5 Tips for Running a Moving Company When the Kids are Back To School

How do you cope with the demands of running a moving company while simultaneously trying to keep your children entertained and educated at home?

Moving company owners know that running a successful business can be challenging and you’re often pulled in several different directions. When you couple the stresses of business ownership with teaching your kids from home, it can very quickly become overwhelming.

Here are some tips for juggling your business responsibilities with helping your kids stay on top of their education when they’re back to school.

#1 Embrace Flexibility

The last few months have shown working parents around the world that ‘conventional’ working hours are no longer the norm. Being productive for every minute of every hour that falls between 9am and 5pm isn’t always possible when you’re juggling multiple responsibilities.

The key to staying on top of business tasks means accepting that your time will likely have to be managed a little differently now. You might end up working for an hour or two in the morning between Zoom Classrooms, squeezing in a few hours in the afternoon, then grabbing a few more hours later at night when the kids are asleep. 

Keep on top of your daily tasks by adding a “To do” list to your Google Calendar. As your day throws you curveballs, you can rearrange your priority items with an easy click and drag.

#2 Prioritize Your Time

When you’re running both a business and a classroom from home, the lines between work life and family life can quickly become blurred. If possible, it can help to segment your day into dedicated sections for work time, school time, and family time. Don’t forget about taking some time for yourself as well. We all need a break to recharge and taking 15 minutes for yourself can help to clear your mind, refocus, and give you the energy you need to accomplish your goals.

Certain tasks won’t wait and when you’re running a moving business you can’t expect that potential customers will only call in your dedicated ‘work time’ hours. It’s important to have a plan in place that ensures you don’t miss any incoming sales calls when you’re otherwise engaged (every missed call could mean a competitor getting an average of $979 from that potential customer).

Here at Oncue, our movers have been relying on our US-based call center team to answer their calls during the hours they’ve dedicated to spending time with their family, or working on other aspects of their business.

#3 Automate Daily Tasks

When it’s 8.30am and your phone keeps ringing but your 1st grader needs help logging into their Google meeting and your 4th grader is struggling to set up their Zoom classroom, it can feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle.

You can help to keep your head above water by automating some of the daily tasks necessary for running a successful moving company. Make it easy for potential customers to contact you with an obvious and clear call-to-action on your website. Set up an email autoresponder to get back to new leads as soon as they come in. Forward your incoming calls to Oncue’s call center team to let them handle questions about your policies and book jobs on your behalf.

With some simple automation tricks, you’ll be able to relax in the knowledge that all new leads have the opportunity to turn into a customer, and you’re not losing out on revenue when you’re busy doing the million and one other things you have to do.

#4 Make Data-Driven Decisions

With limited time available to work on growing your business, it’s even more important to use the data you have at hand to make informed decisions about the future of your company.

Utilize software that can show you at a glance how your business is performing. Our movers use their personalized Oncue Dashboard to see all of their upcoming booked jobs, view their monthly revenue, and compare the performance of their various marketing lead sources.

You’ll be able to see at a glance where your jobs are coming from, which channels you should put more advertising spend into, and how your company as a whole is growing over time.

#5 Don’t Expect Perfection

For the majority of 2020, parents have basically been asked to perform an additional full-time job on top of their full-time job. This is not an easy task and thousands of other business owners around the world are in a similar situation.

It’s important to be realistic with yourself, your employees, your customers, and your family, and acknowledge that there are only a limited number of hours in each day. Nobody is superhuman and it’s important to set realistic expectations to help you maintain some control over your work life and family life. Occasional mistakes are inevitable, both for your own work and in your child’s work, but it’s important to remember that mistakes can almost always be used as opportunities to learn and improve.