Spring cleaning, business edition

a bit of a brain dump on making business changes

It has been a rainy March in Vancouver, more so than normal if seems, and it looks like rain for most of next week too.

With all that rain, there have been small yet impactful glimpses of spring, with beautiful cherry and magnolia blossoms all over the city and a few beautiful sunny moments.

I struggle in the winter, and much like the blossoms, I feel like my creativity comes to life as the weather starts to shift.

This is why spring is my favorite season.

I always get my best ideas in the spring along side the motivation needed to follow through with them. There is a problem though - I struggle with availability big time throughout the spring and summer, as my work schedule can get a bit out of hand (what an understatement).

To highlight this, here is a chat with a physio I collaborate with from time to time. He messaged me earlier this week:

• Him: What's your bike fitting schedule these days?

• Me: Oh, I just added a 6th day to the schedule, so not too crazy at the moment.

• Him: 6 days a week?! 😲

• Me: Yes. Wait, I guess 6 days is crazy…? Right

For the last 5-6 years, as my schedule got busier and busier, I have opened my calendar for appointments 6 days a week between mid March and mid September, and it always fills up. This is all nice and well, but all those ideas and projects I want to work on? They end up waiting for me in a bunch of notebooks or in Notion ready to be tackled when I have a bit more time in the ‘off season’, when I only take appointments 5 days a week, but generally have less motivation because it’s raining a lot and my motivation is lacking, especially after a crazy busy spring and summer.

Yes, I realize how ridiculous that is. And yes, it is a cycle that gets repeated over and over again and projects I am truly excited about get delayed or scraped all together.

I have been self employed for close to 19 years and I’ve done well for myself, but I have fallen into the trap of only working in my business, and neglected working on my business as much as I should have.

I believe that there is a right time and place for everything and that you will know when the time is right and you are ready to make a shift. I was aware of everything I shared above for a while, but I was not ready to make substantial changes, because I was happy. I love my work. And I love working in my business, with athletes directly.

This winter, I started getting a nagging feeling that it is time for some changes around here. This feeling got stronger this spring and today, I started doing a ‘business spring cleaning’, starting with blocking my calendar to only allow for appointments to be booked for 5 days a week instead of 6, giving me more time to work on the business and on the various projects I am excited about, and planning for something more robust.

It might seem like a small, no brainer step, but for someone who really loves their day to day work, it feels like a fairly substantial one to take. I started my business to help athletes and I started taking appointments 6 days a week because I want to help everyone and I don’t like when the wait for an appointment with me is 4+ weeks. At the same time, some of the projects I am working on will hopefully allow me to positively impact more people overall, so taking a few lateral steps before stepping forward again makes a lot of sense right now.

Wish me luck not caving in and adding more time slots to my calendar, and hitting the ‘done’ button on a few big things. Maybe I will even share my progress and how I am shifting my business? Who knows. Stay tuned.

Noa