End of year stress relief | 108

December turns every electrician’s phone/emails into a nightmare, and everyone suddenly wants miracles two weeks before Christmas. In this episode I talk about the panic of juggling last-minute jobs, nearly losing two solid electrical projects, and why honesty beats anxiety every time. If you’re a sparky stressing about the Christmas rush, capacity, clients and keeping your sanity, this will help you breathe and set better boundaries heading into the break.

🚀 Rocket your electrical business marketing in 9 minutes 👉🏼 HERE

🤔 Questions? Ask me on Instagram 👉🏼 HERE

🤝 Work with Alan 👉🏼 HERE

Transcript

 “I just wondering if you can fit this quick job in before Christmas.”
 “Yeah, sure. What is it?”
 “Just a full rewire.”

Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing.

It's that crazy time of the year. As I said to my members during the week, there were 12 working days left in the year. We are now on Friday, so inclusive of today we've got 11 working days left. By the time you listen to this, there’ll be 10 working days left before Christmas hits.

For normal people like myself who take Christmas off and take two weeks off over Christmas — which is well deserved for any business owner working in the electrical sector — you bust your balls all year, you keep clients happy, blood, sweat and tears go into the company… you deserve to have Christmas off.

Now, as I said to my members, this is how you structure your company, or how you want to structure your company. Because if you’re working over Christmas, you’ve most likely built it into your business model that you do emergency services. If you work in level 2, ASP, overhead work — perfectly normal. Stuff breaks. Turkeys blow service fuses. That’s life.

We had a live session on “bracing for the Christmas run” this week, and here’s the story I shared. A few weeks ago I had two return clients come in — one was a referral from a great client. Both were big jobs. Both were clients moving into new homes, which for me is pretty much the dream job: switchboards, lighting, downlights, recommendations, the works.

One client I’d worked with two years ago on an old place — did pixie smart switching throughout the house, she loved it. She’s moved into a new place and it’s also got pull cords. She already knew exactly what she wanted. Pricing’s gone up, but she was still happy.

Anyway, the receptionist logged both new jobs into ServiceM8. I looked at them and instantly felt the heart palpitations — because I knew I was already at capacity for Christmas. Anxiety kicked in. Fear of losing the jobs. Fear they’d go elsewhere. Wondering if I should refer them out. Proper spiral.

And like most people, I did the ostrich technique. Buried my head in the sand. “Fuck it, I’ll push this job out.” I avoided it.

Something about me: I’m blunt and straight to the point, but I’m not going to pretend my electrical business is perfect or anxiety-free. No sparky’s business is. If someone online looks squeaky clean, they’re lying. My electrical business runs well 95% of the time, but there’s still that 5% where shit goes sideways. That’s real.

Anyway — back to the story.

I finally bit the bullet. I messaged both clients and said, “Look, we’re three weeks out from Christmas. Realistically, this won’t be done before Christmas. Two options: we book it for January and I pop out beforehand to take a look, or if you need someone immediately, totally understand.”

Both replied with: “All good — January works.”

Instant relief. Anxiety gone. And all it took was sending the message instead of hiding from it.

This is what I want to push into your head — especially sparkies running service and maintenance businesses. January can be quiet for some, especially if you rely on builders or middlemen. But if you build your own demand and run your own flywheel, January fills itself.

You can only do so much. You’re not a magician. You can’t create hours out of thin air. And if you push yourself too hard, the only thing you wreck is your Christmas with your family.

They had all year to book this shit in. All year. And yet here they come two weeks before Christmas wanting miracles.

I looked at my schedule this morning. Had a returning client come in — a good client, but he takes ages to pay. Can’t get to him before Christmas. Simple. Push to January.

You cannot perform miracles.

And here’s the other big thing: stop winding yourself up to satisfy everyone else. Not worth it. Your business, your mental health, your kids — they all take the hit.

If you ask me, the smart play is clocking off around the 19th. Finish the jobs, send the invoices, send the quotes, shut the door. Come back in January fresh. That break is part of running the business, not a luxury.

For the solo sparkies working over Christmas — I get it. Especially the new guys who are hungry. You want to hustle. I admire it. But the long-term goal is to build your business so you don’t have to work Christmas forever.

Quick note: if you do send staff out over Christmas, remember you’re probably at double time. Four hours at double time and you’re barely breaking even. Even if it’s a five-minute job — quite often you'll lose money on public holidays. Think about that before you ruin your Christmas dinner for $200.

This whole episode is a simple reminder:

Take a breath. Look at your schedule. Don’t book massive renovation jobs you can’t finish. Don’t kid yourself that you can do 40 hours of work in 10 days. And don’t twist yourself into knots for clients who waited all year and now want everything yesterday.

And there’ll be a second episode coming after this — a short one about the mentorship. If you’ve no intention of working with me, skip it. If you’re curious, listen in.

Links are below.

Chat to you next week.