Coaching Corner: How to Juggle Business and Life as a Single Mom with Podcast Listener Shyrome Hardmon Part 1

Podcast Listener, Shyrome Hardmon applied to be a guest on this Coaching Corner episode. Shyrome is struggling with marketing and building her clientele. It’s extra hard for her because she is a single mom to two small children and she feels like she doesn’t have enough time to run a household AND learn marketing for her business.

I know a lot of lash artists and solo business owners are in a similar situation, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some of my top time management tips from one mom to another.

Identify revenue-generating activities vs. non-revenue-generating activities.

I want you to ask yourself- what activity takes up the most of your time? This can be a business or personal activity. Let’s just say it’s cleaning. I think it’s safe to say that we all want a clean home-although if I’m being honest, you will NEVER catch me cleaning a toilet. Cleaning takes up a lot of time, and it’s also not a revenue-generating activity (ie. an activity that directly brings in income to your business). Now I want you to put a pin in that okay, we’re going to come back to cleaning in just a moment.

What’s your CEO Hourly Rate?

I want to do an exercise where we calculate your CEO hourly rate. You’re the CEO of your business and you need to know exactly how much your time is worth. If you’re new to running a business, your rate may not be where you want it to be yet- but this gives you a starting point.

Okay, so here’s how we calculate your CEO hourly rate:

1. What is your annual goal in sales this year? Like what would be a killer awesome number you could do? For this example, we’ll say $100,000.

2. How much time would you like to have off during the year? This could be weekly or how many weeks. Let’s say you want 4 weeks off per year.

3. How many days a week do you want to work? Let’s say 4 days a week.

So there are 52 weeks in a year and if we subtract the 4 weeks that you want off, that gives us 48 weeks of work. In those 48 weeks, you’re working 4 days a week. So if we take 48 (working weeks) multiplied by 4 (days of the week you want to work) it equals 192 days of work per year. Still with me? Okay, let’s keep going.

4. What is the maximum amount of hours that you are willing to work while still being able to make it home for your kid’s bathtime or being available for your kids or partner in the mornings? Let’s say you’ll work 9-5 (8 hours).

So we take our 192 working days and multiply it by the 8 hours per day you will work and that gives us 1,536 hours of work annually. And now if we take our original sales goal of $100,000 and divide it by 1,536 hours and it equals $65 per hour. Just believe me on that, I’ve got a calculator. So what you are basically paying yourself is $65 per hour. This isn’t literal, it’s just an example. But essentially, this is what your time is WORTH.

Okay, so I told you we’d get back to cleaning didn’t I? The reason why this exercise is helpful and clarifying is because- would you pay someone $65 an hour to clean your home? I don’t think so. Not unless they were using gold flakes to clean. You can find someone to clean your home for $20 an hour. It is better for you to spend money to outsource that so that you can take a paying client or spend time with your family. You have to remember that as the CEO of your business, you have a limited amount of time and resources. So where are your resources and time best spent? Not cleaning toilets, I can tell you that.

The best thing I ever did when my kids were young was hiring someone to do my laundry. She was here for about 4-5 hours and I paid her $75 a week. It was a game-changer for me to realize that I could get my time back. Yes, it does cost you to do that, but it’s already costing you for YOU to do those things.

If we’re looking at the thing that’s consuming the most amount of time and taking away from the revenue-generating activities in your business, that is the opportunity you have to get support. If you spend on average about 15 hours per week cleaning, you’re essentially costing your business $975 per week. Even if you cut that in half and hired someone to come in for just 7 hours a week to clean, at about $20 an hour-that’s $140 per week. But now you’ve freed up 7 hours that you can take a client or spend marketing your business to get new clients in the door.

Take the pressure off of yourself of what you THINK you should be doing

If your house was clean and less cluttered-what would that do for your peace of mind? You could probably relax more, right? That has value too. Oftentimes when our home is cluttered and chaotic, it’s a representation of what’s going on in our head as well. Even though we get used to the clutter that’s on surfaces our subconscious is still recognizing that it’s there and still making note of it. So it’s spending energy to make note of “someday I gotta go through those papers” or “somebody should clean that up, it’s probably gonna be me”. Once you get that out, you can feel more clear. You can relax and rest.

Which is part of the work of being an entrepreneur and especially a mom. Then you will have more capacity to troubleshoot and learn and grow and evolve your business because you’re well-rested.

Give yourself permission to ask for help and support. Sometimes we put expectations on ourselves that as a mom you should be able to pick up after your kids and do all the things-but that kind of thinking doesn’t serve you. So what you can do is hack your brain and say “Just for now, because I’m in a busier season- maybe I just need a little bit of extra support right now. “ Start small, maybe you get help just once a month. What would that do?

Usually what happens is we start to experience the benefits that come from getting support and help, and we might be able to see how we can increase that to two times a month because: “Look at how much more relaxed I am! Now I have freed up time to go through this training and learn how to do marketing! “

Even having someone come in and help with kids while you’re there (like a mother’s assistant or mother’s helper they’re sometimes called) is beneficial. They can help keep your kids safe and entertained and hang out with them. You’re still there, you’re just not the one that has to answer to their every need. Or someone could help you prep dinner so you could spend that 45 minutes working on your business. Your kids are getting a healthy meal because it’s made fresh and you don’t have to order Doordash or get fast food.

Take the meaning out of what it might cost or having somebody else do these things. Look at it like a chess game- you only have so many moves to make, only so much time, so what pieces can I be playing right now in order to win the game? The end result is you having a business that you’re satisfied with and a lifestyle that you love.

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