Work-Life Balance Life Care
Aah, I love this topic, don’t you?
Getting my work life in balance is one of my goals this year. Which is why I just hired my wonderful Mother as my Virtual Assistant and why I’m paying her in Spa Days. Or should I say paying us in Spa Days? Because we’re doing them together.
I decided I couldn’t see all my hard-earned cash going to boring, essential stuff, like debit orders and school fees. I know I have to get those covered of course, but I know it’s just as essential to start taking care of myself. And my Mom.
Get some much-needed balance.
More excellent tips to do just that in the contributed post below.
Keeping The Work-Life Balance in Check as a Business Owner
There’s a lot riding on a business venture when you bite the bullet and decide to start your own company. Chances are, failure isn’t an option. You might have poured your life savings into it, or taken out a number of loans that would leave you bankrupt if you had to pay them back.
You might have quit your career, and given up lots of other things too so that you can focus on your business to make it a success.
However as important as it is, you also don’t want to mess up your work-life balance. Spend too much time working and you might get burned out, start making silly mistakes and actually decrease your productivity.
Think about it, when you’re exhausted and overworked you will never be able to perform to your full potential so make the hours you work quality over quantity.
Here are some of the ways you can ensure you’re maintaining a healthy work/ life balance as a business owner
Set Your Working Hours
Working for yourself requires tremendous dedication, and to make a success of your company often means working long hours. But doing so can cause you to ultimately burnout.
Setting working hours and sticking to them where possible can actually lead to better productivity. This means things like not reading emails before bed at night, or working seven days every week.
There’s a lot to do when you work for yourself, but allow yourself some time off to rest and recharge.
Employ More Staff
If you’ve reached the stage where you’re struggling with the workload, it’s could be time to get some extra help and hire another employee (or many).
While you have to pay an additional person’s wages, you’ll get more done and with more hands on deck, you’re likely to improve your profit.
It means you don’t have to bear the burden of an enormous workload alone or work every waking hour to make sure it’s all done.
Eventually, you could hire someone to take your place and run your company from the top. That way you get all of the profit but without having to get your hands dirty yourself.
Plus you create great job opportunities for others.
Outsource
If you don’t have the time, funds or inclination to employ additional staff members, one way you can make sure jobs are done properly is by outsourcing various departments in your business.
Whether it’s computer services to make sure your network and data is being run properly, or accounting to ensure payroll and taxes are being handled efficiently, hiring a specialist company to tackle the work for you can certainly take the pressure off you.
While you will pay a fee for this, of course, the fact that you don’t have to hire additional staff members, rent a bigger premises for everyone to work in and buy extra equipment for everyone to use can actually save you money.
Rent Equipment
If your business requires you to have a lot of expensive equipment, try renting rather than buying. The cost of buying, maintaining and upgrading equipment can be huge and something smaller businesses can struggle with. This can equal more money being spent, and more time messing around.
Whether you need medical equipment, special printers, catering tools, computers, machines or anything else, instead of spending a fortune on these things it can make more sense to hire it instead.
While you will pay an ongoing fee, if the equipment breaks down it will be replaced or repaired for free (as long as it wasn’t your fault).
You can always gradually buy and replace things as you go, but hiring gives you access to good quality equipment that you might not necessarily be able to afford right away. And saves you time as you don’t have to organise and pay for repairs if things go wrong.
Use Computer Software
The right computer software will ensure jobs that are painfully time-consuming or boring much quicker and easier. This, of course, frees up time for you and your workers to spend elsewhere.
Things like accounting software, collaboration software, and scheduling software can all be utilised for your business and will massively reduce your overall workload. Don’t get bogged down with jobs that take a computer seconds to do.
How do you make sure you’re maintaining a good work-life balance as a business owner?
Do you ever find yourself putting in too many hours and becoming overworked?
Oh my goodness, all the time! I put in way too many hours and most days it feels I’m working non-stop from the crack of dawn to way after dusk.
Because I’m just not just a business owner, I also have to keep up with the housework, grocery shopping and cooking. I also have to get my son to and from school in time and of course, schedule extra-mural activities and play with him when he’s home alone without a playmate. It’s fitting in everything that’s tricky.
How do you feel Moms? Have you got this one handled or do you still feel like you have a hundred balls in the air to juggle?
