Q. How do you keep work hours and balance home/work life?
A. This is something I learned the hard way. I still battle it occasionally, because I get SO EXCITED about projects and can’t shut down until they are finished. I’m also big on customer service, so I like to pump sessions out like no body’s business!!
But, when you have other obligations like another job or kiddos to care for, you have to learn when to turn on and when to turn off. This is when schedules & work hours come into play!!
Currently, I choose to stay home, and not get outside child care, so I have pretty cruddy hours haha! BUT, it’s what works for us right now! 1-3PM (every day) I take care of emails/invoices/contracts/printing paperwork/social media posts. I do it during these hours, because that’s when my kiddos nap. I start with the most important tasks and work my way down…. I know, I know… this is when us SAHM are supposed to eat lunch and shower and clean! HAH! BUT you have to move things around to make it work. I shower before they get out of bed, I eat lunch with them, and I clean throughout the day during moments when they are occupied.
Things were a little different when my husband was home, because I had care when I needed dedicated editing time… But now, all of that is done at night when they are in bed so 7:30-12 (sometimes later) is when I cull/edit/blog. (Soon I plan on getting outside care so that I get that dedicated time back, even if it’s just once or twice a week.)
When he was home I would space these times out so we had *US* time. And I found that having a system with scheduling helped have quality family time. I try hard not to just randomly schedule.. I like to map out a month — I schedule in date nights, family days, rain makeup days for sessions, etc. I usually box off dates ahead of time that I want to be open for scheduling, so that when someone inquires I have exact dates to offer them.
TOOLS THAT HELP ME ACHIEVE ALL OF THE ABOVE:
*Scheduled Facebook posts
*Scheduled blogs
*My Erin Condren monthly planner
*Dry erase board calendar! 🙂
Q. How do you know what to charge?
A. This is the worst question ever. HAHAH! 😉 Kidding. This is just a very hard question to talk about. haha! Pricing is a monster 😉
**First I want to say that before you charge anyone, you need to be a legit business. To become a business you need to follow the regulations where you reside! You don’t wanna get in trouble, people! lol And if there’s any interest on steps in our area or tips on how to start one, please comment below**
When I first started I charged very little. Actually, I didn’t charge at all, I just accepted whatever families could afford to give me. As I got better, more confident, and produced consistent work, I moved up in pricing. Before the 1st of this year I did a lot of research and number crunching. Based off of what my family needs me to make per hour to meet our needs and based off what I need to make to cover business expenses/taxes/credit card payment for my recent equipment purchases is how I based my pricing. I didn’t just pull numbers out of thin air. I took time to think it through and I also used a calculator to get these numbers. You can purchase one here (by Color Vale).
Hope this helps! Leave questions or comments below 🙂
