In one form or another, you've probably heard the idea of your career coming after your family. I'm sure we'd all agree that it's important, but it can be hard to put into practice, especially for people who work from home. How do you keep a good "work-life" balance when your work is always available to you? You can't just "leave it at the office" if your office is also your living room. This takes some intentional thought and I believe it starts before you ever have a family. I believe that your family is your first job. One day, I hope to be blessed by being a wife and mom so raising my kids and being a wife will become my top priorities. My business will come second. Right now, I have a fairly flexible life. I can do sessions and edit and respond to emails pretty much whenever I want. I could be at my clients' beck and call... for right now. But this season of life, with its flexibility, will not and cannot continue. This is where thinking of the future comes in.
If you are an entrepreneur, work from home, or honestly, even if you have a traditional 9-5, think about what kind of life you want to have. Do you want to have dinner with your family every night? Do you want to be able to see your kids games on the weekends? Do you want to be able to attend church with your family? Or go to the beach or watch a movie or take a bike ride or just spend time together? If you answered "yes" to any of those, then you have the vision of your future that will help you set up business expectations now. In my case, if I become known for answering emails seven days a week, within just a few hours of receiving them and if I am doing sessions on weekends all the time, then that is what clients will expect. But I don't want that for my future. It would be fine now, but later on, if I have a family, I want evenings and weekends to be for them. Now here is where things go from black and white to gray. Hard and fast rules, with no room for grace, become legalistic and end up hurting more than they help. With that being said, I will do sessions in the evenings because that is when I get golden hour. I will do some on the weekends because sometimes that's all a client can do. But MOST weekends and MOST evenings I won't. I'll try to get my editing done during the day, but if it doesn't happen and I need to get the gallery delivered, then I'll work on it in the evening. My contact form says, "Thank you for contacting me! I will get back to you within 1-2 business days", to set the expectations NOW that I will need LATER. The other thing is, these expectations can help now too. Life happens and things can get crazy. If your clients have come to expect something and suddenly you can't deliver on it, that's a problem. When you explain, they will usually understand, but it's better to avoid their unhappiness altogether. I'm a big advocate of balancing work and life and prioritizing your family so I would love to answer any questions you may have and help you figure things out for yourself! I may not have my own family yet, but I grew up with a great example of it and I've done my own thinking and planning. How do you set expectations in your work to have good balance?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Hi! I'm Sarah!
I am a natural light portrait photographer. I've been taking photos since 2014 and would eat a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe for lunch everyday if I could. Thank you so much for stopping by. I blog about sessions, things I'm learning, stuff in my life, and information for YOU, my client. If you like what you see around the site, I'd love to work with you! I'd also love to connect with you on Instagram. I'm @sarah_jayne_photo :) Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|