When Your “Office Manager” Has Four Paws

When you’re run­ning a solo or micro busi­ness, the line between your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al lives often blurs. Your pas­sion project, side hus­tle, or full-time entre­pre­neur­ial ven­ture does­n’t exist in iso­la­tion from the rest of your life—it’s inter­wo­ven with your rela­tion­ships, health, fam­i­ly cir­cum­stances, and yes, even your beloved pets.

At Next Chap­ter Brand­ing, we under­stand this real­i­ty inti­mate­ly. Today, I’m shar­ing a deeply per­son­al sto­ry along with prac­ti­cal guid­ance for nav­i­gat­ing one of the most chal­leng­ing aspects of entre­pre­neur­ship: man­ag­ing your busi­ness while fac­ing a per­son­al crisis.

The Inspiration Behind Our MCK9 (Multi-Cultural K9) Brand

At Next Chap­ter Brand­ing, our “doghter” Lil­ly has been far more than a pet- she’s been a mem­ber of our fam­i­ly. And, as our unof­fi­cial “office man­ag­er” and the inspi­ra­tion behind our MCK9 (Mul­ti-Cul­tur­al K9) brand of print-on-demand items and blog, Princess Lil­ly Lucy Rose Tay­lor­ber­ry HRH (Her Roy­al Hound­ness) has been an inte­gral part of our brand identity.

Recent­ly, we received dev­as­tat­ing news: Lil­ly has devel­oped lym­phoma and will soon be head­ing to the rain­bow bridge. As any pet par­ent knows, this kind of news does­n’t just break your heart—it com­plete­ly dis­rupts your life, includ­ing your busi­ness operations.

Lil­ly’s sto­ry is extra­or­di­nary. She spent the first three years of her life con­fined to a crate, one of 66 dogs res­cued from an ani­mal hoard­er. When she joined our fam­i­ly, she had no idea how to be a dog and came to us “with more issues than Vogue.” But, after a year of patience, tears, and uncon­di­tion­al love, she emerged from her shell to become a con­fi­dent, lov­ing companion.

Her unique appearance—a charm­ing blend of Ital­ian Grey­hound, Bea­gle, Jack Rus­sell, Chi­huahua, and, as we joke, “pos­si­bly one whisker that’s Pit Bull because she loves them so much”—has been a won­der­ful con­ver­sa­tion starter. Through Lil­ly, we’ve con­nect­ed with count­less dog lovers and wit­nessed first­hand how dogs unite peo­ple across dif­fer­ences, focus­ing on play­ful spir­its and love rather than appear­ances or backgrounds.

Now, as we face this dif­fi­cult tran­si­tion, we’re nav­i­gat­ing the chal­leng­ing inter­sec­tion of per­son­al grief and busi­ness respon­si­bil­i­ty. And we’re cer­tain­ly not alone in fac­ing such challenges.

The Reality of Personal Crisis for Small Business Owners

When you work for a large cor­po­ra­tion and face per­son­al hard­ship, there are sys­tems in place: bereave­ment leave, col­leagues who can cov­er your respon­si­bil­i­ties, HR depart­ments to help nav­i­gate ben­e­fits, and often a clear­er sep­a­ra­tion between work and per­son­al life.

As a solo entre­pre­neur or micro busi­ness own­er, these safe­ty nets rarely exist. Your busi­ness relies pre­dom­i­nant­ly on you—your ener­gy, cre­ativ­i­ty, focus, and pres­ence. When cri­sis strikes, whether it’s a health diag­no­sis, fam­i­ly emer­gency, loss of a loved one (includ­ing beloved pets), rela­tion­ship break­down, or finan­cial dis­as­ter, the impact on your busi­ness can be imme­di­ate and significant.

Yet this chal­lenge also presents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to build resilience into your busi­ness while hon­or­ing your very human need to process dif­fi­cult emo­tions and cir­cum­stances. Here’s how to nav­i­gate this ter­rain with grace, both for your­self and your business.

Immediate Steps When Crisis Hits

1. Acknowledge the Reality

When fac­ing a per­son­al cri­sis, there’s often an instinct to “pow­er through” or pre­tend every­thing is fine pro­fes­sion­al­ly. This approach typ­i­cal­ly back­fires, lead­ing to burnout, resent­ment, or sub­par work.

Instead, acknowl­edge the real­i­ty of your sit­u­a­tion. This does­n’t mean over­shar­ing with every client or cus­tomer, but it does mean being hon­est with your­self about your dimin­ished capac­i­ty dur­ing this time.

For us, acknowl­edg­ing Lil­ly’s diag­no­sis meant rec­og­niz­ing that cer­tain projects would need to be resched­uled as we attend vet­eri­nary appoint­ments and ensure her remain­ing time is com­fort­able and filled with love.

2. Assess Critical Functions

Quick­ly iden­ti­fy what absolute­ly must con­tin­ue in your busi­ness and what can be paused, delayed, or mod­i­fied. Ask your­self:

• Which client deliv­er­ables have firm dead­lines that can­not be moved?
• Which rev­enue-gen­er­at­ing activ­i­ties are essen­tial to keep the busi­ness afloat?
• What rou­tine tasks can be tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend­ed with min­i­mal impact?
• Which projects can be sim­pli­fied or scaled back dur­ing this period?

3. Create a Modified Operating Plan

Based on your assess­ment, devel­op a tem­po­rary oper­at­ing plan that accounts for your reduced capac­i­ty. This might include:

• Reduced work­ing hours
• Extend­ed deliv­ery timelines
• Tem­porar­i­ly scal­ing back offerings
• Automat­ing or out­sourc­ing cer­tain tasks
• Shift­ing to “main­te­nance mode” rather than growth activities

Remem­ber, this mod­i­fied plan isn’t permanent—it’s a bridge to help you through the cri­sis peri­od while keep­ing your busi­ness viable.

Communication Strategies

With Clients and Customers

Decide how much to share based on your rela­tion­ship with each client and the nature of your busi­ness. Some­times a sim­ple, “I’m deal­ing with a per­son­al mat­ter that requires my atten­tion” is suf­fi­cient. In oth­er cas­es, espe­cial­ly with long-term clients with whom you’ve built strong rela­tion­ships, more trans­paren­cy may be appropriate.

When com­mu­ni­cat­ing changes:

• Focus on how you’re ensur­ing con­tin­ued ser­vice, not just the problem
• Be clear about any tem­po­rary adjust­ments to time­lines or availability
• Express appre­ci­a­tion for their understanding
• If appro­pri­ate, pro­vide an esti­mat­ed time­frame for return­ing to nor­mal operations

With Team Members or Collaborators

If you have con­trac­tors, employ­ees, or reg­u­lar col­lab­o­ra­tors, they’ll need more detailed information:

• Share rel­e­vant details that impact their work
• Be clear about any addi­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties they may need to tem­porar­i­ly assume
• Ask for spe­cif­ic help rather than gen­er­al support
• Express grat­i­tude for their flexibility

With Yourself

Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, main­tain hon­est inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Check in with your­self reg­u­lar­ly about:

• Your cur­rent emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal capacity
• Whether your mod­i­fied plan is work­ing or needs adjustment
• Where you might need addi­tion­al support
• What per­son­al bound­aries need strengthening

Finding Support During Crisis

Practical Business Support

Con­sid­er tem­po­rary help for your business:

• Vir­tu­al assis­tants who can han­dle admin­is­tra­tive tasks on a short-term basis
• Peer entre­pre­neurs who might be will­ing to refer over­flow work or cov­er cer­tain responsibilities
• Sim­pli­fied ser­vice pack­ages that require less hands-on management
• Pre-sched­uled con­tent and social media posts to main­tain pres­ence with min­i­mal effort

Emotional Support

Don’t under­es­ti­mate the impor­tance of emo­tion­al sup­port dur­ing crisis:

• Con­nect with oth­er entre­pre­neurs who under­stand the unique pres­sures of busi­ness ownership
• Con­sid­er pro­fes­sion­al sup­port through ther­a­py or counseling
• Join sup­port groups spe­cif­ic to your sit­u­a­tion (in our case, pet loss sup­port groups)
• Sched­ule reg­u­lar check-ins with friends who ener­gize rather than drain you

Financial Considerations During Personal Crisis

Per­son­al crises often car­ry finan­cial impli­ca­tions, both direct costs (like med­ical expens­es) and indi­rect costs (reduced income from decreased pro­duc­tiv­i­ty). Consider:

• Emer­gency funds and how to best uti­lize them
• Busi­ness inter­rup­tion insur­ance (if applicable)
• Flex­i­ble pay­ment arrange­ments with reg­u­lar ven­dors or ser­vice providers
• Tem­po­rary finan­cial adjust­ments to cre­ate breath­ing room

Finding Meaning Through Crisis

As entre­pre­neurs, many of us are nat­ur­al mean­ing-mak­ers. Find­ing pur­pose even in painful cir­cum­stances can be healing:

Creating Boundaries and Practices That Stick

Cri­sis often reveals where our busi­ness bound­aries were insuf­fi­cient. Use this insight to imple­ment bet­ter prac­tices mov­ing forward:

• More real­is­tic project time­lines that account for life’s unpredictability
• Clear­er com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols for when you need to step away
• Improved doc­u­men­ta­tion so oth­ers can more eas­i­ly step in when needed
• Reg­u­lar main­te­nance of sys­tems that sup­port work-life separation

Sharing Your Journey (When Appropriate)

While over­shar­ing can be prob­lem­at­ic, thought­ful­ly shar­ing aspects of your jour­ney through cri­sis can strength­en con­nec­tions with your audi­ence. Many clients appre­ci­ate know­ing they’re work­ing with real humans who face the same life chal­lenges they do.

When Your Business Is Directly Tied to Your Loss

In our case, with Lil­ly being cen­tral to our MCK9 brand, her loss presents a unique chal­lenge. If your busi­ness is sim­i­lar­ly tied to what you’re losing—whether a rela­tion­ship, health con­di­tion, loca­tion, or beloved pet—consider:

Honoring the Legacy

Some­times, a per­son­al cri­sis can influ­ence your busi­ness direc­tion in mean­ing­ful ways. For us, Lil­ly’s jour­ney from a scared res­cue dog to the inspi­ra­tion for our MCK9 brand has always been part of our sto­ry. Now, as we pre­pare to say good­bye, we’re con­sid­er­ing ways to hon­or her lega­cy through our busi­ness, per­haps through a spe­cial col­lec­tion or char­i­ta­ble ini­tia­tive sup­port­ing res­cue animals.

Honoring Through Business Evolution

Think about how your busi­ness can hon­or rather than sim­ply move on from what’s being lost. This might mean:

• Cre­at­ing a spe­cial col­lec­tion or offer­ing in tribute
• Shar­ing the sto­ry and its impact on your busi­ness journey
• Estab­lish­ing a schol­ar­ship, dona­tion pro­gram, or char­i­ta­ble initiative
• Evolv­ing your brand to reflect this new chap­ter while hon­or­ing what came before

Finding New Sources of Inspiration

While noth­ing can replace what’s lost, be open to new sources of inspi­ra­tion that may even­tu­al­ly inform your busi­ness. This isn’t about replac­ing but about allow­ing your busi­ness to con­tin­ue evolv­ing along­side your life journey.

Lessons from Lilly: Resilience Through Crisis

As we nav­i­gate Lil­ly’s final days, we’re learn­ing lessons that apply equal­ly to per­son­al cri­sis man­age­ment and busi­ness resilience:

1. Focus on what mat­ters most: Like Lil­ly, who, despite her rough start, focused on love and play rather than dif­fer­ences, we’re focus­ing on qual­i­ty time rather than busi­ness met­rics right now.
   
2. Emer­gence takes time: Just as it took a year for Lil­ly to emerge from her shell and become con­fi­dent, recov­er­ing from cri­sis and find­ing your new nor­mal takes time.
   
3. Com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tion heals: Lil­ly’s abil­i­ty to con­nect us with oth­er dog lovers reminds us that com­mu­ni­ty sup­port is vital dur­ing dif­fi­cult times.
   
4. Dif­fer­ent back­grounds bring strength: Lil­ly’s mul­ti-cul­tur­al her­itage made her unique­ly spe­cial, just as diverse experiences—including nav­i­gat­ing crises—add depth and resilience to your entre­pre­neur­ial journey.

Returning to “Normal” Operations

As your per­son­al cri­sis resolves or evolves to a more man­age­able state, con­sid­er a grad­ual return to full operations:

• Phase back in ser­vices or hours incrementally
• Sched­ule reg­u­lar self-check-ins to ensure you’re not overextending
• Con­sid­er which cri­sis-dri­ven adap­ta­tions might actu­al­ly be worth keeping
• Acknowl­edge the tran­si­tion with key team mem­bers or stakeholders

A Path Forward

Run­ning a busi­ness through a per­son­al cri­sis isn’t about achiev­ing perfection—it’s about find­ing a sus­tain­able path for­ward that hon­ors both your human­i­ty and your pro­fes­sion­al com­mit­ments. Some days, that might mean accom­plish­ing just one impor­tant task. Oth­er days, work might pro­vide a wel­come dis­trac­tion and purpose.

At Next Chap­ter Brand­ing, we believe that these chal­leng­ing life tran­si­tions become part of your unique sto­ry and, ulti­mate­ly, can strength­en both your per­son­al resilience and your brand’s authen­tic con­nec­tion with your audience.

As we pre­pare to say good­bye to our beloved office man­ag­er and brand inspi­ra­tion, we’re remind­ed that our busi­ness, like Lil­ly her­self, has always been about transformation—turning dif­fi­cult begin­nings into beau­ti­ful new chap­ters filled with pur­pose and love.

Whether you’re fac­ing a health cri­sis, fam­i­ly emer­gency, or say­ing good­bye to a beloved pet like we are, remem­ber that your busi­ness can bend with­out break­ing. And some­times, our great­est chal­lenges lead to our most authen­tic work.

---

If you’re nav­i­gat­ing a per­son­al cri­sis while run­ning your busi­ness and need sup­port, we invite you to share your expe­ri­ence in the com­ments or reach out direct­ly. Some­times the great­est com­fort comes from know­ing we’re not alone in these entre­pre­neur­ial challenges.

For more strate­gies on how to build your brand grab your e‑book today.