You’ve just spent a relaxing and fulfilling weekend with your family and friends. You even capped it off with a Sunday-evening movie. You are feeling pretty good. Life is great.

Then Monday comes…

If you are a self-employed teacher or tutor, the transition from a friend-focused, freedom-filled weekend to a business-focused Monday can be tough. The trick is to remove the thought and emotion from the transition. Put a routine in place that will make getting up and getting started on Monday morning a joy. Here are three tips that work for me:

1. Schedule a client/student meeting. If you know you need to meet a client on Monday morning, you will have no choice but to climb out of bed and get to it. If it is a client you really like, it will be much easier. If you have set your “work hours” to start later in the morning, just schedule your first meeting accordingly. Getting a first meeting behind you on Monday morning can be quite motivating.
2. Take a walk. Exercise can make you feel productive and can wake up the mind and the body. I find that a brisk walk in the morning produces an energized day. It seems that Richard Branson feels the same way.
3. Build and email your weekly to-do list to someone you trust. I have tried countless to-do apps, written things down in a spreadsheet, created a binder full of sticky notes, put up lists on whiteboards, and created to-do journals. Nothing really worked for me. What works is getting up on Monday morning, making a list of everything I need/want to finish during the week, and emailing that list to someone I trust. I send a follow-up email at the end of the week showing what I have accomplished. Because I know someone else is reading my list and will be reviewing what I have accomplished at the end of the week, I am much, much more productive. I make writing and emailing the list my first task on Monday mornings. That way, when I get up feeling groggy or when I return from my morning walk, I know exactly what to do first. It is a great way to jump-start the week.

Try out these tips and let us know what works for you!

Since I haven’t updated the SET blog since February, I thought this would be a good way to get started again.

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when everything that was once exciting, invigorating, and motivating becomes repetitive, mundane, and downright tiring. It is at times like this that I wonder, “Who stole my ambition?” And, more importantly, “How can I get it back?”

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that these feelings come in cycles, meaning those feelings of burnout and disinterest in your business venture will soon pass. Of course, that’s not to say that there is nothing you can do to expedite their passing. Try this:

1. Take a vacation. I need a long break (4 or more days) at minimum every three months. I also do not work on the weekends and will take a shorter mid-week break about once a month.

2. Take your business to the next level. Maybe your feelings are a result of not pushing yourself. Has your business become a job? What can you do to take your business to the next level?

3. Try 10-20 minutes of intense exercise. I hate running, but I have a wife who runs, so sometimes I run too. When I do, those feelings of motivation and excitement return almost immediately.

4. Remove some clutter from your life. Freeing up a bit of space in your home or schedule can remind you that you are in control of your life and that your business is not controlling you.

5. Reset your goals. Think on two levels: 1) What do you want in your personal life? and 2) How can your business help you get it? If you can answer these questions, you will regain your sense of purpose.

I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

Last week was bad. Really bad. I caught a really nasty bug that took me out for almost 7 days.

That’s a long time for a self-employed teacher. If teaching and tutoring is your full-time job, 7 days is almost 25% of your monthly income! Unlike most jobs where you can call in sick and still get paid, for SETs, missing a day means missing a day of pay.

I’ve put together a quick survival guide to help you prepare for your inevitable unpaid sick days. Here goes.

Step 1: Expect to be sick at least 1-2 times per year.
I carry hand sanitizer in my work bag and have extra bottles in my car. I am a fanatic about washing my hands. I am careful about not sharing pens with my clients. I still get sick. You will too.

If you expect to get sick, you will be more likely to plan for it.

Step 2: Use price and advance payment to cushion the blow.
I’ve talked already about the importance of charging enough for your services and about the importance of asking for payment in advance. These two points can also make a sick day (or week) less of a headache. It sounds simple, but the more money you charge for your services, the fewer hours you need to work. That means that come sick time, you will have to contact fewer students to cancel. More importantly, if your margins are better, you are also more likely to be able to save some cash. Having this extra cash stored away in an emergency fund in your business can be a lifesaver if you have to miss a week of teaching due to illness. Accepting payment in advance can also give you a bit of a financial cushion and ensures that your students won’t cut and run if you miss a few appointments due to illness.

Step 3: Stop working!
It is really difficult to focus on your students’ questions when your head is pounding or you have a fever. Also, if you continue to meet with your students when you are sick, you risk getting them sick. The illness may then start to circulate among your students. If that happens, you will be facing a lot of cancelled lessons anyway. When you get sick, stop working.

Step 4: Send one email to clear the week.
Send an email to all of your students, taking care to hide their email addresses using the BCC function. Tell them that you are ill and will need to cancel your lessons for the rest of the week. That’s it. If you are still sick the next week, send another email. Keep it simple. Preparing an email list (and even a draft email) in advance can make your life much easier. You don’t want to be drafting an important email to your students when you’re not thinking clearly.

Step 5: Rest.
You have enough money in the bank. Your students understand the situation. Everything is going to be just fine. Stop worrying about your business or your students. Sleep. Hydrate. Eat soup. Relax. Take care of yourself.

Stay healthy!

My wife and I just finished assembling a 1500 piece, black-and-white puzzle. Simultaneously frustrating and rewarding, the parallels to business are remarkable. Here is what I discovered:

1. Some pieces take a few seconds; other pieces can take a really, really long time to fall into place.

2. Sometimes, you have to make a lot of mistakes and false starts before you find the right fit.

3. Having the final picture in mind when you start can go a long way toward helping you finish.

4. Mistakes can be just as valuable as successes.

5. Sometimes you need to walk away for a while and come back when you’re ready.

6. Often, the seemingly obvious move doesn’t work. When that happens, you just have to keep trying.

7. Getting organized is essential to working efficiently.

8. Patience and persistence.

9. Patience and persistence.

10. Patience and persistence.

All self-employed teachers like to get paid. So, what can you do to make sure that your students pay on time and how do you handle a student who has not paid his bill?

We have found that the easiest way to make sure your students pay on time is to ask them to pay in advance. If you are working with individual students, ask them to pay for multiple hours at once. When we first started our business, we would sell “packages” of 4 or 5 hours. Eventually, we expanded this to packages of 12 hours.

Next, you should consider using a very simple contract. A business attorney can help with this. Of course, “contract” sounds ominous. Perhaps you can call this your “terms and conditions.” In the terms and conditions document, tell the student 1) How much they have paid, 2) What (how many lessons) they are getting for their payment, and 3) What happens when they cancel a lesson. (I will cover cancellation policies in a future post.) Have the student sign and date the terms and conditions and give him a copy. Keep the original. (I think this is a good place to insert our disclaimer. Please read it. It is important.)

Now that you have the student’s money and he understands and has agreed to your cancellation policy, there should be no more issues. If the student does not show up for his lessons or if he leaves the country and you never hear from him again (it has happened to us), you have already been paid. Plus, if the student has already paid you, he is more likely to take the lessons seriously.

If your customers are companies rather than individual students, you will probably have to have a contract. This is a bit more complicated, but the idea is the same. Again, a business lawyer should be able to help you with this. Companies do not typically like to pay in advance because they assume all of the risk. (What happens if you disappear before you finish their program, for example?) However, you may have luck getting them to pay in thirds or halves. This is common in consulting. 50% payment up front, 50% payment on completion of the project, for example.

What if you did not have your student pay in advance and you do not have a cancellation policy? How do you handle a student who has not paid his bill?

In most cases, if this is an individual and you have an upcoming lesson, I would probably still meet him. When you meet, consider giving him a copy of the overdue invoice and reminding him that he needs to pay you before your next meeting. Thank him for his business then move on with the lesson. If he still has not paid you before the next lesson, I would hesitate to meet him again until he pays. Of course, this can be tricky if he owes you a lot of money, because you may never see him–or your money–again.

Another option is to call or email the individual before your upcoming lesson, remind him that payment is due, and ask him to bring his payment to the lesson. Sometimes, just the pressure of meeting you will be enough to get a student to pay.

Whenever you pressure a student for payment, however, you do risk damaging the fragile teacher-student relationship, and you may lose his or her future business as a result. (Of course, if he doesn’t like to pay, you may be better off without his business.) However, if all of your students fail to pay you, you will eventually go out of business. Or starve. Or both. This can all be avoided with terms and conditions and payment in advance.

For large companies, you will probably want your contract to spell out what happens if there is no payment or late payment. (Again, ask your attorney to help with this.) In my experience, lack of payment or late payment from a company is often the result of slow procedures/approvals or of someone forgetting to submit your invoice to the accounting department. In this case, a simple follow-up email to check the status of your invoice may be enough to expedite the payment.

If you have other suggestions for getting students to pay up, please leave them in the comments below.