Blog Post

Surviving the school holidays without having a meltdown!

  • by Julia Clark
  • 03 Jul, 2023

How hiring a VA can keep things ticking over.

Ah, the summer holidays… do you remember those glorious days as a kid? A whole six weeks to kick-back, relax and have some fun!

While the long summer break is a living dream for the kids, as a business owner the summer can be a time of stress. Running your business as well as looking after the family can feel like an overload of responsibility – juggling the two can leave you feeling frazzled and counting down the days to when the children are back at school!

So how do you navigate the summer months without having a meltdown? And how do you take time off with your family without feeling guilty?

Read on to discover how hiring a Virtual Assistant can help keep things ticking over while you juggle childcare and work during the school holidays.

Prioritise & outsource

A trusted VA can be an invaluable asset to a small business during the school holidays. By working with a VA, you are essentially keeping your business operational without you having to be on call all the time, bringing more focus to your work and allowing you to enjoy quality time with your family.

But how do you go about delegating work to a VA?

As you approach the summer holidays, take a look at the coming weeks and list everything that you have to do. Highlight all the tasks that are an absolute must and that only you can do, and chances are, everything else can be outsourced to be VA. Such as:

Repeatable tasks that need to be done on a regular basis. These sorts of tasks can be briefed to a VA only once, and they’ll repeat it on schedule for you – whether that’s daily, weekly or monthly.

Tasks that you don't like doing.
When you don’t enjoy doing something, it’s surprising how many hours you waste procrastinating! Hand these tasks over to a VA and you’ll be amazed by how quickly they get these done.

Tasks you just don’t have the skills for.
Every VA will have their own skillset, and the VA community can offer a wide range of services – everything from administration, marketing, SEO, design and web site maintenance. So, ensure you partner with a VA that has the right skillset to take on these tasks for you.

Once you have clarity on what can be outsourced, you will begin to feel less overwhelmed, and everything will start to feel a little more manageable. You’ll find that your own productivity improves too, allowing you to dedicate more time to your family.

Check out my free outsourcing guide to help you figure out what tasks you can delegate to a VA.

Managing your communications

Now that you’re able to delegate some of your workload, you should treat yourself to some well-deserved time off (and not feel guilty for doing so!).

Don’t let your time off be ruined by being pulled back into work – don’t spoil the fun by taking calls, checking emails, and working evenings just to keep on top of things. Your VA can help manage communications whist you’re away – by keeping an eye on your inbox and only providing you with essential information, you can relax. Safe in the knowledge that nothing important is going to fall between the cracks as you enjoy some well-earned rest.

Let your clients and colleagues know in advance when you will be taking time off, and introduce them to your VA. They’ll appreciate the notice and will of course do their best not to bother you unless they really must. You might feel like you’re letting your clients and colleagues down by taking some time off, but everyone needs some time out from time to time (especially during the summer holidays!) – and your peers know and appreciate that, too!

Business as usual

Outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant and enlisting them to manage your communications will give you both the time and freedom you need to survive the hectic summer months. By keeping your business operational with the help of a Virtual Assistant, you can enjoy your time off knowing that everything will still be ticking over without you having to be all over everything, all of the time. To the rest of the world, it’s business as usual – but for you, it’s time to put your feet up and enjoy some summer sun.

If you found this helpful, and you’d like to find out more about how a Virtual Assistant can support you and your business, I’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re looking for support during the summer, or for something more long term, get in touch!

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