Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Preparation & Organisation go hand in hand
Benjamin Franklin is attributed to once saying “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. There are numerous variations of this quote but you get the gist. It’s important to remember this in any area of business or industry but particularly in the Pet Industry where we have so many different hats to wear, and we’re often out of the ‘office’ for the majority of the day that things can get really messy and unorganised very quickly if we don’t prepare and plan.
For me, prepping and feeling organised go hand in hand. So here are 8 things that you can do to make your life easier and less stressful.
Have your meals & snacks planned, especially lunch. Being hangry is not the one when you’re out of the house, rushing from one pet to the next with little to no time to grab lunch or a snack. For me, being hungry is one of the main contributors to me having an awful day because I just don’t have the energy to do the job. So make sure you have enough to keep you going and don’t forget a flask of water too!
Stock take equipment & essentials. A huge annoyance and stresser can be down to not having the items to hand that you need on a daily basis. Pick a day either weekly or monthly to check that you have all the essentials, whether you need to replace anything or if there’s anything you can purchase to make life easier like a car boot organiser for example.
Have your bag ready to go in the morning. Hands up if you rush out the door, grab your bag and realise later that you forgot your lunch, drinks, keys?? It’s a simple one, but preparing your bag the night before so its ready to grab and go in the morning is a huge time saver.
Update your diary as far as possible. Its tempting to just quickly update your diary for the next week but this makes it more difficult to remember what you’re doing beyond that. If you know you’ll be walking the same dog every Friday for the next year, put him in the diary for the next year! It might feel like a big task all in one go but trust me your future self will thank you.
Keep paperwork in one place. Wherever you keep your customer info, business certificates, letters, tax return stuff etc, make sure it’s all easily accessible to you and in one place. Go a step further and have everything in labelled folders and super organised. You will feel like an absolute boss!
Set specific days that you do essential tasks. We can often forget to do important tasks when were busy and just winging it and doing things as and when. Pick a day/evening where you complete your books, invoices etc the same time every week. Having some kind of structure will make it easier to complete your essential tasks and not get behind.
Keep your notes in one place. I don’t know about you but I LOVE a notebook and stationary, so much so that I have various notebooks on the go at the same time and it’s hard to find things that I want to look back on. If you love a notebook like me, try labelling them so you know which one is which and if you keep notes on your phone try an app like Google Keep. It’s fab for organising your notes!
Reevaluate the way you do things, how you run your business. It’s easy to just carry on running your business the way you always have or copying the way someone else does it, EVEN WHEN it’s totally stressing you out or just not working for you. Looking closely at the way you do things its essential to discovering if there’s anything you can change to help you save time, feel less stressed and help your Business run more smoothly.
Reset & De – Stress
On January 4th I’ll be running a reset and de – stress your Pet Business workshop for a week, teaching you how to look more closely at your business, what you can change to ditch the stress, enabling you to have more time to spend on your furry (and non furry) customers. Hope to see you there!
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