Let’s face it: the phrase “work-life balance” loses all meaning once you become an entrepreneur. The concept of work-life balance implies that your energy can be divided up like a pizza. But for small business owners there is instead a constant need to find an equilibrium between your business and your personal life. Now this doesn’t mean that you split your time evenly at home and in the office, but rather that you have found a rhythm that fulfils both sides.
Here are some tips to ensure that your life remains in a harmonious balance:
1. Blend the two together
It becomes hard to blend the parts of your life together when you segment them into separate compartments. You should view the important pieces of your life as one unit with several parts. For example, sharing the highs and lows of my business with your family and on the opposite end, sharing your latest kid stories at work to cheer everybody up. And then when the two inevitably collide, each part is aware of and ultimately more supportive of the other.
2. Be true to yourself
Be authentically “you” in every situation and trust your instinct. It’s hard enough to run a business and have a personal life; don’t make it harder on yourself by not being true to yourself in either. In business and in our personal lives, we face outside pressure to conform every day, so it’s not always easy to stay true to yourself but you’ll be more at peace, have less stress and more harmony in your life as a whole, rather than just in certain parts of it.
3. Allow for give and take
Sometimes you’ll have to work longer days and give more than you usually do to your work. But instead of feeling guilty or bad about this, readjust your expectations and make sure to give that little bit extra to your friends and family when you can.
4. Communicate Clearly
For many businesses, especially those growing rapidly, the onus is placed on you to ensure your business thrives; this often mean starting work early and ending late to accomplish this. Because you are the one in charge, the responsibility is on you to communicate clearly with your partners, employees, family and ultimately with yourself. Make sure to provide how you expect to find balance and harmony in your life and communicate these wants, needs and goals clearly so that expectations are set, and you can be held accountable for what you said you would achieve.
It’s a tricky task to harmoniously manage both your business and your personal life, so don’t feel bad if you find yourself struggling with it; it’s completely normal to struggle with finding this balance and is something I have struggled with whilst building my businesses. But having used these tips, managing this balance in my own life has become a lot easier and more effective. Just last week I was in Cape Town overlooking the ocean with laptop in hand interspersed with downtime on Table Mountain catching my breath and resetting.
Finding a harmonious work-life balance is something that I focus on in my coaching practice, focusing on my clients’ strengths and, helping them prioritise their time, and most importantly to recognise their peaks and troughs and to manage them effectively.
Self-care is the new health-care.
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