What to do when you get sick as a self employed business owner

Well, I unfortunately know a lot about this and have my fair (unfair??) share of first hand experience so please know I am more than qualified to address this topic. 

We don’t plan to get sick, or go through unexpected time off, whether it be for bereavement, or illness, or situations completely out of our control, and it’s an awful feeling to have your mind split between focusing on the sickness/grief/unexpected event and worrying about your business and its longevity and if your time off will harm it in any way.

What we can do though, is plan for the uncontrollable. Take control of the uncontrollable.

Honesty time:
Over the past few years, my health has taken a turn of which I did not expect nor plug into my life’s GPS. I’d been awaiting surgery and was put on a FOUR YEAR WAITING LIST for life altering surgery (women don’t need healthcare, right??) and got a random call one day while I was in the bath asking if I wanted the surgery in 12 days time. Here’s my thought process:

1) That’s great news 

2)How do I possibly get my head around that?

3) This bath has gone cold and I need to get out

4) How can I prepare my business in 12 days to run sustainably while I’m in recovery?

So, if you are hit with an unexpected thing, first if you need to panic, you can have a little wobble, allow yourself that, then get into action. BOOM BOOM

BUT if you haven’t planned for such wild events then your time to plan is NOW.

Here’s how:

Set an out of office

Have an out of office script planned in your notes section or google docs or wherever you keep your words and musings and get someone, or do it yourself if you can, to set your out of office response saying you’ve had an unexpected emergency and hoping to be back in 7 (or however long) days (write the date) and to please hold tight.

This will allow you to breathe and not worry about the emails popping in and enquiries popping up because they are already semi-dealt with.

Use a CRM

It’ll automatically put your enquiries into a folder and you can set it up so it emails them back immediately saying you’re delighted to receive their email and you will be in touch soon. It adds them to your workflow so it’s all in one place.

Start building an emergency fund

Think about allocating a small fraction of your income from shoots into a savings fund (one with a good interest rate will help too, hopefully you won’t have to touch it!). Using the app Plum can help as it rounds up all your spending to the nearest £1 and you barely notice it’s doing it. It builds up nicely and is a nice way to save without thinking about it so much.

Hire a social media manager

I hired Citrus Comms to take charge of my social media for 2 weeks post surgery, and had planned the posts, reels, captions, order of posts so it was really simple for her to do it (and I am SO thankful for her amazing help and engagement)

Plan your social media and schedule 

Batch creating drafts and posts WILL help you, including their captions so it’s fully ready to be scheduled either by you, a social media manager or by someone you trust. Alternatively, post a static post (on your grid) saying you’ll be out of office for a while and will be back.

Protecting your future business

While I am in recovery, I am unable to go out on shoots, so here is an absolutely shameless plug of my course that I put so much love and energy and insight into that has changed people’s lives and can do the same for you and because my health and as my getting back to Han journey has only just begun, it’ll help me out, too. That shouldn’t be your reason for doing the course, but it sure fits in with this blog post.

The course is a self run 12 week programme consisting of:

-in depth video lessons covering everything you need to know to make your photography business work
-discussions and live problem solving with real photographers
-tutorials (technical, PS, LR etc)
-interviews (marketing expert, social media agency etc)
-lifetime access to the materials and community
-homework and practical fieldwork to build your portfolio
-community of likeminded folk on the same journey
-accountability buddy
-exclusive industry discounts (which are constantly updated)
-1:1 strategy and goal setting video call post course
-certification for your website
-and buckets and buckets more

Here’s what the students have to say:

Take this as your sign to feel empowered with your photography journey and your creativity.
You will leave every week feeling ready to create and take actionable steps to actually making your photography business work, because it can, it will shine with the right tools.

Get started for as little as £138, less than one shoot per month. It’ll end up paying for itself.

I’m gifting £300 off as an extra welcome bonus and because kindness is cool.

That deal won’t last forever, but your business can.

Biggest love and gentle cuddles (they’ll turn into big squishy squeezes when I’ve healed from surgery!!)

Han xxxxx