How do you balance everything...

[#1]

Hey Guys,

So recently I became employed again. My sister and I both run the online Etsy business. Before I was employed i did at lot of the Etsy stuff because she was working full-time. Doing the shop full-time was only temporary until I could find another job (it is not doing well enough for me to quite my day job) But, now that I am employed and working 40 hours a week, I am finding it harder and harder to promote and keep up with our shop.

I was hoping to hear some advice from my fellow team members on how they balance work, Etsy and promoting? I feel like I am working three jobs...

[Former_Member]

I was laid off before either of my two etsy stores were ready for me to "quit my day job". Now I trying to figure out how much time to spend on each of them and look for another job..... just trying to make it all work out.

www.etsy.com/SewBelles

www.etsy.com/SeasideElegance

[SpiritualGems]

I am a single mom new to Etsy and work 40+ hours at my regular job and have 3 kids. It seems like when I actually DO have time to make jewelry on the weekends, it never goes smoothly? I think it's because I can't give it 100% of my attention... ever. Sometimes, it takes me forever just to make a pair of freekin earrings!

I've only sold a couple things on here so far, and I know it's because I can't create everyday, let alone post new items everyday.

I wonder if I should just make a pant load of stuff and do a craft fair or two in the fall?

It's nice to know there are a bunch of us hardworking people trying to find balance in a not-so-balanced life. :)

[SpiritualGems]

Hey, Sewbells, I think you left out the "/shop/" part of your links.

[Former_Member]

Q: How do you balance everything?

A: With a really big scale! Well, for me a really good planner and commit to the plan.

[SnarkyYetSweet]

I think it really is all about making a schedule and having good time management skills. I work a more than full time day job, plus try to run my paper flower shop. Here are my tips:

Keep 2 to-do lists. One that are your long term goals (do paid advertising, create fall products, build own shop website, etc) and then one that consists of smaller weekly items (create pale pink roses, post to Etsy, write 4 blog posts, etc).

I've recently decided I needed a schedule to help me with recurring events I want to do each week. I've been slacking on my blog (www.myperfectlypaper.com/blog), so I'm starting to get back into doing weekly threads (each Thursday a treasury, every Friday feature an etsy seller, Monday post a fun photo). I've set up recurring meetings in Google calender for these items and some short term projects I want to work on. I have it set to email remind me, which goes to my phone.

I also use Tweetdeck which helps me post to my facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/perfectlypaper) and twitter (www.twitter.com/perfectlypaper) all at once. My smartphone allows me to check email, Etsy, Facebook and Twitter from anywhere which also makes multi-tasking a lot easier!

In the end you won't get everything done that you want unless you want to be a hermit and never leave your house or converse with others. :) Just try to get the important things done and set goals and schedules for yourself. Setting small goals also makes you feel more confident that you're accomplishing something.