April 2, 2020

Hi Holly,

I was really hoping yesterday’s April Fool’s Day joke was one of the headlines!

It's a tough time for all of us right now, and I'm hearing from my clients, friends and family that restlessness and sleeplessness have become their new normal. Do any of these sound familiar to you?

My parents are far away. I can’t help physically (even if I was close by it would be tough) but my sister is in the thick with them! And she and my BIL have their own work and family issues to deal with too, trying to be a principal and teacher from home!
My kids. Getting everybody set up for virtual school and how much do I need to be involved? Keeping them focused, helping their days be effective and making sure they finish the year well so they are ready for next year. They miss their sports so much! And what about the social aspects? This is important to them right now in middle school and high school.
My spouse. He’s trying to work from home as well and be helpful at home and with the kids (and not let them drive him nuts), but this is new territory for him and it can be a bit crazy.
Projects at work. Do I move forward based on old deadlines? New Deadlines? We need the $ flowing, so got to keep going, but will we get paid? Do I have all the materials I need to navigate the stay-at-home order? My tech isn’t as up-to-date as I would like it to be and I’m not as skilled on it as I should be.
Bills to pay at work and at home. Yes, the government says we can get low-interest loans, but I’ve tried to get out from under those and they are a pain in the butt to get all the paperwork together, etc. We have rent and contracts with people and services and employees need to be compensated — I can’t just let them go right now! They are in the same boat.

I know for me there are days when I just want to ignore it all and watch TV—but nothing is on, no sports, just depressing news. How about you? Are you feeling the same?

Being a business owner is nothing less than courageous. And in this month's newsletter, I'm sharing my best tips, tools and resources to help you make the best of the COVID-19 "shutdown" we're all trying to navigate right now.

What specific challenges are you facing? Fears? Questions? Hit reply and let me help.

In this with you,

Holly Bailey
Bailey Engineering
baileyeng.com
holly@baileyeng.com

How to Be a Courageous Business Owner During COVID-19

Being a business owner is nothing less than courageous. So much can go wrong and at least 60% of the time we really don’t know what we are doing — even when the curveball of COVID-19 isn’t raising havoc. We are winging it. No one has ever walked in your footsteps before. No one has been YOU in the time and place you are in, with the clients and projects that are surrounding you, with the challenges that face YOU.

Right now you are likely at home trying to work in a makeshift office, with technology helping you or possibly hindering you and frustrating you. Your projects have gone on hold or are in total limbo. No one knows whether to keep working on them or to halt everything for awhile. You have no idea what to count on for income and you are digging deep to keep it all together and be optimistic. Unless your income comes from dealing with infectious diseases in some way this pandemic is turning your world upside down.

So why do we do it? Why are YOU a business owner?

Click here to read the full article

TIPS & RESOURCES TO THRIVE vs. SURVIVE

Make a NEW routine that fits life now and will help you maneuver the next month or so.

Change it up! Trying to hang on to our old routines with a few adjustments will only cause us to miss that old life, instead of fully adjusting to a "new normal." So, evaluate what you need and your family’s situation and start something NEW that fits everyone.

If the only alone time you can get now is early am—do it and embrace it! Sunrises are beautiful and very inspiring. Even if you aren't a "morning person," this change in routine can be very invigorating this time of year. Get out early for a walk, do yoga or exercise, or have your one-on-one with God. Then shower and dress for the new rest of the day routine of the next few months.
Take time to talk one-on-one with each of the people in your home. How are they doing? What are they enjoying about this experience? What are they worried or afraid about? Help them work through that. Don't fix it for them—help them discover a possible "fix" for themselves. It's a good chance for them to rely on things they’ve been taught by you and others! With our worry and fears, sometimes it is hard to just turn it off. We are used to people telling us what to do. But let it be a discovery process and just keep checking with them—and praying for them—now that you know what they need most.
Start a new project. What is something you have wanted to do but didn't have time? It can be anything! And if you can't think of something ... maybe read a great literary work or an autobiography of someone you admire.

This is a great time to do a little learning about and improving of our immune systems.

One of my ways of keeping my family healthy has always been to learn more about our foods and environmental exposures that either help or hurt our immune systems. It seems like a good time to share a quick general primer with you ...

SLEEP - Good sleep is critical to our bodies’ ability to cope and regenerate. This is a great time to learn good sleep habits and practice them. Here are a couple of articles about how sleep helps build our immunity and how quarantine can hurt our sleep and immunity:

DIET - Some really generalized rules for everyone to maintain good health and keep our immune systems at their best are:

Limit refined sugar and any sugar that is processed in any way. Use honey and sweet fruits for sweetening things and meeting the needs of your sweet tooth. Why? Sugar changes the pH of your body and makes your chemistry more favorable for disease. It also creates greater inflammation in our bodies—and inflammation makes our bodies weakened as the systems use their resources and energy to try to reduce the inflammation.
Drink lots of water – plain old fashioned water. Why? It flushes our bodies of toxins and allows all of our systems to operate at their best. Most of us drink and eat things that cause drying in our bodies—reduction of water in the cells themselves. That is not helpful to our chemistry. Our body chemistry requires water, not liquids, but good old H2O to perform the chemical reactions needed for good health. Give your system what it needs as fuel to work at it’s best.
We can’t supplement ourselves to health – but certain nutrients are in higher demand in our bodies during stressful times and onslaught by specific diseases. During virus season, red fruits and veggies like red onions, red peppers, strawberries, and cherries provide special nutrients shown to increase our resistance to viruses. In addition, things like Zinc, Vitamin C and Vitamin E are shown to be helpful, as is Vitamin D (best source is sunshine on our skin, so get outside in the sun if possible).

This article by Dr. Chad Walding, Senior Wellness Expert and NativePath Co-Founder does a great job of explaining WHY some of these are so helpful against viruses. The article is a sales promotion for his product and I am NOT pushing the product and have no connection to him or financial interest. I just wanted you to get the benefit of the great summaries of info on why the nutrients are of value to you. They are critical to us all, but need more supplementation for the older crowd, due to reduced absorption and slowed chemistry.

You can do all the exercise in the world – but if your body’s fuel source is not providing what your body needs, then you are constantly depleting it in both energy and quality of your immune functions. You can’t exercise your way to health – you have to EAT your way to good internal chemistry.

ATTITUDE - If you can’t change it — accept it, embrace it and find a way to enjoy it. This may take some time to get to the "enjoy it" part, but I’m sure there are aspects of each day that are actually a nice change and refreshing (like a 5-second hug with your spouse every few hours!). Our attitudes affect our stress levels and our body chemistry as well. We can also go the other way and use our body activity to move us into an unstressed attitude—as is often done through breathing exercises. Being intentional about our breathing changes our thinking/stress and in turn changes our internal chemistry. Hum ... Interesting. That is why shaking our body, dancing, running, yoga, meditation, being silly with our kids, a walk with the dog, etc. reduces our stress and makes us healthier. It changes our body chemistry, so everything works better! Even gratitude changes our body chemistry. So be silly, laugh, be grateful, ENJOY something intentionally. You will be healthier because of it.

NEW CEU Course for Engineers

After achieving licensure many engineers choose to open their own business. Usually, these businesses start out as sole proprietorships, but some engineers envision a firm of many engineers and maybe other professionals to allow them to be THE FIRM in their region or specialty. So how do you get from your Sole Proprietor starting point to THE FIRM? This online course is designed to help you consider and take action on aspects of the process that move you down that path. The path for engineers is different from other businesses because of laws, regulations and licensing requirements and restrictions, so this course cuts through some of the 'normal' business recommendations that can get us in trouble and sticks to things that fully apply to engineering businesses.

The course covers the following areas:

Lesson #1 - Getting Clients
Lesson #2 - Bookkeeping / Business Dealings
Lesson #3 - Paychecks
Lesson #4 - Vacations
Lesson #5 - Employees
Lesson #6 - Projects / Quantity of Work

Learn more and register HERE.

ABOUT HOLLY

Holly Bailey is a Small Engineering Business Owner / Engineer who works with other small professional services Business Owners, who have struggled to grow their firms while maintaining their high-quality reputation and quality services.

She helps them break barriers to move their business to the next level with excellence and control.

Holly believes small professional services firms can provide the best value and customized services to their clients, when they are not struggling with the growth and administration issues that secure the future of their business.

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