Welcome to a day in the life of Pet Concept.
Today, I (Robin) will be talking you through what a day looks like for a small business owner. Yes, I do have multiple businesses but that makes it all the more interesting.
To start the day, the alarm goes off at 4.45am (blurry eyes) and with all my mite I try not to hit the snooze button. Shower, some form of green stuff to set me up for the day and I am off out the door by 5.30am. On a good day, I will nip to the gym. This all sounds great and is very much the ideal day, however these structures really allow me to hit the ground running.
I head to the daycare at around 7am and start my to do list. For me, it is so important that I am across everything that needs to be done in the day…otherwise you would find me catching some zzz’s on the sofa in the office. It really does sounds like the easier option, doesn’t it?
Knowing what is a priority in my day means I don’t allow too many important tasks to run into the following days. I use a traffic light system to help identify what’s important. The red tasks are the most important and they are non-negotiables for the day, the amber could possibly wait, and the green are non-urgent.
I urge everyone to use this system as it lets you streamline your day and ensure you managing your time the best way possible.
For most of the day, I will base myself at the daycare. Throughout the day I will block sections of the day off for specific projects. My blocks generally looking something like this;
- 8am – 8.30am Event management – Reply to all emails
- 8.30am – 9.30am Event management – Work on this specific project and my to do list
- 9.30am – 10am Pet Concept – Reply to all emails
- 10am – 12pm Co-ordinate all Pet Concept order and contractors
- 12pm – 12.30pm Pet Concept expansion brainstorm
- 12.30pm – 1.15pm Lunch (always eat lunch) and possibly a quick walk to re-energise
- 1.15pm – 1.45pm Reply to daycare email
- 1.45pm – 3pm Daycare expansion brainstorm and implementation
- 3pm – 4pm End of day meetings
Personally, where possible I like to organise meetings for the end of the day. This prevents me interrupting my flow and allows me time to prepare but also digest the outcome of the meetings.
As discussed in previous posts, this is much easier when you have established businesses and you have a team on hand to help lighten the load so you can focus on expansion. If your business is in its infancy, don’t worry, you can still use this model. It may however be best to assign a little more time to each task to account for any interruptions.
This is my ideal day so don’t be fooled that it is always so seamless. Life isn’t so there’s a very good chance that our days won’t be.
Early rises mean early bed so prioritising sleep will ensure you stay healthy and prevent burnout.
You’ve got this!