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How to manage your time!
My candle business is a full time venture but I also have two children and . I am often asked how I manage to run a successful business as well as staying home bringing up my children and the key is organisation.
Set regular business hours
Let your friends and family know that these are times when you will not be available for social visits or phone calls. The hours that you set are up to you. I work from 7.30pm to 11.30pm in the evenings and then on weekend afternoons as well. I don't always spend all of this time making candles - I also use it for paperwork, packaging and packing orders.
Don't feel you have to take phone calls!
Record a message on your answering machine to let customers know you are pouring candles during certain times of the day and that you will call them back as soon as you are free. Even better is to have somebody else to take a message for you and then set aside a half hour a day, for example, to return phone calls to customers. Let friends and family know you will call them as soon as you have some free time.
Set a "closing" time
You need a set time each day that you will put down your work and leave it until tomorrow. Because I only get evenings and weekends for my crafting, I do sometimes work non-stop until a project is finished, or if I am getting ready for a show, but doing this consistently and consecutively does take its toll and leaves me exhausted the next day.
Take regular brief breaks.
Walk outside for some air, have a cup of coffee, make a sandwich, run errands etc., just to get a few minutes away from your work. Not only is this good for your peace of mind and sanity, but also for your body, which can get stiff from sitting or standing in one position for long periods of time.
Pick one day each week to do certain mundane tasks:
Mondays for ordering supplies, Tuesdays for follow-up calls on overdue bills, Wednesdays for mailing invoices, Thursdays for research/reading about your field or your market, Fridays for thinking and creativity -- focus completely on your work and new ideas.
Seek assistance
If there are areas of your work that you can't manage and are letting slide, e.g., financial records, invoices, bill collecting, order fulfillment. Even an assistant who is paid to come to your studio once a month and update all billing and collect on overdue invoices may free up a greater deal of your time than you realise.
Talk to other craft workers.
Other people may have learned valuable management tips through their own experiences or from other crafters. This is where I gained all my knowledge when I was beginning. Ask your neighbours at a craft fair how they keep records, manage invoicing and collecting, ship orders, purchase supplies, etc.
Set realistic deadlines.
Deadlines can help you stay on track from day to day, and if followed, will help you avoid hectic "crunch times" like pre-craft show preparation and advertising promotion. I am more guilty of this myself than I realise! I attend a couple of shows each month and I will always give myself a couple of days off afterwards to relax and re-coup, but the final few days before the craft fair I am running around like a headless chicken finishing off. I am usually up until 1 or 2am doing last minute things. This will change when I have more time during the day when my children start school.
Prioritise.
Whatever you have on the calendar for each day, do that first. If you have multiple tasks planned, decide which one is the most important and do that first. Anything unfinished should become a priority for the next day.
Stop and think.
It is easy to become overwhelmed when you know that you have too much to do and too little time to do it all, and all you can do is think about how much you have to do and how you'll never get it all done! I know - I've been there often!! What I used to end up doing was going at it hammer and tongs and then losing my patience when the candles weren't ready to come out of the moulds. I wasted a lot of time and candles this way. What you must do is to sit down and think about what is most important, and go from there.
Time at the end of the day
Set aside the last few minutes of every day to look over what you have made and what is still unfinshed and plan for tomorrow's tasks.
And, finally.....
Take the time each day to appreciate your work and the fact that you can make a living doing work that you love. If you're not feeling very appreciative of your work at the moment, ask yourself, "Why not?" and then try to think of possible solutions. If the bills are piling up and dealing with customers is making you dread answering the phone or making necessary phone calls, perhaps you can consider hiring a part-time ssistant. Will the costs be offset by the extra time (and peace of mind) you will have to invest in your work? If not, what are your other options? Think about it and make it happen, so that you can enjoy the life you lead to its fullest.
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