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👻 Boo-urn Out - Staying in front of falling behind.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 184 - Boo-urn Out, Corrie wanted to do our annual 😩 "Ways to avoid getting burnt out during the baker's busy season" strategy sesh.

Hey - business ownership ain't for the weak. Additionally, baking businesses reach their ordering maximums during the Q4 months (📅 October, November, and December). 🤑 It's easy to fall prey to that green we've been laying the foundation for all year, 🔥 but it's always the fast pass to closing a business when we burn the Christmas candles at both ends. 🔥 

Summary: you can make the MOST money in the world, but if you close your business Jan 2025, was it even worth it? 🏈 Sustainability is the 🔑 k-e-y to success in the baking "Super Bowl."

1. Turn off your order form when you're booked. 

📃 Disabling your order form is a really definite way to say, "Don't come knockin' on my door, I'm too busy settin' up my Christmas tree. 🎄" It's perfect for those of us who hate to see the look of disappointment on a client's face and struggle with saying no. 🚫 I wrote a poem for ya - "If they can't hit submit, you won't witness the fit."

2. Set your order max now. DO NOT DEVIATE

You know what your limits are. 💯 If you know 10 dozen will be the most you can handle without hating life, set your weekly max now - and when you hit that max, shut down that order form. You'll be tempted to get greedy when the order submissions are hittin' the Inbox and the DMs. 🔐 Don't fall for the green goblin - if the limit you set was 10, 10 it shall be.

3. Schedule 2 posts per week.

Corrie's rule-of-posting-thumb is 2 posts per week. ✌️ We have, what, 8 weeks left in the year? That's 16 posts - something you can likely knock out in an hour tops. And the posts don't have to be earth-shatteringly good. 💆 A simple post can keep your page audience engaged while also removing that dreaded feeling of, "Oh darn, I forgot to post to socials. I'm falling behind" when we need more bandwidth to bake.

4. Schedule days off now. NO COMPROMISING 

📆 Go right now, open your calendar app, and set the days you DO NOT want to work to "busy." And then absolutely do ❌NOT❌ schedule anything on those days. That includes prep work, supply and ingredients shopping, baking, pick-ups, etc. THOSE ARE YOUR OFF DAYS - I'm yelling so you hear me loud and clear. 👂 When we get rushed and take on too many orders, we're tempted to give those days up. 💸 What's all the money in the world if we didn't get to stop and smell the roses... or in this case, the pine needles? 

5. Shorten your FB Business Page Hours.

Facebook business pages work off of set hours (it affects how your page shows availability and how your auto-responders work). ⏰ In busier months, shortening your "available hours" can signal to your clients that you're not sitting by your Messenger inbox twiddling your thumbs and waiting for their next reply. Setting your page hours to 3 hours a day makes sense when you're trying to limit order inquiries. 

6. Elongate the funnel.

In the world of sales, 🤏 we want to shorten the funnel. In the world of "too many sales so we're feeling burnt out," ✋ elongating that funnel ✋ can subtly curtail orders. Just as a short funnel has the fewest amount of clicks to order (think: Amazon's one-click-to-buy option), ⛹‍♂ a long funnel that has clients jumping through hoops to place orders can be a nice bumper to slow down incoming inquiries. Don't add the order links to post, don't had the form link to your auto-response message, have your auto-responder say it'll take you 3 days to get back to someone, etc.