Creating a Business Strategy with an Unpredictable Life

How are you supposed to map out a detailed 3,5 or 10 year plan for your business when, as a parent carer you don't know what the next 10 days will bring, let alone the next 10 years?

When you parent a child with a complex or additional need, life is inherently unpredictable - appointments get rescheduled, conditions fluctuate, new challenges arise. 

Is it even possible to build a long term business strategy around such uncertainty?

Short answer - YES!

The key is to work on building an agile and less time intensive business strategy and Im going to share some helpful tips to make that possible for you.

The First Step - A Subtle But Powerful Mindset Shift.

The first crucial mindset shift is to reframe your perspective. Designing a business that fits flexibly around your life's demands is not a limitation - it's a strategic choice. Too often, parent carer entrepreneurs diminish their businesses as just "a little something on the side." They view the fact that they are creating a business around their lives as meaning that they are somehow less of a business person that those who can dedicate more time to their business. 

Think of McDonald's. They pour oodles of effort into building a business that focuses on convenience & speed rather than quality or taste. Does that mean that they are not a restaurant? No! It means they've made a strategic choice and that choice helps them to make other strategic decisions.

Likewise, as a parent carer, the strategic decision to build a business around your life, will support you to make decisions about how you run your business, enabling you to make choices about how you earn money.

4 Top Tips for Strategic Planning Around Unpredictability.

Create the long-term vision but chunk it down.

Life as a parent carer just simply can't be predicted and that makes it super hard to plan out when you'll be available to work. That makes creating long term plans nearly impossible. But there is a way.

My advice is to create the long-term vision. Not what everyone tells you that you should aspire to, but what you actually want your life & business to look like in 3/5 years time. how much money do you want to be making? how much time do you want to be working? Do you want anyone else to be involved in the business. Get really specific. 

Once you've done that then chunk it down. If you want to be earning £30k profit in 3 years time, what do you need to be earning this year? Within the next 6 months? This month? Work with a time that feels reassuring for you.

12 Week Planning Cycles

You know how at the end of the year, we all take a break over Christmas, reflect on what has gone well over the year and what we'd like to do better next year? Then we start the new year feeling revived and motivated. We take action. Imagine what it would be like to feel that every 3 months (around about the time the motivation from January usually wears off).

The 12 Week Year is a powerful planning system for the unpredictable life of a parent carer. Rather than a grinding 12 month marathon, you work in 12 week sprints with breaks for review and replanning every 3 months. Like a mini Christmas and New Year every 12 weeks.

So, you take that chunked down goal (chunk whatever time period you've chosen down further into 12 week chunks) and list all the things you need to do to make it happen in the next 12 weeks. Review what has worked well to date and do more of that. Do less of what hasn't worked. Identify the time you have available in your diary - allowing rest, breathing and unpredictable time space. It's easy to say, I'll work all the times the kids are at school and then pencil in 9am-2pm every day as available work time, when realistically appointments, illness and other things are going to happen. So be very intentional about the time you have available.

The key to the 12-week year strategy is to allow for adaptabaility.

Break Free from Trading Time for Money

One of the biggest limitations of taking your old employed role into self-employment is the Time For Money trap. Many women parent carers continue to charge hourly rates for services when they become employed. But the problem there is that you can only earn when you're actively present and working. E.g. if you're a book keeper and you charge an hourly rate, you'll soon hit an income ceiling. This can be worse for parent carers because their available time is often so limited.

Look for ways to repackage your offerings into more passive or semi passive formats like online courses, memberships or downloadables. Of course these are just easy examples and might not be great for every industry which is why it's so important to get expert business advice (you can email claire@carersatwork.com to find our more about our professional business mentoring services). 

Staying 'Small' as a Strategy

In the online business world, we're bombarded with messages that we must relentlessly scale into million dollar empires. Rarely do the gurus acknowledge that choosing to stay 'small' and sustainable is perfectly valid - and may be wise for a parent carer flying solo.

Get crystal clear on your 'enough' goals. At what level of revenue and profit would you be content, without the added stress of managing a team? Build systems to steadily deliver on those goals year after year. You've chosen this path to maintain your life's balance - embrace that strategic decision fully.

A small, agile business allows you to nimbly adapt as your family's circumstances shift. There's immense freedom in that flexibility. Define success on your own caring terms - yearly revenue targets, manageable workloads, ample guilty-free family time. That's a growing, sustainable business tailored for the realities of your life.

If you need support to start or grow a business as a parent carer, come and join Carer Mums in Business, our free Facebook community of women who 'get it'.