Hey there! I’m Amy Kalinchuk, and I do a lot of things.
I write, more than anything. I write and publish my own books. I am, of course, writing this blog post right now. I'm a crafter (I've got my first class up on Skillshare! You should check it out!), an entrepreneur (I make and sell soap and skin care, and have been for 17 years), I play roller derby and workout in a CrossFit gym for sanity, and I have a family and friends. I’m a public school teacher, as well.
Many of those friends have exclaimed, many times, "How do you do this?" Well, they also have to realize, when they are asking me that, is that I haven't seen them in a long time, because I'm busy. But so is everybody--life isn't a busy contest. This is about how to juggle. This is a circus management contest.
I'm sure there are plenty of bloggers in the Universe who can tell you how to get your home organized. How to organize your closet. Your kitchen cupboards and pantry. Your children's clothing and clothing donation when they grow out of it.
I am not that person.
My home is very often a wreck, because we craft for a living. My closet is a disaster (I'm an 80/20 person, for sure). My kitchen has food in it, somewhere. My child's clothing needs a good purge, as she has grown 8 feet the past half year.
I can live with all of that. I CANNOT live with having my business affairs in a mess. Absolutely not.
Hey, business is important! This is how you feed your family, right? (Or how you want to feed your family. You’ve thought of starting your own handmade business, haven’t you?) For me, everything else can be a wreck, but come retail tax time, my taxes are PAID, because I set the money aside and planned for it, and I did it efficiently because I had all the records for it at my fingertips.
Yeah, go ahead. You can be jealous. I'll wait a minute. ::flips hair, looks at watch::
Over the years, I have become very good at organizing my business, it's true. In our crafty circle here in Denver, some call me the Tax Lady, because I know so much about this stuff, and I'm practical about it. I have had to be—I have had years in my business where finances were touch and go, and incurring a late fee would be too much to bear for that month. I’ve had to learn the hard way, but I’ve learned to get and stay organized with the back-end paperwork for my business. If they are going to call me The Tax Lady, I’d better have some semblance of organization. When a vendor friend (“friendor”) comes over to ask me a question, I want to be able to help. Hey, I'm happy to help them--it's not like I have some big secret.
I'm happy to help you, too.
Fill out the form below and sign up for my free mini-course, 5 Days to an Organized Business! Over the course of a workweek, you will receive an email every day with a link to a private video I have made, outlining my organizational systems. Hopefully you will find some good information, and you can also leave a comment on the video so we can all have a conversation about it, and help with problem-solving.
Get your act together, and keep it there. This IS your circus. These ARE your monkeys. You can do this!