If there’s one word that can generally be used to sum up running your own business, it’s ‘busy’. With limited resources most entrepreneurs that want to guarantee success with their latest venture find themselves working long hours in order to keep everything going, as well as turning their hand to a thousand different tasks, from pitching to investors to chasing up invoices and running social media channels. There are always more tasks that need your attention, and you have to become extremely good at time management in order to maintain some sanity. After all, one of the reasons that a lot of people want to get into being their own boss is for greater flexibility to give them a better family life as well. So how do you make sure that your business runs smoothly, while also hitting that mythical work-life balance that is often spoken of?
Do Everything With Strategy
When so much needs doing, it’s very easy to run around like a headless chicken, being extremely busy but not very productive. In order to maximise the work you get out of your time, it’s very important to operate strategically. In practical terms this means having a good idea of your vision and values, actionable goals for what you need to achieve and a defined schedule. Remind yourself at the beginning of each day of your working priorities and as new tasks come in categorise them against this list of goals. This will help you to define if what’s taking up your attention is moving you closer towards those important milestones or not.
Learn To Delegate
This could mean several things. If you’re a small operation and you don’t have any possibility of taking on staff then you could look at outsourcing. This is a cost to the business but it can be a false economy to spread yourself too thin and try to do everything, especially in specialist areas where you may not have much in-depth knowledge. If you need to find hr outsourcing companies or someone to handle the books, so that you can focus on core business, then it’s usually a wide decision. Similarly, if you have got the stage of being able to take on staff, then it’s a good idea to learn the art of delegation quickly. Handing over projects can feel difficult when you’ve grown your business from scratch solo, but trust that you’ve employed the right people to do a good job, and recognise that sometimes, having more than one perspective on a given issue can be a real benefit.
Schedule Your Personal Time
It’s all too easy to let anything personal get pushed to the bottom of a very long to do list. And although there will be critical times where work has to take precedence, equally there will be times where you should prioritise time for yourself, family events and time with friends. Use a scheduling app to make these as much a part of your calendar as your business appointments and honour them as such – because if you don’t have any balance, you’re on the path to burn out, and there’s nothing that will halt the progress of your company as much as that.
