If I asked you right now, “Is your revenue goal high enough to pay yourself…
Want to know what I’d tell every business owner about preparing for grief? Maybe you are a proactive business owner that knows that preparing for illness and preparing for grieving are smart moves. Or maybe you are a business owner who unfortunately has a loved one who is seriously ill and it looks like sooner rather than later you’ll be dealing with greiving whilst running a business. Either way, you are in the right place. Keep on reading to find out what I’d tell every business owner about preparing for grief.
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WHAT I’D TELL EVERY BUSINESS OWNER ABOUT PREPARING FOR GRIEF
Maybe you’ve come across me (Charelle Griffith) before, but just incase you haven’t I’m a Business and Marketing Strategist that is all about planning ahead so you can grow your business on your terms. I am a planning queen and if you go through the rest of my blog (www.charellegriffith.com) you’ll find lots writing about planning and preparing. But I have to admit I never thought to prepare my business for grief. It was something I overlooked. And then in July 2024, I learnt the hard way about not preparing. I lost a loved one, I was grieving badly, but I had not designed my business to enable me to step away so I carried on. I talk more about my experiences of running a business whilst grieving here – A Year On: Reflecting on Running a Business While Grieving – but after writing this blog post I started to have conversations with other business owners around grieving. Some had already gone through the experience of grieving whilst running a business, but there were others who hadn’t and wondered what they could do to help their future self. I found myself saying the same things over and over again. So decided to just write them all down.
So here’s what I’d tell every business owner about preparing for grief.
1. Make Sure You Have Good Financial Reserves (Business)
You already know it’s good practice to have financial reserves, but just because you should have them doesn’t mean you do, and it doesn’t mean you have enough. The general advice is to have three to six months of financial reserves. This means you’ll need to work out what your average monthly expenditure is and this needs to include paying yourself, making pension contributions etc. Then once you’ve got that figure, make a decision about how many months of reserve you want to have. I’m someone who always likes to be on the prepared side so I’d aim for six, but as a minimum make sure you have three.
Once you’ve got that figure you can compare that to what you currently have. If the aim is below the reality it’s time to get saving and setting the money aside until you hit that level.
2. Make Sure You Have A Personal Rainy Day Fund
Having a good three to six months of financial reserves in the business will give you breathing space of knowing that if money doesn’t come into the business, you can still keep the business operating. But if you really want to give yourself space, then having a personal rainy day fund will make a massive difference. Whilst grieving no one needs added financial stress and knowing what you have your own savings to fall back on so even if there is a point where the business can’t continue to pay you you’ve still got some months before needing more money will be a massive help.
3. Review Your Terms and Conditions, Contracts, Agreements etc
So many business owners assume the best. They assume they are always going to be able and willing to work and therefore their terms and conditions are not set up to protect them if they aren’t. Spend some time going back through your contracts, agreements, terms and conditions etc and specifically think about what happen if you can’t deliver something on, you have to reschedule something or you have to cancel something? Taking the time to ensure you have the right terms and conditions in place will mean if the worst happens you are protected.
4. Have A Passive Income Stream
No one, even yourself, will know how you are going to feel whilst grieving. You won’t know if you’ll want to continue working or not, and you won’t know how long the grieving process will take. But the best thing you can do is give yourself the space so if you want it, you can take it.
Having a passive income stream will give you that space. I’ve already spoken about having business reserves and personal savings to help take away financial stress whilst grieving, but it can still be daunting if you decide not to work to see the numbers going down and down, and knowing you need to get back to work to turn that around. However, if you have a passive income stream, you’ll have the ability for income to keep coming into your business without you having to commit to doing any more delivery. Now it might mean you have to do some additional marketing, but you can do that as you please and a time that works for you.
5. Have Automated Marketing and Sales Funnels Set Up
Personally, when I was grieving, I was more than happy to do work where I was actively working with clients, but what felt heavier than usual was marketing and sales. And given how many business owners don’t even like marketing and sales in the first place, I can only imagine how much worse it feels when grieving. So be kind to yourself in advance and set up automated marketing and sales funnels. Have in place marketing that works 24/7 without you now, which means you’ll have two layers of marketing whilst you are also doing active marketing, but then if you feel, whilst grieving, you don’t want to do active marketing, you’ve still got marketing running.
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6. Have An Emergency Business Manual
If everything about running your business is inside of your head, you are putting your business in a vulnerable position. You want to have a document that includes the essential information if someone else needs to take over. This should include logins, instructions on what to pause and what to continue, who and how others should be notified, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for any processes they’ll need to take over.
7. Build Your Team or Support Network
If your business is just you, then think about whether you should be building a team or support network. If you decide not to work, who could cover in your absence? It might be that you consider having someone who could physically cover and actually do delivery, or it might you are thinking about having support to operationally keep the business running until you return. In either scenario, building that team, network or connections in advance and having those conversations is essential.
That’s it. You now know what I’d tell every business owner about preparing for grief.
I know that some people will think preparing for grief is morbid, but I don’t see it that way. It is a reality of life – some of your loved ones are going to die before you and if you are running a business preparing for that is sensible, both for your business and for you. Whilst grieving the last thing you want is also to be stressing about your business. So be kind to your future self and prepare for grief.
I hope you’ve found this blog post useful. Let me know in the comments what your biggest takeaway is.
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As a business owner you have the power. You can design your business and build your business exactly as you’d like. I’m passionate about helping service providers build businesses they truly love and that work for them – in good times and bad times. With my 1:1 Business and Marketing Mentoring I’ll be by your side own the vision you have your business and then make the necessary changes to get it there. You come with a clear vision for the future of your life and business, and I’ll help you work out how to get there. And then by your side with the training, support and accountability to ensure you successfully implement. |
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