YOUR PHONE ISN’T YOUR LIFE...
PUT IT DOWN
Let’s face it.. we are all guilty of over-using our phones in the evenings when we should be spending time with our families, partners, kids or even catching up with our ‘normal life’ jobs but instead we spend all evening replying to messages which can really wait until the morning. But we don’t want to lose the customer right? The truth is.. as a customer, the right ones will wait and they won’t expect you to reply at 10.30pm when you are trying to relax with your face mask on and your brew! Don’t feel pressured to reply, put the phone down, turn the notifications off.. people can wait, it’s not life or death and let’s face it, we need the beauty sleep lol!
But wait, you might say, “they have sent ‘??’ Now I really need to reply to them…” but this is even more reason not to reply, don’t let impatient, and quite frankly, rude people pressure you into working outside of your hours, self-care is so important, whether you’re running a business or working for one, the time you take in the evening or even first thing in the morning is so precious, don’t give up this time and don’t take on the stress of replying to messages. If you really struggle with this, it might be worth getting yourself into a night and morning routine, making sure that at a certain time, your phone goes off and you focus on some important things to prioritise your self-care AND mental health: read, journal, meditate – whatever it is you find helps you to relax and switch off. The same goes for in the morning, set some boundaries with yourself and you really will see a difference.
Let’s face it as well, the time you spend living inside your phone is time you could be spending with your loved ones, reading a book or watching your favourite series, the things you don’t get to do when your in work!! Get out of your phone and get into the real world, ground yourself and LIVE!
DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY...
YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR PERSONAL LIFE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS
From negative comments on social media, to complaints, to people copying your products and ideas…we’ve had it all! And it’s hard not to take this personally, but we are not our company; our company is separate to who we are. So why do we let this affect us? It is hard but sometimes we need to separate ourselves from this for our own good!
What people say, do or how they make you feel in your personal life is a reflection of them, not you. However, when it IS about your business, it’s better to think of you and your business as two separate entities. It’s not about YOU personally – so let it go. You can deal with situations better and process things more calmly and clearly when you take your personal feelings out of a situation to gain a better perspective and look for ways to move forward. I also think a little criticism doesn’t hurt sometimes and can actually make us want to do better. So drop the emotional attachment, focus on finding solutions and turn any negative into a positive. Don’t burn any bridges and use these experiences to shift you back into focus and smash it!! Remember, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it – you’ve got this!
PUT THE PRICES UP - YOU ARE WORTH IT
Living in a time where butter has security tags on it… so if you are wondering when would be a reasonable time to increase your prices, it’s probably now!! Listen, your customers will understand; times are hard and they are even harder for small businesses trying to stay afloat for the never-ending price increases in life. If you’re not putting your prices up, then you clearly don’t believe in yourself enough, because it’s not just about putting your prices up for the sake of it, it’s about trying to make a living, this business is your livelihood, it’s how you survive, pay bills and support your loved ones and do you really want to keep your prices the same just for the sake of losing a few customers? NEWSFLASH: you won’t loose the good ones, and they are the only ones you need anyway.
0People aren’t just paying for you to do them a service or to create them something, they are paying for your talent and your time. So remember this and know your worth!
TAKE A MINUTE TO BREATHE
MENTAL HEALTH is a huge topic for me. I have absolutely run myself into the ground by working 24/7 and not taking any breaks when I needed them. Granted, that this was mainly in the beginning, whereas now we have an amazing team to help take the stress away. But in the early days, when me and Jayne worked from our home kitchen, it got pretty rough. Picture this: working in a small kitchen, icing sugar and flour everywhere, boxes everywhere, my dad just trying to make his tea, more flour everywhere… you can imagine this ended in a fair few family arguments!! We would start at 5am and finish at 10pm alongside working full-time jobs and then repeating this daily and weekly. It didn’t take long until we were burnt out and to top it all off, when we had finished baking for the day, there were heaps of tins to wash and soooo much cleaning to do, a lot of which we used to leave until the morning as we were so burnt out! We struggled saying ‘no’ to orders (and quite rightly so, because we never liked to let anyone down!) We took on A LOT and sometimes too much which is actually a good thing to do when you first start out.
But I can’t stress how important it is to take a minute, make sure you have a day off… one day off isn’t going to kill you; it will actually give your brain and body a rest and you can reset and get organised for another week. If you don’t rest, you’ll become exhausted and start to hate work! We have been there and it’s not fun. Meditation has always worked for me when I feel really overwhelmed, so if you are ever feeling like you want to quit because you are so mentally and physically exhausted, stick a meditation track or some calming music on, light an incense stick or fancy candle and just relax for a while to clear your head. Remember, things can wait until tomorrow. Happy mind = happy life. Look after yourself.
REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED
Owning a business can be tough, really tough at times, and sometimes you might not be able to see a way out other than quitting… many times I have thought, “WOW – it would just be so much less stress having a normal 9-5 job and just turning up to work, doing my job and going home and not having to think about work!” But then I think back to 21-year-old me sitting with Jayne and wondering what it would be like having our own business, finally working for ourselves with no-one telling us what to do and most importantly, doing something we loved: making and selling cakes to customers and never looking back. Never would I have imagined that we would be where we are today. It’s hard sometimes, yes, but even typing this now, I have goosebumps really remembering where we came from and as much as the times feel hard now, I am exactly where I have always wanted to be… little 21-year-old me wishing I could get out of the job that I wasn’t even slightly passionate about, wondering what life would be like if I could make my own money and not have to work for anyone else. And I do think we forget to remember that right now we are exactly where we have always wanted to be, we just have to be grateful and remember why we started, to build our dream lives with no-one else in our way!! We can honestly do anything in this life when we put our minds to it… keep that bloody dream alive!! Think of this when times get hard: “Remember why you started, remember where you’re headed, think of how great it will be to get there, and keep going.”
Hope you all enjoyed this one – I literally just write what comes to my mind lolll. Let us know what else you would like to see me write about in the REVIEW section below!
All my love, Fran xxx
