– my inbox starts pinging on Monday morning with emails from clients that all start the same: “the kids are back at school so can we….” and you can almost hear the audible sighs of relief, mixed with ‘got to catch up’ stress. 

I sooooo know that feeling!   Luckily for me my youngest is now holed up in a grungy student flat in Wellington, pulling all-nighters so she can go out partying at the weekends while holding down a part-time job.  So I don’t have that big ‘put your business on hold for 2 weeks’ interruption to my work flow any more, but I've been there and have a well-worn T-Shirt to prove it. 

My first bookkeeping business in the UK was born purely out of wanting to work when my daughter didn’t need me to be there – in the evenings after bedtime, at the weekends when she was at a friend’s, in the holidays while she was at a holiday programme - so I could be there when she did need me.  For the school trips, the dentist appointments – even just being there when she came home from school became really important to me (although she might not have agreed!) 

And all that time there was the constant feeling of being pulled in two different directions,  needing to be the best mum and also the best business owner, and not doing a good job of either and compromising at both. 

When I first started my bookkeeping practice in New Zealand, Xero was very new too, and they ran a marketing campaign using the theme of ‘earn brownie points with the misses and start using Xero’.  It was aimed at the tradies whose wives were doing the invoicing and paying the bills in the evenings after the kids had gone to bed.   Xero got it, and so did I. So my bookkeeping business was born to help those wives who simply couldn’t do it all any more. 

Then after burnout a few years ago when I simply couldn’t work any more hours AND do the school run AND cook and clean the house AND host friends staying over Christmas, I finally chose to make changes too.  To not work harder, but smarter.  To streamline processes, to choose more carefully who I worked with, to learn to say ‘no’, and to get help. 

I got myself a coach, and I took a long hard look at the numbers – what was making me money and how can I do more of it; and what wasn’t making me money and to get rid of it, quick.   To outsource stuff that I didn’t need to do and took me way too long if I tried.   To focus my marketing spend on areas where my ideal clients hung out.  To show clients what value I could bring to their business, so that they could do the exact same thing – stop working all the hours god gave them and start being the best of both worlds - being a great mum and a fantastic business owner. 

Because as soon as we start believing it can happen, it will.  We just have to believe it first. 

Do you need some help believing it?  Or some help deciding what’s working and what’s not?  I can help you take a good hard look at your numbers, and maybe even be that coach you need.