Work Life Balance

Running your own business to give you more time to be with and care for your family sounds great in principle, but we all need to take care to keep a work life balance. 

 There is a perception today that you must give 100% of yourself to every aspect of your life. This pressure to work long hours and put work first before everything else, including family, is overwhelming!

Many small business owners start their own businesses in order to dictate their own hours and so that they can work around their family commitments but somehow they still struggle with getting the right work life balance.

Mums, in particular, put enormous pressure upon themselves to achieve not only their work goals but ensure that the family schedules are run like well-oiled machines. Starting from breakfast, school drop-offs, working, etc, to collecting the kids, running them to sports/dance practice, making dinner, cleaning and then getting everyone off to bed. I get exhausted just thinking about it!

So, why do we feel that we have to do it all to be recognised as a valuable contributor?

“It seems that we’re all so busy being, well, busy, that we’re in danger of missing out on the most important thing – life!”

We often complain that we don’t have enough time to look after our own needs and ourselves because we have to do this, or have to do that, when we really should be thinking long and hard about what we want to achieve and what our priorities are.

Once you establish that, you can start working out how to fit life and balance into your days. It just really boils down to being clear about what you want and then getting organised.

If you look carefully at any of the “super-mums” out there, you begin to realise that they don't do it all alone. Backing them up are spouses, grandparents, friends and neighbours. A team, if you like, all working together.

People have always lived in societies and that’s for a really good reason – sharing the load and safety in numbers!!

But remember that teamwork should not stop at home. It’s really important in business too!

By spreading the load and delegating responsibilities, you can reduce your stress levels and always ensure that you are providing your customers with quality services and products. Giving tasks to experts in certain areas such as bookkeeping, marketing, IT, etc means that you get to focus on your own areas of expertise, whatever they are, as well as enjoy some rest and relaxation!

Being organised can create so much more free time or give you that extra time to maintain the work life balance goals that you set for yourself. If you’re not brilliant at organising – don’t worry, there are people that can help you with that too!

If you are currently dividing your time between business and family though, it pays to be realistic about how quickly you can get your business to the point of being a success.  For that matter, you also need to consider what your definition of success is. Is it simply being better than the competition, achieving a modest profit or having happy customers?

 Once you have that sorted and can be proud of your own achievements, you can then start to relax and enjoy your family as well as your business, making them work together.