Clearing the clutter and making space for what's next

Hello lovely WAers

Apologies for the lack of posts over the summer period. Working in education, summer is usually the quieter time of year for me work-wise, and this year I knew I needed to make good use of it. Last year, I worked on Jeremy's 90-day challenge, but this year, I needed to do something different which meant not necessarily sitting at my computer for eight hours a day writing articles!

I've actually spent quite a lot of this summer clearing things out.

And I mean that quite literally. Here's some of the things I've been sorting through!

and

I've been working my way through my house, garden and shed, opening boxes that haven't been opened for years, throwing things away, reorganising things and finally tackling jobs that have been sitting on my "I'll get around to that one day" list for far too long.

A lot of the time I've wondered why on earth I kept some of it, most of it, in fact.

Old paperwork. Ancient CDs, VHS tapes and cassette tapes when I no longer own a cassette machine or VHS player to play them on! Things that might possibly come in useful one day but somehow hadn't managed to become useful in the previous 15 years! LOL - anyone recognise this?

I've also been rebuilding my back fence.

But somewhere along the way, I realised that what I've been doing physically is actually very similar to what I've been doing with my working life.

Some things need to come to a natural end

I've known for some time that my income was going to change significantly this year. Some regular sources of income that I've relied upon are coming to an end, and that meant I had a choice. I could worry about what I was losing, or I could start thinking seriously about what I wanted to build in its place. I've tried to choose the second.

That doesn't mean I've suddenly discovered the magical secret to replacing an income overnight. I haven't, although I am working on that! What I have done instead is spend the summer looking carefully at the skills, experience and assets I already have and asking: What can I build from these?

Building several income streams

One of the biggest developments has been completing my training in hypnotherapy and transformational therapy and beginning to build that side of my business properly. I graduated in July and I've created my website, worked on my services and pricing, set up an online booking system and started putting the practical infrastructure in place so that I can begin attracting paying clients.

I've also been working on my Etsy shop, developing digital products that can potentially continue selling after the initial work has been done.

Then there are my existing websites. They haven't disappeared simply because I've been developing something new. These are the assets I've spent years building, and I want them to continue growing and earning. And they are doing that - it may be small but it's there. I have steadily had income from Amazon over the last year - it's only a few pounds a month, but that's something I didn't have before.

And somewhere amongst all of that, I've also written an adaptation of A Christmas Carol for a local drama group that I'm part of. If anyone is near Dorking in the first week of December I'd love you to come along!

That might seem completely unrelated to online business, but even that has made me think differently because I've created something that is a resource that I own. We're producing it locally this Christmas, but afterwards it could potentially become another asset that can be licensed to other drama groups. And that's something I've become increasingly interested in:

How much of the work I do creates something that continues to have value afterwards?

Our businesses need decluttering too

All of this has made me think about my websites in much the same way as I've been thinking about those boxes in my shed. Over time, we accumulate things - to some it's priceless treasure, to others, it's junk! But to most of us, it's clutter. Old articles, ideas we never completed, projects we thought we ought to pursue but never quite got off the ground, plugins we don't need, pages that could be improved and strategies that once made sense but perhaps don't fit where we're going now.

And sometimes the answer isn't to just keep adding more. Sometimes we need to stop and ask what is still serving the business we are trying to create.

• What should I keep?
• What should I improve?
• What should I let go?
• And where do I want to put my energy next?

Making space

I haven't finished my shed clearance or decluttering yet - not by a long way. My house isn't suddenly immaculate. My fence isn't finished. My new business isn't producing thousands of pounds a month. My websites still have enormous lists of things I want to do to them. But things are moving. So, perhaps that's what this summer has really been about - not reinventing my entire life overnight, but clearing some space, strengthening the foundations and making room for what comes next.

I have a much clearer idea now of the different income streams I want to develop and how they can work together. And strangely enough, every box or bag I take to the recycling centre seems to make all of that feel a little clearer too!

So if you're feeling stuck with your online business, perhaps the answer isn't necessarily to add another strategy or start something new. Maybe it's worth doing a little decluttering first.

Look at what you've already built and decide what you still want, and let go of some of what you don't.

That way you make some space for whatever you're going to build next. I intend to build a new shed!!

All the best to you all,

Gail (and Sparky of course)