It’s the holidays. It’s the holidays and we’re working hard. It’s the holidays.
Hey everybody, it’s the Meredith Canaan show. I am Meredith Canaan here, your Neurodiverse business mentor who’s gonna talk about how do we balance and what do we do as entrepreneurs during the holidays and how do we make the most out of our holiday season?
One of the things that I think that is a power thing for us to say, because the holidays are right around the corner. For those of us in the United States, Thanksgiving is next week. I know the Canadians already celebrated it.
But there’s also the winter holidays. I think there are something like 12 or 14 different holidays that start anytime between now and the first couple weeks of January when you get into like 12 night and some of those other fun things that people celebrate.
So as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you wanna make sure that you are enjoying the spiritual side of the holiday season. The family side of the holiday season. That is if you want to be spending time with your family. And so here are my top three tips on how to balance your entrepreneurial life while living life through the holidays.
First Holiday Tip for Entrepreneurs
The first one, I think that is the most important is to set the expectation. If you see clients on a regular basis, and let’s say they happen to have a Thursday regular session, well you probably are not gonna see them on Thanksgiving.
As a Jewish person, you know, Hanukkah is our major choice so Christmas is not as important. So you know, we don’t necessarily take off, but it might be that you wanna let everybody know, Hey, because it’s Hanukkah, I’m closing business an hour early so that by the time it is dark, I made this mistake last year cuz it gets dark so early by the time that it is dark, the minute it’s dark, you can play the Dre all light the candles and give the kids gifts.
So tip number one is to set the expectations. Set any expectations of, hey, we’re closing down the Facebook group and there won’t be any support in the membership or the course or the program over the two weeks of the holidays. My team won’t really be checking email, et cetera. So if you have an emergency, sorry, enjoy your holidays.
The more you can set those expectations, the easier it is to give you the freedom and the flexibility to do what you want during the holiday season. So that’s one thing. Set the expectations, because number two is it’s your business. And I love to tell my clients this over and over again.
It’s Your Business
You get to run your business however you want to. If you want to work during the holidays, you can, and some people choose to. It could be the best excuse for not having to spend time with your sister,or your in-laws or anybody else that you might not want to.
Or you take the whole time off and take the kids to Disney or have some fun or do something else.
So once you’ve set the expectation and you know what you’re doing, you let your clients know and then you can choose how much you wanna work or don’t wanna work. Do you wanna run specials? Do you wanna keep an eye on your Black Friday sales? I do have a Black Friday special coming just so you guys know. And how much will you be watching those items? How much do you wanna work? Because you don’t have to work holiday days, you can or cannot. You don’t have to take Friday after Thanksgiving off and spend it with the family. You can, but you don’t have to. Same thing with the weeks in between. It’s up to you. Take the time, spend it with your family.
If that’s what you wanna do, take the time off and purge your house if that’s what you wanna do. It’s your business.
So number two, it’s your business. So number one, set the expectations. Let people know what’s going on because it’s your business and you can run it however you want. Let them know how you’re running it so that they’re not depressed or upset. If you run a free monthly coaching session, which I do, let them know what it’s coming December 12th and say, oh yeah, but we’re not running it the first week of January because apparently my kids have off school and I messed up my planning on my school vacations. I got the dates wrong.
Manage Your Expectations
And then I think last but not least is, be okay with what shows up.
How can you set your business up for those unexpected holiday events that you might like to enjoy. When somebody says, Hey, let’s go look at Christmas in the oaks and see the beautiful trees. And you’re like, yeah, sure I can. That type of thing.
Give yourself the space and the freedom to enjoy the holidays, however you choose to enjoy them and make sure that you’re filling the buckets that you need. This is your opportunity to take some time off. So if you can unplug and recharge, if that’s part of your winter holiday process, do it. If you wanna spend more time wrapped in blankets on the couch with your kids binge watching the Santa Clauses, okay, I really wanna do that. Tim Allen, the Santa Clause movies, they are my ultimate favorite. Doesn’t matter if I’m Jewish, I love it.
So make sure that you have yourself, that you’re doing the things that fill you up, spending time in the kitchen, making holiday food and cookies and whatever it is that you want to do, this is your opportunity to fill your buckets. To be thankful and grateful for what you have.
Thanksgiving is a holiday all about gratitude. It’s a good time. The winter season is a time of reflection because it’s dark, it’s dark, it’s dark in the United States or in North America, in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year.
It’s a great time to do that. Internal deep dive to understand is the business like end of the year assessment is the do I need to fill my bucket? What are the things that I really need? Take the influence of the season’s darkness to help you find the gratitude for the light that you bring to the world. And to help you understand this is a great time for deep, inquisitive, knowing and understanding of insights that might help you for next year.
Condensed Recap of 3 Tips for Entrepreneurs
So those are my tips for how to balance running your own business in the holiday. First and foremost, set that expectation. So your clients, your followers, your subscribers, your everybody knows I’m gonna be doing things differently for the next couple weeks and let them know what it is.
Number two, it’s your business. You can choose how much or how little you wanna work. Nobody is sitting there judging you going, no, no, you should have only taken Thursday and Friday off. You have to get back to the grinds going on Monday and work hard, not your business. Do it your way. Absolutely.
And then three, really take the time to fill your bucket. This is an opportunity.
We in the United States don’t take nearly as much vacation time as we can, could or should. As business owners. I highly recommend you take more and while you’re off, be off. Don’t think about work while you’re with your family. Be present and take the opportunity to use the influence of the season to do some deep, dark inquisitive work and bring the light of gratitude to appreciate all that you have and what more you can create.
So enjoy your holidays. Now I’m gonna set some expectations. I don’t think I’ll be doing a Friday live show next Friday. I’m not sure if I have mentioned it or not, but I’m letting you know I’m not gonna be here next Friday. I might go play. I might do something fun or do nothing at all.
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