Sometimes, no matter how well you plan or how hard you work, there may be times when it seems like one or more areas of your home – based business are out of control. Sometimes the chaos is foreseeable, just part and parcel of your work. Sometimes it is not. Regardless of whether you think that you could have predicted or prevented the situation or not, it is time to put aside your feelings about the craziness of the situation and decide what to do about it.
In order to be able to set aside your feelings about the chaos, it may be helpful to think about who experiences these kinds of chaotic moments. They can happen to any home – based professional, really. You could be a writer who just won an unusually high number of the projects that he just bid on, only to realize that they all have very short deadlines. Perhaps you own a landscaping company, you are fully booked with fall yard cleanup jobs, and an essential (and expensive) piece of your equipment breaks down. You could be an attorney, and one of your cases could take an unexpected turn for the worse that requires swift action – and lots of it. You get the idea. If you have a home – based business, chaos can come knocking at your door any time.
Since there is the potential for total chaos to happen in any home – based business, it is important to have at least a rough outline of an emergency plan in place for what to do when it happens. That said, since it can be difficult to predict what the exact nature of the chaotic situation will be, many people do not think that they can plan ahead for it so they just don’t. However, even minimal and generic planning can make finding your way out of a hectic situation a lot easier. Having things like a list of people whom you can call to care for your children on short notice, a colleague or two who you can subcontract work to if your clients permit it, and a favorable relationship with an equipment repair person who has flexible payment terms and loaner equipment available can really help. If you have even a few options of people to call or action steps to take in the event of an emergency, when chaos strikes you can put those options into action right away instead of having to use up precious time thinking up options and then acting on them.
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