Find Michael on Twitter here https://twitter.com/MichaelMeihaus

Here’s the full original text of Michael’s approach:

Coming up on 9 years married myself, 1 kid and 1 on the way. I had a few busy seasons like this prior to leaving to start my own firm. Not an expert at parenting, marriage or owning a firm so these are just my own thoughts/things I've tried. 😂

”First and foremost, discuss expectations:
1) How many hours/nights/weekends do you think is sustainable to work? Come with a number and ask her insight or perspective.
2) Discuss distribution of household responsibilities. There’s research out there that couples mutually agreeing on who is responsible for what is more important than perfectly fair 50/50 distribution.
3) Discuss expectations of family time, and couple time during the period. How many dates, family outings, dinners, etc. to stay connected.
4) Discuss how you will course correct when things get off track. Accountability from another firm owner, friend, mentor?
5) Write everything down and track your metrics from above during busy season.

Look at the Business:
1) Look honestly at your client list now that you have an hours per week figure in mind.
2) Give your business the Realize special: Raise prices, fire clients, hire more help, or do all three. If you’re understaffed proportional to the work you need to do, nothing else will be able to prevent a repeat of the last busy season.

Other ideas
Buy back your/your wife’s time (we have these all except for the chef. I’m the chef). Without the chef it is about $5,000 a year for us and probably saves us 50+ hours a month.
-Twice a month house cleaner
-Twice a month yard guy
-Pest control
-Instacart
-Doordash
-Home Chef: I have heard of people paying for someone to come once a week to cook meals for the week. They said it was about $150-200 a week.
-If your wife is the primary caregiver for the kids, consider part time nanny during the week, if she works, consider additional help during the late evening or early morning when you’re working, or on the weekends.”

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252 Running A Firm AND Staying Married!

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