Some of the best business advice I have ever received was from a manager at McCafé.
Running your own business as a mum of young kids will look every sort of way. For me, for a while, it was with 2 small kids in a sunless cottage, operating 2 businesses out of the spare room. Things weren’t going well.
Two businesses, two kids, one shady cottage
It was at mum and dad’s I started my entrepreneurial journey. Initially starting Blooming Beautiful, where I sold second hand maternity clothes on behalf of others. Then Lioness, where I designed and made breastfeeding tops so women could “breastfeed in public privately”.
After a year or so of living with my parents (plus a brother and his wife) we rented a small 3 bedroom cottage on the wrong side of a hill in Glenfield. I discovered how important the sun is to me and think I experienced mild depression.
At this stage in our married lives we only had one car which Tim would leave with me as I had the kids. Jack wasn’t sleeping much longer than 40 mins at a time during the day. I was still running both businesses from the spare room in this little shady house with 2 small kids.
Tim would bike 7km through busy Auckland morning traffic to get to his job as a teacher and then back again uphill all the way.
One way I coped was by putting both kids in the double pram (absolute life saver!) and walk up along the ridge (finally in the sun) along to McCafé at a nearby mall.
Walking there put the kids to sleep and if timed correctly I could get a coffee in and walk back before they woke up.
The best business advice, from a McCafé manager
One day I had made it along the ridge and went through the doors to McCafé. To my devastation I saw I had gone in the wrong doors and was greeted with a set of stairs!!
I must have looked exhausted as the manager came down to help me carry the double pram up. Having to exit and go around the building to the ramp entrance was well too much for me.
The manager brought me my coffee and then went on to give me this wonderful piece of advice. I have since offered it to many others, and it was a huge game changer for me.
Write down EVERYTHING that is bothering you. Just free write. Anything at all. The flowers that need to be thrown out, the summer shoes out when it’s winter, the calendar you don’t like, the cracked cup, the business courses you’ve bought that you can’t remember, the house needs a vacuum, you’re so tired etc
At that time, the standouts on my list were how exhausted I was, and that Jack didn’t sleep.
Once you have everything out of your brain, then put it aside. Just leave it. And when you are in a better mental state, come back and look at each item individually and objectively come up with a plan.
My plan was:
I was exhausted = I bought some great supplements and started eating more protein
Jack wasn’t sleeping = I took him to a baby cranial massage.
Still using it 20 years later
I am still doing this over 20 years later.
Earlier in the year I was finding myself overwhelmed by the various business and life stresses on me so I took a large piece of paper and wrote all the things that were bothering me.
does my overlocker need to be fixed or thrown out?
I need to design my website.
start writing blogs,
start a newsletter,
get rid of indoor plants that are dying,
clean the windows,
Fix link to FB community page,
All the online business courses I had bought
I stuck it on my office wall and could literally feel the stress leaving me now it was out of my head.
When I had time I would choose one and deal with it.
I numbered the online courses in the order to do them and have gone through 7 so far.
I bought WordPress for dummies and designed the website.
You are reading my 10th blog.
I still have some indoor plants that are not surviving my care and I finally cleaned the windows yesterday.
This applies to business, life and a combo. I find by writing it all down it relieves the mental pressure in my brain and then I can objectively come up with a solution for each issue.
Think you don’t have room to start a business?
Even if you aren’t yet in business and instead are wanting to start one but not sure if you have the mental capacity, this works. Write everything down that is bothering you. You might find that half of what is bothering you can be binned, delegated or fixed in 10 mins and suddenly there’s now more room for business than you thought.
A random manager in McCafé gave me this pearl of wisdom and I am now giving it to you. Try it. Grab some paper (I like large and visual on the wall of the office but the fridge also works) and list everything you can think of.
Then if you are still thinking of starting a business, add my free class to your list, then cross it off tonight. It’s 30 mins and you can listen/watch while you cook dinner. Sign up here.
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