I am a bestselling entrepreneur and I pulled together this helpful article about how business owners can improve their work/life balance.
There’s an implicit understanding that if we hope to care for our staff, we need to give them adequate time to relax after work and to live their own lives without making their careers the core of their identity. This is basic common sense after all, but only recently has the push for wellness been so integral to the quality of talent we hire.
Put simply – those in high demand aren’t afraid to ask for what they need, and luckily, more and more professionals are catching on.
But for business owners, a secondary consideration exists. It’s understood that if you have the temerity to develop your own business and try to succeed outside of the standard job market, well, you need to put the hours in. But you’re no less human than those you manage and whom you request to work at your firm.
For this reason, it’s important to consider how a business owner improves work/life balance, and what that means in the long run. Is it possible to curate a healthy balance when you have so many people to manage? And ultimately it’s your vision that will also give a living to your small team? The answer is yes! And I’m here to help.
As you might know, I am a bestselling author and entrepreneur with about 2 million books sold globally.
Plus I’m well known for my bestselling program to help entrepreneurs to make money online – called Make Profitable Courses Without The Overwhelm.
I love sharing insights and strategies to empower entrepreneurs to enjoy success. So I pulled together this helpful article about how business owners can enjoy more work/life balance.
I believe a careful work and life balance can be found for business owners. Here’s how…
Ultimately, the software you use to plan your day, communicate, and schedule all the minutes of your tasks will save you time or waste time depending on what platform you use. This is why it’s so important to implement utilities that work for your particular niche, such as plumber software that allows you to track your employees, assign tasks, and manage individuals in the field.
But how does this provide a balance between work and life? As a business owner, you’re commonly tied down into the administration of those under you, the paperwork and documentation required each day, communicating, and practicing oversight of those under you. When software can help consolidate and manage every one of those principles, you’ll be certain to curate a better outcome.
Some business owners have become so used to dismissing their own time that they forget to take essential breaks. This might seem noble to begin with, but if that’s leaving you burned out and unable to think clearly, it could be a net negative. Note that taking a break isn’t lazy, nor is it asking too much. It’s your right as a human being, and necessary to manage your focus and energy levels throughout the day.
For this reason, make sure you schedule a worthwhile lunch, and at least one or two other breaks during the day, even for ten minutes. Hydrate, and stretch. Give yourself time to breathe. Sure, this might sound obvious, but you’d be amazed just how many managers and staff deny themselves this privilege because it feels like they should. Sometimes, returning to a normal balance can feel revolutionary if you do it right.
Sometimes, you just need to remind yourself what you’re working so hard for. For most people, it’s to provide a better life for their families, to enjoy opportunities that might not otherwise, and to give themselves and those they love financial security.
So, what good is a business if you’re not going to spend any time with those you run the business for? That might be a little personal of course, but on the whole, this principle is important to remember.
Booking vacations where you can, taking a weekend getaway where possible, planning out distinct times during the year when you take your leave, all of this is important to remain focused and attentive to what matters. Even small habits like reading to your kids when you get home late can help you enjoy that valuable time, while also understanding why balancing your home life with work is so important.
More and more staff prize remote work opportunities in their jobs, but the benefits can also be enjoyed by business owners. While the traditional 9-to-5 model has long been the norm, embracing flexibility not only enhances the well-being of your team but also opens the door to a more sustainable work-life harmony for yourself on top of that. You might decide to make all meetings video conferences through Teams or similar software. This helps you work from home in the morning if you need to, with only a meeting booked there would be no need to brave the busy commute traffic and head in.
Moreover, as you own the business, you get to decide what your schedule will be. That doesn’t mean spending a day in the office is going to be an acceptable alternative, but it’s another tool you can leverage in the fight to give yourself more balance.
In addition to this, you can encourage a culture of trust within your team, focusing on deliverables rather than strict hours. That can help you avoid hour tracking, clock watching, or having to raise an eyebrow if a staff member needs the morning to attend to a personal life matter but without giving up the whole day of work. If you communicate well and set realistic goals, even trialing this option can be enlightening.
Outsourcing non-core business tasks is a practice that many business owners overlook, and for understandable reasons. We’re too often caught up in the belief that maintaining control over every aspect of our enterprise is crucial for success. But there’s a difference between “doing things right” and micromanaging, or not being able to admit when you don’t have the skills for a given task. No company can specialize in everything, after all.
For that reason, it’s wise to understand the value of outsourcing, especially for tasks outside the core competencies of your business. But what kind of outsourcing is right for you? Well, depending on the firm you run, that can differ.
For example…
You might have professional cleaners come in and replenish your front-of-house restaurant area each night but ask chefs to clean down the kitchen. A healthy balance of resources, without having to scrub everything yourself. This is just one example, as marketing, accounting, and many other essential disciplines can be outsourced in whole or in part. Moreover, many companies do this, and sometimes you spend a similar amount on outsourcing that you would have on cost and labor internally.
As a business owner, freeing up this time directly leads to giving yourself more flexibility from day to day. It can also help you avoid making mistakes with essential functions like payroll or handle complicated tasks like management for benefits administration, which grants us peace of mind in the time we do have off.
A routine will do more for you than almost any other piece of advice. When you attend to the same schedule each day you become better at it, and you see which tasks can be automated. Sometimes, this may mean personal automation, such as setting your home assistant to brew a coffee pot while you’re in the shower. Other times, it may be attending to your emails using automatic sorting so you know which requires an urgent response.
Moreover, you’ll be able to fit everything within working hours because you’ll have made time blocking a feature in your routine, allowing you to set work periods dedicated to tasks and pursue the value in that as time goes past. Moreover, you’ll be making use of momentum, which can offer a sense of energetic productivity without constantly having to decide your plans for each day. This makes workdays not only faster but more productive, allowing you more free time to recharge.
With this advice, you’re certain to improve your work-life balance as a business owner.
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