I work with a lot of entrepreneurs as clients. And it is a struggle to get away from the business when it is your business. There’s a lot of fear about what happens if you step away, or take your eye off the ball for an extended period of time. This could be a weeklong family vacation or sometimes even just an afternoon off. Burnout is so prevalent among women business owners, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
So what does it take to design a balanced business? You know, one that can grow to the size and scale that you want it without breaking your life in the process?
The key when you’re designing your business is to flip the whole thing on its head – begin instead by designing the life that you want, and then design the business that fits into that life – instead of the other way around, which is how we typically do it.
In order to do that, there are five key things you need to map out and be clear about.
What it is that you want
When it comes to your business, maybe you want a seven figure business or to make a hundred thousand dollars a year. But what else do you want? Do you wanna have dinner with your family every night? Do you want creative freedom? Do you want to have time for a hobby or a practice that you care about? Think through the elements you want to have in your life overall so that you can start to design a business that might serve that life.
Your time and energy limits
If we’re not careful as business owners, it’s easy to overestimate how much time we can invest in the business, and the amount of energy that we will have from day to day to devote to it. Don’t commit yourself to a 60-hour week if you only have 30 hours of time and energy to devote to it. That’s a recipe for burnout.
Your options for business models
There are some businesses that lend themselves very well to being run on your own time, where you have full discretion over where and when you work. And some business models do not. And other than the timing question, understand what the core activity is you will be doing. So for example if you hate selling, stay out of direct sales.
How to get results through others
You simply cannot be a lone ranger and scale a business. One of the biggest limiters I see for women who are trying to grow businesses is the leap from doing all the things (and keeping all the money) to employing a team of people they trust so they aren’t so stressed out all the time. Good people are worth the money in exchange for your sanity.
Who to turn to when you are stuck
The truth about life as an entrepreneur is there will be amazing days where you think you made the best decision ever. But there will also be many difficult days. You will think you need to quit. You will think it’s not going to work. So knowing how to keep your head in the game and get out of that pattern quickly is everything. Get a coach, get a support group, get involved in a community of people who understand what you are trying to do. Because having people in your corner who can pull you through the tough days is everything.
In fact, I’ve got just the community for you. Are you interested in learning more about coaching with Brilliant Balance? Set up some time to chat with us here, and we can figure out together if it’s the right next step for you.
