I don’t usually get this personal online but this past month, I had a health scare and it put a few work-life balance into perspective for me as a husband, as a father and as a business owner.
I was sick for over a week before finding myself in the hospital for 4 days. (I am fine). The hospital is where I needed to be. Thank you to the wonderful teams at the Foothills Hospital.)
Spending parts of 5 days in a hospital forces you to take a bit of inventory on your home life. I want to be around for my girls’ lives. To spend 80 years married to my beautiful wife.
But, for a small business owner, it also crystalizes how important you are to your business and your team. If you are not there, do you even have a business anymore?
Work-life Balance
It’s not naïve to say most of us have heard of work-life balance. Maybe you scoffed at the idea or not prioritized it. I know I used the words but clearly never walked the walk. You might know its “important,” but that campaign execution or business report is “urgent” and must come first. Doesn’t it? Work-life balance, as an entrepreneur, might seem impossible to achieve. There’s just too much to do, in work — and in life.
What if I told you it didn’t have to be this way? I finally see that a vacation once a year and cooking a turkey at Christmas isn’t enough to stay physically and mentally strong. As an entrepreneur, you can create a work-life balance. Ask yourself how many hours a week, day and year would you want to work? Where do you fit into this business? And where does this business fit into your life?
Below are a handful of strategies you can implement as an entrepreneur to create a work-life balance.
Looking after yourself
Entrepreneurs tend to put their physical and mental health on the back burner to a lengthy list of urgent priorities. The ironic thing is that without your health, all the other “priorities” quickly become irrelevant.
[I previously touched on this topic over a year ago when I wrote a blog sharing 5 tips for entrepreneurs to practice achieving and maintaining mental health. Check it out here.]
It is an ironic fact but business owners who spend the better part of their lives working to increase their financial wealth at the expense of their health, turn around and spend their accrued wealth to heal their bodies from the damaging effects of stress and neglect of their fundamental needs.
Healthy business owners have more energy, are more focused and make better business decisions. By looking after your health, you will automatically create a better work-life balance.
How can you make health a priority in your business?
Creating personal reward
It’s not enough to “show a profit” on the books at the end of the year if “you”, the business owner, were not well compensated for your efforts. What tangible motivations can you reward yourself with? Personally, I love camping. My goal is to get out to the mountains 4-5 times every Summer.
At the very least, you need to be getting something of personal value as a reward for all your arduous work. It is all too common to be paid less than market wage or no wage at all when you own a business or, even worse, to never have meaningful time off.
Personal reward creates a work-life balance making you feel fulfilled by what you are doing. A personal reward for you as a business owner might take the shape of owning the car of your dreams or taking an annual vacation with your family. The reality is you can only go so long without getting paid or having time off. Your company is stronger when you are happy, healthy and well-compensated for your efforts.
“Me” time
Creating work-life balance as an entrepreneur can be achieved by staying on top of your schedule. Both at the office and at home. When is that client onboarding meeting? When is your kid’s play at school? When is your wedding anniversary? Your work schedule needs boundaries. When are you willing to work and when are you not?
Don’t overbook yourself. Be aggressive about protecting your calendar and your time including your ‘down’ time. Schedule small mental breaks. If it is in your schedule, you will have a far greater chance of taking the break than if you leave it to chance. Maybe you take a 20-minute walk at lunch to clear your head. Or take time to joke and goof off with your team. Simple mental breaks make an enormous difference in a workday. You need time to rest, or your day could quickly turn from good to “I don’t love this anymore” bad.
Time away should be time away
Creating your work schedule also means scheduling vacations— real vacations. Vacations where you leave the laptop at home.
What number of vacation days do you want next year? If you want to have two weeks off in August and another two weeks at Christmas, start planning now. You can implement systems, so your business runs independently of you during your vacation.
Are you a solopreneur? Even you can plan to have time away. Let your customers know well in advance that, for example, you are taking the month of August off. I do it; you can do it too! Plan the times you work hard and the times you rest.
At the very least, give yourself the same amount of vacation time that you would’ve received as someone else’s employee. Book your time off now and start putting systems in place so that you can get away. Vacation is essential to work-life balance. This leads to the next strategy…
Delegate
Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. Delegating is possibly the most critical strategy in obtaining work-life balance! If you feel like your business can’t function without you physically there, then you need to focus on building strong delegation and training systems.
Stop being (or stop feeling/thinking that you are) your top employee—top seller, top manager, top CEO, whatever it is. If you can do it, that means someone else can do it too.
You hire team members for their strengths. Let them shine. Give them challenges. When you train your employees, you’ll find that they have respect, care and talent to contribute to what you so brilliantly created. And by delegating tasks to them, you won’t have to be working all hours of the day.
Work-life balance as an entrepreneur
All business owners have felt the enormous pressure that comes along with the responsibilities of owning a company. Over time, this pressure often turns into feelings of anxiety, fear, and doubt, which take a toll on your physical and emotional health.
To arrive at a place where you feel free to enjoy life and control your schedule requires structure. You are already working hard, so put yourself first on your list and work hard for yourself. Think of what you need to be healthy and happy.
Need help? Just need to chat? Feel free to get a hold of the Wingman crew. You don’t have to fly solo!