We were lucky to catch up with Tanesha Watkins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tanesha, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
First, let me say; I think it’s better to avoid it – if you can. It seems like once it’s on you; it’s very hard to shake. It just keeps pulling at you. There are 3 things that I try very hard to do to help me avoid it.
#1 Set boundaries in business: I set office hours and I try my very, very best to adhere to them. Even though I may be baking or working on administrative tasks, I don’t feel pressure to respond immediately to emails or answer phone calls outside of that time. Outside of hours, I have an out-of-office email and my phone automatically routes calls to voicemail. I find that consumers (myself included) are accustomed to unlimited access to the businesses we patronize. I feel like this boundary was necessary to help prevent burnout.
#2 Outsource what you can or use automation: I’ve added an autoresponder to my social media pages to direct potential customers to my quote form. Now I don’t have to stay on top of yet another inbox AND it takes the customer to where I need them to be – to my quote form. Which is another automation tool that takes some of the work off my plate. The form collects all the information (ideally) I need to create a quote without having to be on the phone for an extended period and it pulls all of the pertinent info over to the software to create the order; again, saving time. After the order is taken, I have automatic cancelations for unpaid invoices, reminder emails, confirmation emails, etc. that go out at specific times, so I don’t need to try to remember to do this and that. So, you can hire an assistant to do all of these or put it on autopilot with automation. Whatever you do, take it off your to-do list to help avoid some of that burnout.
#3 Take Time Off: Being a solopreneur, it’s extremely scary to take time off. If we don’t work, we don’t eat, right? But you have to. I’ve learned long ago that if you’re not whole, you can’t keep giving 100%. I try to take time off each quarter. Plan a week off just to take care of me and other responsibilities that I’ve been putting off, rest, relax, and just live. And for my birthday each year, I take a week off to travel and take time off from my business and from day-to-day responsibilities. I find that time off is an absolute MUST to avoid burning out.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I like to say that I create memories. As a cake artist, and now cookie decorator, I help families, businesses, organizations, sooooo many people make memories for all of their celebratory moments, I make those celebrations sweeter, from baby showers, to weddings, birthday, office gatherings, and more, I find a way to memorialize their moment and make what I present personal to them.
My focus is on continuing to improve upon how I can do that. To have a fully functioning business allows me to
#1 take care of me. In other words, it allows me to pay myself a full salary. While money is not the motivator, it’s my job and everyone should be paid for the work that they do.
#2 allows me to help others. Just like me, I’m sure there are bakers who will need someone to help them grow their skills and learn the business. I’d love to help them. I also want to share my experiences as a home-bakery owner and even just being an entrepreneur, give advice to those who may want to step out. Maybe an “If I knew then” blog or podcast to help others or just be a safe space.
#3 I want to focus on bigger and better celebrations. I absolutely love the way I feel when I deliver my cakes and cookies to people’s celebrations and seeing their faces. I want to do that in the most gracious way. With ease. I mean, I don’t mind the hard work, but not the stressful work. I want to do it with grace. I guess in more mature way than I did 6-7 years ago. I hope that makes sense
And I think that’s what is special about it; that I LOVE to do this; and that love comes through in my work. Even down to customer service, because I want every interaction to be easy for you. I know how planning celebrations can be overwhelming sometimes, so I do everything I can to make the process as easy as possible. When you think of your celebration, you’re going to think about that cake or those cookies and I want you to remember how great it looked, how great it tasted, and how great the customer services experience was. And I think that’s why I’ve been celebrating with some families for more than 8 years. I feel like I’ve been welcomed me into their family; Like I’m Tee Tee.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would definitely say the first is discipline. second would be my work ethic, and third, I’ve always been business minded and I have a business degree; I think my degree was helpful in the actual business part of running a business. These three together have helped me be where I am with plans to go further.
How to improve upon discipline? That’s hard because I think I’m naturally disciplined. Hmmm… create habits. I’ve read that it takes around 20 days for something to become a habit. Whatever area you want to be disciplined in, start doing it repetitively. Until it’s second nature. I also told myself, if you can have great discipline for your previous employers why wouldn’t I do that for myself and my own business as well.
I think the same thing goes for work ethic. If you can work hard for someone else’s company for years going above and beyond what you’re paid, don’t you owe that same you to YOUR business? And again, I think it’s hard to “develop” work-ethic. I believe work ethic is a derivative of your own personal ethics. One of my principles is to always present my best self. In my previous jobs, I gave my all because I felt whatever I was putting out was a representation of me, so I wanted it to be my best. So, look at your ethics, I know it seems way off topic, but I promise it’s relevant. What are ethics, your principles? I also use that information for creating the principles for my business, that’s an extra tidbit for you.
As far as the degree I would say learning is a life-long process. Not necessarily going to get a degree but take every opportunity you can to learn. There are so many free resources at our fingertips, just beyond our screens where you can learn so much in relation to running and growing your business. I take advantage of every opportunity that I can to help me with the business part of my business. The decorating? I can do that. But running a business… Take advantage of your resources.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I would love to expand and do in-person cake and cookie decorating classes. I have all of these class ideas in my head, and I want to do like, Girls Night Out, or Mommy & Me or Daddy/Daughter or a Just To Get Out classes. Think Paint & Sip, but with cookies. I think spaces like, churches, coffee shops, maybe breweries, or maybe you think this is something that could work well in your space or it would be a great team-building opportunity, yeah, I’d love to hear from you. You can send me an email to [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.teeteessweets.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teetees_sweets
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeeTeesSweetsLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tee-tees-sweets
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tee-tees-sweets-oak-park
Image Credits
ARJ Photography
