Many of us are experiencing uncommonly high levels of stress right now related to COVID-19, politics, and the unknown future. As a business owner, you can feel overwhelmed and alone, dealing with the challenges and responsibility of running a business, whilst balancing your family life.
The urge and desire, as a business owner to build a successful and stainable business, and maintain a quality private family life, can lead to bad habits with serious consequences. Lack of focus on healthy habits, downtime, engaging in hobbies, unchecked stress and anxiety can lead to serious health issues.
Here are three actions business owners can take to grow their business whilst protecting their health.
- Make proactive instead of reactive decisions:
Instead of leaving business decisions up to chance or waiting for external circumstances to dictate your next move, be clear on your goals and objectives for your business – professionally and personally.
Ask yourself and challenge yourself as to what are your intentions with the business that I’m committing my time and energy into? Am I creating a job for myself to simply pay the bills, or building a company that served a larger purpose – income and freedom? What kind of clients do I want to attract and what kind of work do I get true fulfilment and joy from a sense of real achievement?
Answering these questions honestly will help build a sustainable business model that brings fulfilment.
2. Set firm boundaries between work and personal hours.
As a small business owner, it can become nearly impossible to separate work and family as they blur into one fluid span of time. It can be hard to remove yourself as the “owner” to the “Leader” you need to be to build a sustainable business model.
Re-evaluated how and where your time is used. Challenge and review your schedule and set aside time blocks for specific tasks, project work and importantly quiet time to reflect and prioritise.
Another strategy is to evaluate the amount of time you think a project will need, and then double or in some cases triple it. By giving yourself realistic timeframes and building in buffers, you will be more productive and effective.
Owners are constantly juggling priorities between their company, employees, family and outside interests. It is challenging to stay focused and clear when you are in “overwhelm” mode. So, take a clarity break
Here are some pointers to make the clarity break effective:
· Book that appointment time with yourself regularly whether you decide to do it daily, weekly or monthly. It should be a minimum of one to two hours per week.
· Find a quiet place away from the office and all the distractions and interruptions.
· Put your phone and other devices out of reach, on silent, or in aeroplane mode after arranging a fail-safe method for your family or assistant to notify you in case of an emergency. Take a blank pad and a pen with you.
It is important to establish and commit to boundaries: lunch breaks, day ends at 5 pm, log off your computer and don’t respond to emails, weekends are weekends. You need to ensure you have the right team, systems and processes in place to support you and remain disciplined.
“Think of boundaries as a way to keep you in, so you only have time to do your best work.”
3. Choose to do less in order to do more.
It appears counterintuitive to do less to get more done, however, you will be surprised, invest in quality time, and quality results will emerge.
Delegation, one of the most significant challenges for owners is being able to transition from owner to leader. Moving from being in total control and performing many tasks on their own, to delegating tasks and relying on employees to drive business growth is not always met with success. These “owners” are no longer looking in the mirror to complete tasks; they need to delegate tasks to staff and associates to own and complete. This is a crucial area where leaders delegate responsibilities to employees and empower them to drive growth. In the words of Bill Gates: “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
Remember, learning how to delegate IS the difference between reaching new heights and burning out. Plus, delegating tasks to other capable employees gives you time to ponder and implement ways to grow your business.
Documenting processes, introducing systems, and technology will support you to ensure your business to be more efficient, accountable and able to function without you the owner /leader being present.
An overemphasis on perfection can result in paralysis and the inability to innovate and for teams, it can get in the way of progress as projects are never quite good enough to move forward.
Effective work is about moving toward the desired destination, and not necessarily about ensuring that nothing gets spilled or knocked over in the process. Mistakes will happen. It’s the momentum that matters, and ensuring that time is not wasted obsessing over small things that won’t end up having a significant impact in achieving the objective.
Doing less means identifying where you can create the most value and leveraging it as one of your business’ most important assets. It also requires building a team around you to support business functions and look for opportunities to continuously improve your offering.
As a business owner, what are your plans and goals to realise the opportunities in your business, whilst maintaining a healthy work- life balance? Have you sat down and thought through your goals and developed a plan? How will you realise the opportunities in your business to achieve your income and freedom goals?
Contact us at Aligned 4 Growth to find out how we can help you achieve your income and freedom goals. Email jamie.marra@aligned4growth.com.au or visit us at https://aligned4growth.com.au/ for two FREE strategy sessions: i) ideal business model; ii) Profit/Margin.
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