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For the first couple of years after I started my business, I had trouble believing folks who said, “Before you know it, you’ll have too much work.” My workload was fairly light at the time and I spent a lot of hours and marketing dollars trying to bring clients to my business. Too much work? I would love some more work.

But here I am writing at the end of 2021, and I have closed my waiting list to new clients because of—surprise!—too much work.

Even if you’re not here because you’re interested in hiring me specifically, I hope this blog post can answer more general questions like, “Why is genealogical research taking so long during the pandemic?” “Why do genealogists have waiting lists?” as well as provide a window into time management in professional genealogy, in case you are considering joining the field.

How it Happened

After a brief lull in 2020, many genealogists saw a big uptick in business during the pandemic, myself included. Marketing strategies that I implemented in 2019 bore fruit, and I found myself with a lot of new, wonderful clients and interesting projects.

At first, having so much work was really exciting! I loved having a steady flow of awesome new brick walls to puzzle over and book projects to write. It was honestly everything I’d hoped for, but also didn’t dare believe I’d achieve when I started my business.

In normal times, it would have been easy to create a waiting list and simply continue adding and finishing projects indefinitely. *narrator voice* But these were not normal times.

The Genealogical Supply Chain

We’ve been hearing a lot about supply chains in the news lately: products that normally ship directly to us from around the world are getting stuck and aren’t making it onto shelves or into our mailboxes. And just like with toilet paper, COVID really disrupted the genealogical supply chain.

Records that I used to walk into a building and pick up in-person were only accessible by mail-order, with months-long processing times. Digital databases of records that I used to access at local libraries or repositories were not accessible from home. Understaffed and partially closed repositories couldn’t respond to requests as quickly, or sometimes at all. These changes not only caused delays, but sometimes entire projects needed to be reworked or cut off because of a lack of record access. Projects that used to take two or four months stretched to six or seven, and sometimes even longer.

Meanwhile, my waiting list ballooned from three months to six months to eight+ months in advance. From a business standpoint, it was great, but I also lost a couple of clients whose projects I was really excited about. Understandably, not everyone was able to wait more than eight months or a year for a slot. With COVID delays, I wasn’t able to predict whether my schedule would be free enough to begin work that far into the future.

I hate delivering projects late, but by committing to projects’ original timelines, my health suffered because I didn’t allow myself sufficient breaks. I took zero vacation time during the past two years and zero sick days during a case of shingles. I take full responsibility for my dumb choice! But I hope you can see why something had to go.

What’s Next

In order to give my clients my undivided attention over the next year and make healthier choices for myself, I decided to close my waiting list to new projects until at least summer 2022, and possibly later. By closing my waiting list, I’ll also be able to make time for fun side projects like public speaking and writing for my blog, both of which I had to suspend because I was too busy.

I am sincerely thankful for my incredible clients. I am so lucky to work with all of you, and you have kept my small business running during a time when many others did not survive. I am also thankful to my blog’s readers and Buy Me a Coffee supporters. (Click the link to become one, too!) I can’t wait to resume working with new clients sometime next year.

In the near future, I’ll be posting a mailing list signup if you would like to stay up-to-date on my new projects and changes to the waiting list status. In the meantime, please watch this space.

Happy Holidays,

Meryl