BALANCING WORK AND LIFE

Many business owners struggle with the work life balancing act. Some look at others and think that they don’t have it right, and at others with envy because it seems that they have their cake and eat it too.

Work life balance is a choice of what you as the business owner want it to be.

I believe that to have a good work life balance it is good to get rid of the busy-ness in your business and work smarter not harder by becoming super efficient. Here are some of my tips:

IMPLEMENT TIME SAVING IDEAS

In accounting this could be to automate recurring invoices. Some accounting packages have the facility to email invoices on a regular basis (providing of course that the invoices don’t change from one month to the next)

Make use of bank feeds to cut down on data capturing time

Make use of recurring transactions – this is particularly helpful where the same type of transaction is recorded every day/ week or month

Implement good controls that help you identify errors or issues before they happen

STOP PROCRASTINATING

We all have that one task that we don’t look forward to – either do it or delegate it (preferably delegate!) because once started it won’t take as long as you thought it would. Best done by identifying your own individual PEAK HOURS and slotting these tasks in then because this is when you have the most energy and tend to feel you can take on the world

DELEGATE

But don’t abdicate tasks and responsibilities – trust that your employee has sufficient knowledge to do a great job but also make sure that there are sufficient reporting in place to highlight any issues

EMPOWER

Your employees to achieve great things as this will grow your business and allow you more freedom to do the things you love doing.

SUPPORT

Ensure you have a supporting team that supports your business and allows you to get on with the business so that you are not stuck doing the mundane stuff but instead can concentrate on bringing in the business

UNDERSTAND

Understand what work life balance means for each of your team members

MAKE TIME

Make time for the important things in your life and stick to it. If your son/daughter has a particular activity they participate in weekly, schedule this in your diary, making sure that nothing can be scheduled in this time and informing your staff and customers that it is your time with your family.

Make time just for you. Take up a hobby, some activity that you do just for you to take time out and recharge your batteries.

STOP FEELING GUILTY

Stop feeling guilty if you choose to spend time with your family don’t think about all the tasks waiting for you in the office. Enjoy the time doing that activity and the same applies to being at the office. Whatever you choose to do at that point, do it 100%.