1st of the Month Planning Routine for Homeschooling Solopreneur in 2024
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1st of the Month Planning Routine for Homeschooling Solopreneur in 2024
As a homeschooling mom and solopreneur, finding time to get everything organized for the month can take some time. I set aside the 1st of the month to do this (or as close to it as I can get). It usually takes me 1-2 hours. However, this month it is taking a bit longer than usual because of our recent move. There are a number of new activities to research and decide which ones will make the cut and get added to our family and my business calendar. So let’s dive into my 1st of the Month Planning Routine:
Step 1 | Review Local Homeschool Activities
One of the first things I do when moving to a new area is jump into local homeschool groups on Facebook. Depending on the population density of the area we’ve moved to there can be an overwhelming number of homeschool groups or just one or two. This time our move to the Magic Valley in Idaho, deciding on which FB groups to join was easy–there are just two, so I joined both. One is a general Homeschool group and the second a Christian group. Most of the events are shared between the two groups but there are a few that are unique.
Next, I start adding the recurring monthly events to my family Google Calendar. After adding a few, I went on a short tangent to figure out how to update my notification settings so I’m not modifying them for every event that I add. After a few Google searches I finally found the tutorial I was looking for: How to Specify Default Reminders in Google Calendar. (I've been wondering this for months now and I’m so glad I took the time to figure out the answer. It was such a time saver!) My go-to notifications are 1 day before plus 1 hour before. This always gives me a heads up the day before so things are on the radar and I can remind my kids plus the 1 hour before gives plenty of time to get there as we live about 15 minutes away from most of the activities.
I finished adding the rest of the homeschool events while teaching/being available to help with my kids' math lessons. At the start of our lesson, I had each of the kids review the Public Library Activity Calendar and highlight the activities they’d like to do. Then I added those events also. It’s so fun to see which thing light up the interest of each kid!
Step 2 | Review Work Mastermind & Group Coaching Calls
Next up, I review the Mastermind calls I have each week. I’ve been meeting with two women for nearly a year now. We first met in the Scale With Templates course FB group. We started as an accountability group for working through the course and actually taking action. Over the months we become close friends and a source of weekly support and encouragement for business and life. We also get to celebrate little and big wins together. The second weekly mastermind call I have is currently on a pause as both of us recently moved, but I hope to restart soon.
Now I review all the Q&A and group coaching calls for courses and programs I’ve joined. Over the years I’ve joined quite a few so each month I try to prioritize them as they relate to my current business goals. If it were left to me, I’d simply go to all the calls and learn all the things–but alas, I would not be a business owner, rather just a perpetual learner. The important thing is to apply the knowledge and take scared and messy steps to push forward through the doubt and mindset strongholds.
This month I am focusing on Rache’s from Squarestylist’s Standout Squarespace live weekly group Q&A calls that correspond to each Module in the course. I was able to keep on track the first 3 weeks, but prior commitments have reduced the time I have to work on this highly in depth Squarespace and coding course. I’m committed to continue to work through the modules for as long as it takes this time!
I try to review each course's support options each month because some are quite predictable and others are in the midst of big or little changes. Some of the other’s I am prioritizing this month are my Day Rate Mastery by Sarah Masci. I’m currently working on my VIP Expert Certification. I’m just about 50% through the certification steps and so excited to continually be making progress in this area. In February and March I completed my biggest project to date, 7 VIP Days for an amazing Interior Designer based in Texas. Look forward to hearing all the details in the near future.
The last group I’m going to focus on is Boss Mom. Dana Malstaff is making some really big changes and moving her group from FB to Circle and building her own App. I’m really excited to know what all she has in store as she and her programs have been such a wealth of information and encouragement. Previously there was one group Q&A call a month on Wednesdays.
Step 3 | Review Local & Online Networking Opportunities
In addition to joining local homeschool Facebook Groups, I also like to join several local business, community, & mom groups. In larger and smaller areas alike this can be a huge benefit to network for client opportunities as well as potential referral partners. In my last location I had the opportunity to go to several networking events both paid and free. I loved them both.
The area where we’ve recently moved is quite a bit smaller and so far I’ve only seen a couple of in person events. I’ve seen the power of in person referrals in other local groups so I’m going to start hosting my own meet-ups. I’m planning on one evening cocktail/mocktail plus one daytime coffee meet up a month for this quarter. So I’ll figure out the best days and add them to the calendar! I have the location for the evening event, but still need to scout out the best daytime location as the coffee shop in my little town looks like it only has 2-tops until the summer weather arrives.
Step 4 | Review & Confirm My VIP Design Date Offerings for Sisu Site Shop
Last month I decided which two days I’d offer VIP Design Days for the next few months as well as the days and times I’ll be available for discovery calls, strategy calls, and paid strategy calls. For April & May I’ll host VIP Days on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Now with all the other possibilities penciled in on my family and work calendars I check to see which days I will actually be available to book VIP Days. So far I only have one conflict–traveling to Boise for my oldest’s State Youth In Government Conference at the end of April. I add any HS commitments for VIP days to my work calendar so my Dubsado schedulers will automatically see that I am busy and not offer VIP Day options on those days.
Step 5 | Review My Quarterly & Monthly Business Goals
On months that are the start of of a new quarter, I will plan a day to review my goals for the quarter and then outline my monthly and weekly goals accordingly. Honestly this has been one of the biggest struggles for me as a solopreneur and homeschooling mom. I always think/wish/plan to accomplish so much more than reality allows. I underestimate the time tasks will take given all the interruptions of working from home as well as the commitments I’ve made to my personal health goals. Most things take 2-3 times as long as I plan for and I never allow for the total disruption that moving causes to my homeschool and my business. In reality moving really cuts into my work hours for almost 4-6 months with all the planning, packing, unpacking, updating, and rearranging of schedules and routines.
I’ve been so much better at tracking my work hours in Toggl this year. So at the end of each quarter, I am also planning a Quarter review day. I’ll use this day to go over all the details of the quarter and compare how I actually spent my working hours to the goals I set to see how they actually line up. I am excited to see how things turn out. A few of the main goals I’ve set for myself is to take profit driven actions and visibility focused actions. I need to bring in revenue and in order to do this I need to let people know how I can help them.
So that’s it. I’ve walked you through my current 1st of the month planning routine. The tools I’m currently using include Google Calendar for my work and family calendars with automatic reminders, Dubsado for automatically booking my Design VIP Days and associated calls, and the free version of Toggl to track my actual hours spent planning and working. If you’d love more insight into my planning and goal setting over the years check out these posts:
If your interested in learning more about Dubsado here are all the posts I’ve written so far:
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