If you give yourself the time to step away from work and switch off, you can work on your mindset and wellbeing, and spend time with your family. Your mind will be more focused when you are actually working, says Elena Meskhi
As a business owner, wife, and mother, I know firsthand the difficulties of balancing work and precious time with your family. It can feel overwhelming, and you feel the pressure of what you ‘should’ do. While running your own business can seem exciting and glamorous, the reality is that the demands of business ownership are immense. Often entrepreneurs make the jump to start their own business in order to have a better work/life balance. But this goal gets lost on the way and even those that successfully navigate the start-up years can find themselves trapped spending every available hour working on and in the business.
I wanted to share some of the ways I make sure I manage my business successfully, whilst also having time with my loved ones.
Take time to consider what is important to you, personally and professionally.
My experiences will potentially be completely different to yours. I recommend you take time to shut out the noise of other people’s expectations and consider what is truly important to you. Think about your passions, goals, and what you want to do in your business, with your family, and on your own. Do you love walking your family dog in the morning? Perhaps it is important for you to be the person that drops off the kids and picks them up from school, or take them to their after school activities? Work out what is important to you and then map out how you want to manage your day to day life.
What are the important business tasks that must be completed by you and only you?
Really think about this. You may have started the business, but do you really have to complete each and every task? Would someone else potentially be better at handling the sales, the admin, the marketing? When you look at the tasks within your business that you and only you can complete, then you will know the areas that cannot be delegated. Everything else can be done by others, giving you back the free time to be with your loved ones, re-energise, recuperate, and strengthen your mental wellbeing, as well as your business.
Turn off from work – seriously
You need to set boundaries for yourself that enable you to truly turn off from the working day. With all the technologies surrounding us, this can be difficult, but when you really do turn off from work, you can wholly and completely be with your loved ones. I find this to be an incredibly important part of my life. If the phone is ringing and the emails are pinging when it is family time, I am not able to completely give myself to them, and feel distracted by what needs to be done for my business, rather than embracing the wonderful time I have mapped out for my kids.
If you haven’t got an office space in your home, I highly recommend creating one, even if it is a desk in an area of your home that you can close the door on. This is why business owners are often not able to fully shut off – because they haven’t actively marked the end of their working day. Have something that you can do that helps your mind reset from work, to family time. Even if it’s closing the laptop and putting your phone onto Do Not Disturb at a set time each day.
Let your family know when you are and are not working – as you do with your team and your clients
Employees know when they are expected to start and finish work, so why is this different when you run a business yourself? Yes, it can be tricky to tell clients that you are finished by a certain time but by showing them that your time is valuable, they will soon learn when they can and cannot reach out to you. Your clients will value that time even more.
When you have set the times that you are working, then you can work family time around this. You need to share with your family, as you do with your clients and your staff, the times that you are available for them. Let your family know so they can respect your working hours – and you won’t feel torn between work and loved ones. If you haven’t got children, then share this with your friends, loved ones, your partner, or simply share it with yourself and diarise those times. These meetings with your loved ones, and with yourself are just as important as client meetings are to your business.
It is your business, so you can choose how you wish to run it
You are the person in charge of your business’s future. Decide how you want to run it, and you can then develop the schedule, the offering, the clients, and the growth – because you can set it to your terms. Go back to your values and mould your business around it.
I have found that, as my business grows, I have had to look at my goals and values at different points and wonder if they have changed. Do not feel that everything is set in stone, you can change with the tides. Ultimately, the most important thing for me was realising that time with my family is as important as the success of my business, so educating my clients, my team, and my family in knowing when I am working and when I am not available was the first step in finding my balance. Delegating tasks, not micro managing, and understanding the areas of the business that I am truly passionate about and good at, helped me to carve out my schedule. I also recommend that you truly commit to your own wellbeing as this will make you a better business owner. Think about all the times you have felt stressed and overwhelmed. If you give yourself the time to step away from work and switch off, you can work on your mindset and wellbeing, and spend time with your family. Your mind will be more focused when you are actually working.
Elena Meskhi is a business coach and best-selling author of new book, Rewire Your Business For Success: the 6 step method to increase profit and reclaim your freedom.
