Running a small business is hard work. Long hours, competition, cash flow issues, customer relations, bookkeeping, insurance… the list of responsibilities is almost endless.
Meanwhile, most small business owners (SBOs) have a life outside of work that may be equally demanding. Your family and home require attention, sometimes a lot of attention. There is a pull in both directions. Too much focus on either area may create problems in the other.
Maintaining balance between work and personal life is essential, for multiple reasons. You want your business to succeed, so hard work and long hours are necessary. But you also must attend to other areas of your life. Family should be a high priority, also your health. Stress, from work or some other aspect of your life, can create health issues, diminish your focus and make life miserable.
Consider these facts:
- Many SBOs work 50+ hours per week1
- 86 percent work on weekends1
- 75 percent work while they are on vacation1
- 30 percent don’t take a salary; many reinvest in their business2
- 50 percent of small businesses fail by year five3
“We partner with thousands of small businesses across the country, so we know a lot of small business owners,” said Carrie LaNou of Synchrony, one of the nation’s largest consumer credit providers. “The successful ones set boundaries. They work hard, but they don’t let work overwhelm the other aspects of their lives.”
How do you create boundaries? You start by listing your priorities. Consider family, business, friendships, faith, your health… everyone’s list will be different. Having a list helps you allocate your time. Your highest priorities must be given time each day and week. When one thing, like work, consumes all your time, stress in all areas can occur.
It’s easy to let work overwhelm other priorities because so much is at stake. As a business owner you likely have invested a lot of your own money in the venture, so you must work hard to recoup that investment. If you have a family to support, then you have mouths to feed and bills to pay. Your reputation and pride also are on the line. Those are huge motivating factors.
That’s why it is essential to acknowledge other priorities, so you can visualize and appreciate their importance in your life. For example, if you work so hard that it effects your health, then your business and family will suffer. Better to include some regular downtime and exercise to relieve stress and enhance fitness. Likewise, if you don’t get enough family and leisure time it may result in resentment, depression or worse. This can negatively affect your work performance, which isn’t good for business success.
Excessive stress is the enemy of the small business owner because it throws your work-life balance out of whack. How can you know if stress is becoming a problem? Here are some symptoms:
- Sleeplessness
- Anxiety (inability to relax)
- Depression
- Irritability
- Physical symptoms (chest pain, back pain, skin rashes, digestive issues)
- Difficulty concentrating
- Drinking, using drugs to relax
Being stressed is not a sign of weakness; it is a normal reaction to a very busy lifestyle and it is typically caused by work-life imbalance. Often, the best way to reduce it is to restore some level of balance by allocating time to other things that are important in your life.
“Everyone wants to be successful, but working all the time is not the best way to achieve success, because it will likely create excessive stress in your life, and stress will diminish your effectiveness,” said Carrie LaNue. “Look for ways to create balance between your business and the other things you love. Balance will make you a better business leader.”
To learn more about work-life balance, click here.
1 Treyger, V. (2018, January 3). Q. What do virtually all small business owners have in common? A. Hustle and sacrifice. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306855.
2 Wood, M. (2017, August 23). Big boss, small salary: Study finds most business owners earn less. Fundera. Retrieved from https://www.fundera.com/blog/study-finds-business-owners-earn-less.
3 Desjardins, J. (2017, August 1). Why do businesses fail? Visual Capitalist. Retrieved from http://www.visualcapitalist.com/why-do-businesses-fail/.
