. If your side hustle is fuel by passion, I would advice strongly against the above approach. Instead I want to share my approach with you. 

Create a plan of attack

A few days before your vacation begins, sit down and make a list of things you would like to achieve with regards to your small business during your vacation. Having a list will enable you to see your progress and stay focused. It will even allow you to relax more, since you don't have all those things, that need to get done, floating around your head all the time.

Here are some things you should keep in mind while writing your list:

• Make sure your goals are measurable.

Don't write: get more followers on Instagram

Do write: reach 200 followers on Instagram

• Brake big goals down into smaller steps.

If 'reach 200 followers' sounds daunting to you, because right now you have a total of 5, then divide it into intervals of 10, 25 or 50 whatever seems manageable to you.

• Go ahead and add 1-3 goals that will be more of a stretch to attain.

Dream big. Don't limit yourself on what's manageable, reach for the stars.

• Don't be afraid to tweak the list during your vacation.

You should try to make the number of goals you have relate to the amount of time you have off. You can do so by trying to estimate how much time each goal will take to complete. That said, you can always add more goals or delete some if you feel like it. This list is simply a tool; it is not the boss of you.  

Here is a glimpse of my plan of attack, it originally contained 16 goals, but I've added another goal to it and am debating deleting one or two. 

Work your plan

Now that you clearly know what you would like to get done you are armed and ready to face your vacation head on. What you do next is very much a question of personality. If you are very type A you might plot every goal into your calendar and work then in just that order. If you're more of a type B, you can wake up each morning, look at the list and decide what to work on. You may decide to work for x hours a day, only work certain days or maybe just work when you feel like it.

How you choose to work your plan of attack doesn't matter as long as you actually work on it. Ideally you'll have all the goals crossed off by your last vacation day, but if this isn't the case, then don't fret. You can transfer them to a new list and keep working on them after returning to your full time gig.

Carpe Lanem