Episode 1 – How to Balance Work & Life as a Self Employed Biz Owner
- Posted by Alessandra Kaminski
- On September 4, 2019
In episode one, we talk all about work-life balance with Trayce Gregoire of Trayce Gregoire Photography. This is a cumbersome topic for most business owners and we help our guest Trayce get right to the core of her challenge. Trayce is a professional portrait photographer who came to us to discuss the challenges of time management, task planning, and finding the balance between personal and business duties.
Guest Bio – After having careers in both the Marines [thank you for your service!] and as a Registered Respiratory Therapist, Trayce decided to finally pursue her passion and opened a professional portrait studio in Goffstown, New Hampshire that she’s been running for the past 5 years. Since then she’s grown her business and she now provides services for:
- Corporate branding
- Weddings and engagements
- Newborn babies
- Maternity
- High school seniors
- Family portraits
- Women and Glamour
Host Bio – Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade. They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.
Episode 1 Summary
- The concept of Batching tasks
- Creating a realistic to-do list
- Making a backlog of tasks
- Sticking to a routine [both morning and night]
- Scheduling ‘like’ tasks for certain days
- Giving yourself actual “me” time that is void of mental guilt
- Setting your intentions for the next day
- Using software to organize your task lists
- Set expectations with clients about communications
- Stop letting client communication interrupt you
- Utilize the screen time app and set “off-time”
- Do a time audit to become more efficient
- Set boundaries for yourself
- Allow flexibility without guilt or overdoing it
- Avoid phone use for 1st hour after waking
The Challenge & The Next 3 Steps
Trayce is a professional photographer who is struggling with how to manage a personal life, family life, and professional life – while staying sane and productive. In order to solve Trayce’s work-life balance challenges, we came up with these next 3 steps so that she can immediately hit the ground running.
- Create 3 business tasks for your daily to-do list – create a backlog for other tasks that are on your mind, but not immediate.
- Batch email time – set a specific time [1 or 2 tops] that you check your email and social accounts each day.
- Give yourself, “work from home” time and show up at that time – but make sure to subtract it from your workday.
Recommended Resources
Trayce Gregoire Photography – http://www.traycegregoire.com/
Trayce Gregoire Photography on Facebook – @traycegregoirephotography
“Doing a Time Audit Saved Me from My Business” Blog – https://learnit-doit.com/business-strategy/doing-a-time-audit-saved-me-from-my-business/