How to Grow Your Business in the Summer (Without Putting Your Life on Hold)
Every year, the same thing happens.
School lets out, the kids are home, the calendar fills up with camps and vacations and afternoons at the pool... and your business quietly moves to the back burner.
And then September hits and you're basically starting over.
Here's the deal…
That doesn't HAVE to be your summer.
I know it feels like you have to choose between being present with your family and actually growing your business. But I've been running an online business while raising two kids (and now navigating a high schooler's cheer schedule AND a cross country coaching gig on top of it) and I promise you... it's possible to do both.
Not perfectly (believe me, it will NEVER feel perfectly balance)... but you CAN do both intentionally.
So if you're heading into summer wondering how in the world your business is going to survive – let alone grow – this post is for you.
Here's exactly how I approach it every year.
Why Summer Feels So Hard for Your Business (And It's Not What You Think)
It's not the lack of hours.
Well... ok, it's a little bit the lack of hours.
But the bigger problem? Most entrepreneurs don't have a summer plan.
They keep their regular to-do list, try to work the same hours they always did, and then feel like a failure when it doesn't happen.
Which... of course it doesn't. The whole CONTEXT of your life just changed.
Summer requires a different plan. Not a smaller version of your normal routine... a completely different one built around your actual summer.
That's what the SYS Method is built for – helping you Plan, Prioritize, and Protect your time even when life gets loud. And summer is loud.
So let's talk about how to actually do it.
ONE || Plan Your Summer FIRST – Before You Plan Your Business
I know this sounds backwards. But stick with me.
Before you can figure out when you're going to work, you need to know what you're working around.
So the FIRST thing I do at the start of every summer is sit down with my planner and block out everything that's NOT work:
Vacations and travel days
Kids' camps and activities
Appointments, family events, and plans that are already on the calendar
Any weeks where you know productivity is going to be basically zero (I'm looking at you, beach week)
Once those are blocked, THAT is your actual summer calendar. And your working hours live in the gaps.
This does two things:
ONE: it keeps you from double-booking yourself and feeling constantly behind.
And TWO: it makes your work time feel more intentional because you KNOW it's protected.
I do this in my SYS Planner because the quarterly and monthly views make it easy to see the whole summer at once, not just week-by-week. When you can see July laid out next to June, you realize pretty fast where the crunch points are going to be and you can plan around them.
Don't skip this step. Seriously. It's the whole thing.
TWO || Prioritize Your 2-3 Non-Negotiable Business Tasks Each Week
Here's the reality of summer: you're probably not going to get everything done.
And that's ok… but only if you know what the MOST important things are.
This is where most entrepreneurs get stuck. They have a massive to-do list and no idea what to actually focus on when time is short.
So they default to the easy stuff – inbox, Canva graphics, reorganizing their content calendar for the 4th time – and the things that actually bring in sales get pushed.
So before summer starts, ask yourself: what are the 2-3 things that HAVE to happen each week for my business to keep moving?
For me, it usually comes down to:
Sending one email to my list
Posting consistently on social media
Following up with anyone who showed interest in the planner or membership
That's it. Those are my non-negotiables. Everything else is a bonus.
The fancy term for this is IPAs – Income Producing Activities. These are the tasks that directly lead to sales or grow your audience. And in the summer, when your hours are shorter, IPAs should get your BEST hours, not your leftover ones.
If you're not sure what your IPAs are – it's the stuff you keep putting off because it feels uncomfortable. Writing the email. Pitching the collab. Posting the sales content. That stuff.
Do that first, and everything else is just a BONUS.
THREE || Protect Your Working Hours Like They're Sacred
This is the part everyone skips and then wonders why their summer felt like chaos.
Once you know WHEN you're working and WHAT you're working on, you have to actually protect those hours.
That looks different for everyone, but here's what it looks like for me:
I keep my theme days, even in summer.
Monday is still my CEO day (looking at data + planning the week).
Tuesday and Thursday are for client calls or marketing.
Wednesday is for bigger projects.
Fridays are my reset day (and when we spend the entire afternoon at the pool).
The summer doesn't change what needs to happen – it just changes how much time I have for each thing.
I batch wherever I can.
Instead of trying to write one social post every day, I batch a week's worth on Monday so that my brain only has to go into "writing mode" once. This saves SO much time and mental energy.
I use a Power Hour to protect my mornings.
Even in summer, I do my admin tasks from 8:30-10AM – emails, social posts, order packing. That window protects my mornings and means I'm not scrambling to catch up all day.
And here's the permission slip part of all this: it's ok if your summer hours look different.
If you're normally working 9-5 and this summer you're only working 10-1 because of camps and schedules... that's FINE. Or maybe it’s 8-12 one day and 3-7 a different day.
The point is… build a plan that works for the hours you actually have, not the hours you WISH you had.
A focused 3-hour work block beats a scattered 6-hour one every single time.
The Summer Business Plan That Actually Works
So here's the whole thing in a nutshell:
Plan: Block your summer on the calendar FIRST. Vacations, camps, commitments. Work lives in the gaps.
Prioritize: Identify your 2-3 non-negotiable IPAs for each week. Do those first, every single time.
Protect: Set your working hours, keep your theme days, and batch where you can.
This is the SYS Method, and it works whether it's summer, back-to-school, or the holidays. Because life is always going to have something going on. The goal isn't to wait for a calm season – it's to build a system that grows your business in ANY season.
Ready to Map Out Your Whole Summer?
This is literally what I sit down and do at the start of every summer.
I open my SYS Planner, look at my quarterly and monthly views, block out all the life stuff, and then build my business plan around it. It's not rocket science... but it IS intentional. And intentional is what makes the difference between a summer where your business grew and a summer where you have to start over in September.
If you want to do the same thing, the SYS Planner is how I'm making it happen.
Or if you want a quick reset before summer kicks off, grab the free CEO Weekly Reset - it walks you through exactly how to plan your week so your most important tasks actually get done.
You can grow a business AND be present this summer. You just need a plan that actually accounts for your real life.
