3 Ways to Destress Your Holiday Travel

Let’s be honest with each other for a minute. The holidays are stressful. Travel is stressful. When the two are combined, the stress from each grow exponentially and melds to become some sort of stress monster that can consume even the merriest of hearts and turn happiness into anger, worry, and belligerence. With all of this being said, let it be known that holiday travel doesn’t necessarily have to be stressful! If you prepare correctly and make sure all your ducks are in a row, holiday travel can be so much easier. Below are three tips to maintain your sanity:

1. Ship your presents: One of the major issues with holiday travel is packing all of the presents that you’re bringing to friends and loved ones. Make your life incredibly easier by shipping those presents ahead of time so that you not only have extra space in your bags (leading to the need for fewer), but so that you also don’t have to worry about expensive or fragile presents getting damaged or lost in the process.
2. Research the weather: Look up the weather both for your departure day as well as for the location you’re traveling to. You want to make sure that you have the proper clothing and accessories for whatever you’re going to be encountering there and the last thing you want to do is show up to the airport all ready to go only to find that your flight has been cancelled or delayed.
3. Sleep at the airport: No, I don’t mean IN the airport (unless you have no choice in the matter). Many airports have hotels either nearby or in the airport itself. If your traveling in a large group or have children with you, think about staying nearer to the airport to give yourself extra time and less hassle when trying to get people and kids to the departure gate.

These are just 3 ways to make the stress of traveling over the holidays easier than you may be making it on yourself. As always, there are many tips out there to deal with this sort of issue and you can never research too much! If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

5 Secrets of Success for Women Starting Businesses

Starting a business is a difficult step for anyone and advice can be hard to come by if you don’t know who to turn to. This is even more difficult if you’re a woman starting a business due to preconceived notions of gender-roles in the business world. While it may seem difficult, there is advice out there and within reach. Below are 5 tips that will help any woman (or man, for that matter) when it comes to starting a business.

1. Start building relationships early: Relationships and networks are one of the easiest ways to get your business off of the ground. Having strong relationships not only gives you a pool of talent to potentially draw from, but it also will be a source of inspiration and advice throughout the entire process of getting your business up and running.
2. It’s ok to not know everything: Unfortunately, starting a business as a woman means that there’s a lot of pressure (both external and potentially internal) to be better and more than a male counterpart attempting to do the same thing. This isn’t the case and it’s 100% ok to not know everything. No one does and mistakes will always happen.
3. Be realistic with your goals: This kind of ties with number two but it deserves it’s own category. Be realistic with what you’re attempting and don’t bite off more than you can chew just to prove a point -- you stand a better chance of success by tackling a realistic amount of work at a time.
4. Use tools available: There have been thousands of women who have tried to do what you’re currently trying to do and who have probably run into similar issues along the way. Take available courses and look up advice from other women entrepreneurs who have been there and done that.
5. Sanity is key: Starting a new business is stressful, difficult work. Make sure that you’re taking care of yourself as much as you’re taking care of your business. Do what you need to do to keep a calm, clear head so you can focus and work at your maximum.

These are just 5 ways to help make starting your own business as easy as possible. There will be trials and tribulations along the way, but perseverance will see you through to the other side. There so much more information out there, make sure you look it up! If you’d like to read more, go here.