Running A Firm When The Kids Are Home
NEW episode (and last official one of the season!) of the Life First Accounting Firm podcast this week:
S1E9 Starting Stories: The Takeaways
Check out episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts!
Free CPE Now Available on Earmark!
Is it summer by you? I write this as the windows are thrown up, my kids are at VBS for a couple hours, and I’m debating if I want to hike up a mountain or kayak down a river this weekend.
Which means, it’s officially summer in rural Idaho 😎
In that vein, a question came from a reader this week…
How do you structure your summer with kids home? It feels like a struggle to get my work done and still have time with the kids. I had a lot of growth in my firm this year, so this is my first summer of a heavier work load since I left corporate to stay home.
First, congrats on the growth! That’s amazing!
But the summer struggle…yes. One of the reasons that I left corporate was actually that I wanted our kids to have the type of summer I did growing up. 90s summers = wake up when I wanted, ride my bike, go to the library, make crafts in basement, and couch-rot while watching copious amounts of TLC. (And I turned out fine.)
I didn’t want my corporate work to force them into back-to-back weeks of summer day camps. I’m not camp-shaming. For some families, day camps are a great (or only) option. It’s just not what I wanted for our kids.
On the flip side now, juggling kids at home and trying to run an accounting firm in the summer is hard.
Here’s how I’ve navigated our summers through the year…
For my family:
Controlled client capacity - when our kids were younger (<8 yrs), I capped my capacity with summer (and frankly, the school year) with them in mind
Worked on weekends - when my kids were little and my capacity was really limited, I would sneak in a couple hours of work when my husband was home. This allowed me to focus the kids during the week and let him have some Dad-time with the kids when I needed to work (hey, look! Dad knows how to make lunch and kiss boo-boos too!)
Hired a nanny - as they grew up, I hired a teenager or asked my MIL for help on my work days. Sometimes the nanny was here, so I could still have lunch with them, but sometimes it was easier to send them to my MIL’s house
Bought a lot of craft supplies - seriously. One summer, as they got even older and were outgrowing someone “babysitting” them, I took them to Hobby Lobby and let them each pick out $100 worth of stuff to keep them busy for the summer. It was cheaper than a nanny, but they also got bored with everything in the first 2 weeks…
Where I am now - our kids will be 15 and 11 this summer. I can’t believe it. I started this firm when they were 7 and 3. This is the first summer I didn’t ask for help (even from my MIL). They wake up when they want, watch TV, go outside, and read books. Then I can usually wrap up work early and hang with them.
For my firm:
Schedule “no work” days - my normal schedule during the school year allows me to not work Wednesdays or Fridays. I keep this schedule through the summer so I can just hang out with the kids those days
No onboardings through summer - I normally stop any new client onboarding in May, so I don’t give myself additional work through the summer. I might still do discovery calls in the summer, but I’ll tell the prospect that my next available onboarding slot is late-August (admittedly, I broke my rule here this year because I had a client that left me last year come back - yay!)
A month of “No” - at some point in the summer, usually June, I say No to everything that isn’t absolutely necessary to support my current clients. No marketing. No website update. No futzing with my pricing. No CPEs. No new software. No admin work. This usually cuts down my hours significantly and lets me spend more time with the kiddos.
I never felt like I cracked the code on making it through summer. Every summer (every age) has felt like a new puzzle to solve for. I thrive on a regular schedule and routine, and unfortunately, summer is anything but. By August, I’m usually desperate for my perfectly laid out schedule to come back.
But as I sit here, in early June, watching movies in the middle of the day and going to the library to grab books we can read in the hammocks later without bus schedules and after-school practices to manage, I’m beyond grateful for the flexibility I’ve built in firm ownership.
What I’ve given up in take-home pay, I’ve more than made up for in memories and joy. A worthy trade, in my opinion.
Happy Summer,
Erica
Couple things to know about!
👉 I’m presenting “You Can’t Pay to Be Popular” at ENGAGE in Vegas next week - Wed, Jun 11th @ 4:30pm - come find me and say hi! (and in the spirit of hanging out with my kids in the summer, I’m bringing one with me!)
👉 Fellow firm owner, Melissa Armstrong just started a Substack about solo firm ownership. Check it out here!
What’s Happening in Aligned
Click above to RSVP
Recently Added to the Video Library:
Roundtable: Emergency / Succession Planning [5.12.26](Great discussion - template to be posted in the coming weeks)
Tax Scheduling: Panel Discussion [5.26.26](3 solo firm owners share how they scheduled their clients this past tax season)
Tax Season Scheduling Playbook(same content as above, but in case you’d rather read than watch)
🤔 Question of the Week > What’s one thing you want to focus on this summer that has nothing to do with work?
Answer Here (love these answers!)
💬 Current Discussions On > part-time/remote bookkeeper needed, bears in his backyard, PNW tax firm for sale, conference season, killer SNH session spreadsheet, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry rec, health insurance broker needed, QBO Accountant Suite, and more!
Join the discussion with 170+ like-minded, non-scaling accountants / really cool humans in the link below. $75/mo, no commitment - come and go as you please :o)
Money back guarantee, if you get in there and don’t see the value. No questions asked.
More details in the link above.