Before Christmas I pre-sold Finding and Marketing to Your Niche and I had grande plans for how I’d treat my amazing pre-sale purchasers. They’d be getting regular emails from day one. They’d love me and angels would sing.

There were probably unicorn tears in there somewhere as well.

All of those plans went out the window, though, two days before the pre-sale launch.

My wife’s grandmother has been sick for a while. She had been forgetting people for at least eighteen months and while in many ways we lost her when she forgot who we were, her body didn’t give up until two days before my book launch.

On our end that meant a rushed flight for my wife and our youngest to Ontario and an unplanned week off work for me.

Could I have pulled long nights after I had our two other kids in bed and still hit all my milestones for the launch emails?

Yes I could have, but I decided that this time business would have to suffer.

When my wife came back the week before Christmas, could I have worked full days to get that extra bit of client work done and then set up a bunch of emails?

Yes, but I decided that Christmas with family was more important, and I really only put in about one day of work over four days.

These choices led some people to ask for refunds on the book. They led some prospects to tell me I took too long and they were going somewhere else. Money was lost because of my decision–and I’m totally okay with that.

If I had decided to work all hours to keep up and keep a bit more money I’d have made the wrong decision.

There are plenty of times in your business that you should be letting it suffer. If you’re welcoming a new child into your family, take some time off and let business suffer. If your kid has a thing with school, go–emails can wait.

[Tweet “There are times in your business you should let it suffer in order to do the right thing.”]

Most of your clients are going to understand and even applaud your choice to put family first. They’re going to see your willingness to let business suffer as a call to run that balance better themselves.

Those few that get upset and decide to go with someone else simply revealed themselves as the type of prospect you don’t want to work with.

photo credit: shadowviking cc