Being a small business owner is a lot of hard work and requires you to wear many hats. Long workweeks and early morning starts are not uncommon, but you can’t sustain that without taking a severe hit to your mental health. Finding a work-life balance as a small business owner is essential to keeping you at your best, and we have some tips to help you achieve that balance.
Create boundaries
Creating boundaries between your work life and personal life is the first step in achieving a healthy work-life balance. This includes setting boundaries with your employees, like “don’t call me when I’m off work unless it’s an emergency,” to setting boundaries for yourself like “I leave work by 8 pm every day.” To achieve balance, you need a clear delineation between your work and your personal life. Otherwise, they blend and are harder to separate.
Ask for help
When you start a small business, you’re usually on your own, and you become used to doing everything. But as your business grows, those tasks start piling up higher, and it becomes nearly impossible and very unhealthy to try and do them all yourself. That’s why another essential part of achieving work-life balance or even just growing your business is to hire more people you can delegate tasks to. You can still focus on the big tasks while leaving the many smaller jobs to the people you hire. This will create more time for you in your personal life.
Improve productivity
Productivity is about getting the most amount of work done in as little time as possible. So to maximize the time spent off work, you have to optimize the time you spend at work. Creating to-do lists, managing your time wisely, and allowing yourself to take small breaks throughout the day are helpful tips for maximizing productivity.
Have fun
When you’re not at work, it’s important to “unplug” and allow yourself to spend that time with your family and friends or even just by yourself. Engage yourself with a hobby or other activities you enjoy to get your mind off of work. It’s tempting to dedicate every waking hour to your business, but you’ll burn out if you try to do so. You need to take the time to enjoy yourself. That’s the whole point of having a work-life balance.
