Episode 1 – How to Balance Work & Life as a Self Employed Biz Owner

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.

1. Create 3 business tasks for your daily to-do list – create a backlog for other tasks that are on your mind, but not immediate.
2. Batch email time – set a specific time [1 or 2 tops] that you check your email and social accounts each day.
3. 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/