Ask Me Anything: How to Balance Having a Henna Business and Homeschooling
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In today’s Ask Me Anything!, we’re tackling the following questions submitted from hennapreneurs like you:
[00:00] With a henna business + homeschooling, do you keep specific appointment hours?
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+ Read the transcript here
Chelsea: The next question that we have here is, "With homeschooling, do you have specific hours for henna appointments? How do you balance it all?" Okay, so with homes—so of course, you all know me. Yes, I homeschool. I have 3 littles. I homeschool and then I also have my business.
I do have specific hours for henna appointments. So as far as balancing it all, it's really funny, this is a question that I get very often. Um, I—so I have my business, right? I have my business. I have a henna boutique that's not far from my home, which is perfect for me. It's very convenient when I want to go and work with my clients. I'm about, you know, 5-10 minutes down the street from my business location.
So what I do—what my days look like normally is that I will get up early. And, um, normally it's in those morning hours. The first thing I do is knock out any email, any like, admin things that need to be handled for my henna business, Cardamom and Clove Henna. And then after I've knocked out those things, then I'll spend the early morning hours working on things for you guys with Hennapreneur.
Um, then in the daytime—so those daytime hours, some time, normally between 9 or 10 o'clock and like 3 o'clock in the afternoon, is when I'll be focused on homeschool. And so during that time I'm with my littles and that's why—you see we started at three. That's because earlier today—I just got up, actually, from helping my five year old with her schooling. So we would do school during those daytime hours.
And then after 2 or 3 o'clock, normally we wrap up. Around that time is when I'll come back to work. So that's when I'm doing any marketing that I need to get finished for Cardamom and Clove Henna, if I have any contracts that I see came through, if I have inquiries, if—things like this, the back end office of my business, I address that during that time. Um, and then I'm kind of in a waiting game where I'll take care of any outstanding tasks that I have for my business, um, between now and until my husband comes home. We don't send the kids to, like, a daycare or anything like this, so we switch them between us. So I typically see my clients in the evening hours. Once he comes home, then I'll swap with him and I'll go to the boutique and that's where I'll work with my clients in the evening. And then after I've finished my client lineup for the night, then I'll work, um, additionally on any content that I have for you guys for Hennapreneur. Then I'll come home and finish my evening out with my family. So that's kind of what my—what it looks like.
I know, uh, I get this question a lot. This weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with about 50 other henna artists and almost everyone who I spoke to asked this question, "How do you manage to do it all?" I use block scheduling and I use a—I have a system of, "Okay, at this time, this is what I'm doing. And at that time, this is what I'm doing." And I really pay attention to the tasks that I have on my to do list and I try to work through them through that system as well. So, that's how I do it. Uh, but I do have specific hours for henna appointments. I will say, um, so the majority of my income is made through private appointments that are held at the henna boutique. Which is perfect. The majority of my clients are working also and so oftentimes they'll come and see me after their work day ends. So for me to open the boutique at 5-5:30 is perfect for them because it works with their schedule as well. Um, and then I tend to work with clients sometime up until anywhere between 9 or 10, perhaps even as late as 11 o'clock, depending on the day of the week. Fridays and Saturdays I'm open until 11 o'clock.
So having those, just, couple of hours—it really is, like, 4-5 hours in the evening that I'm taking client work—that works well for me and it also meets the needs of my clients. Occasionally I'll have inquiries for things that happen during the daytime hours and at that point I'm just very specific with my clients that, "Listen, I'm a homeschooling mom so I also have this obligation to my family." And so if the booking doesn't meet a certain dollar amount, then I will just decline it. It has to be — Beautiful! Beautiful. Look, I've been gifted a beautiful picture. You want to show it? Beautiful. Here you go. You want me to keep it here? Okay. I will keep it. Thank you so much — um, and so I do—I'll schedule my appointments in the evening, almost exclusively, unless that booking does meet a particular dollar amount. If it meets that particular dollar amount or particular hours of time, if you will, then I'm willing to work during daytime hours and I'll make arrangements for the kids elsewhere. But, um, homeschooling is my priority otherwise.
So that's how I do it. I do have weekend hours that are much more flexible, of course. I'm not schooling during the weekend so Saturdays I'm available at the henna boutique in the morning. And then I tend to reserve— so, actually, my calendar for the henna boutique is open in the morning time only on Saturdays because in the evening on Saturdays is normally when I'm out with parties or with, like, contract work. So, um, yeah. That's how I do it. Um, okay.