Striking a perfect work-life-balance has been a constant battle for business owners, for generations. Today, as we adjust to the new normal of working from home, the true essence of work-life-balance is lost somewhere in midst of all chaos.
Therefore, it is imperative to find an equilibrium between our personal and professional life and the rhythm that blends both sides to mitigate the risk of working ourselves to the bone. Here are a few ways that has helped me as a small-business owner to improvise my daily routine and bring some method to the madness.
The importance of unplugging
It is true that in today’s busy lifestyle, we find it extremely difficult to unplug as we tend to multi-task, but as business owners, we must understand that we can only succeed if we stay healthy both mentally and physically. We schedule timeslots for our business meetings and calls don’t we? So why not take the same approach for our personal well-being.
We need to pause, reflect, and do a self-assessment on our personal and professional growth. Plan your calendar and schedule some time for self-care, take weekend breaks, plan a vacation with family or friends to unwind. In today’s new normal, taking small breaks and taking time away from work, could be as simple as taking a 30-minute walk after lunch or a quick run ensuring that we have a productive day. It is important that we give time to things we value the most for sustainable business growth and maintain our sanity.
Outsource when and where necessary
As small business owners, we tend to take up all the work that needs attention for obvious key reason- cost cutting. When I started, I was the designer, administrator, accountant, content developer, marketing officer, the hustler in all possible ways. Some of the most challenging aspect as new business owners is hiring new employees, focusing on growing revenue and profit, provide healthcare facilities, and managing cash flow.
I have experienced that outsourcing can help address all the above challenges and yet help the owners focus on core business issues and tasks deemed more vital. An increasing number of business owners prefer to outsource for some essential and non-essential business functions to streamline workflow, increase efficiency, and most commonly seek for support in areas like accounting, IT services, and digital marketing responsibilities.
Learn from Gen Z
The concept of work-life balance has been redefined in the past few years by the Gen-Z and the millennials. In the past decades, working for longer hours meant higher productivity, being ambitious, leading to promotions and pay rise. This is why transitioning to the new normal way of working from home was not that difficult for this generation who have already found a way through it.
According to the Get Response 2018 survey, 91 per cent of business owners work during weekends, 69 per cent respond to their emails, and texts outside business hours, and 16 per cent haven’t taken a vacation for over 4 years, but when asked if they would like to return to the corporate work, yet 61 per cent say they’ll never go back to the nine-to-five because they now have a better work-life balance.
As business owners we get caught in between the never-ending cycle like growing our business, ticking off the to-do list, getting new leads, and the juggle between personal and work life. We can never find a perfect balance that could be applied to all business owners, however, it is imperative that we bring harmony in our way in order to perform to the best of our abilities.
Mahima Tamang Shrestha, Co-Founder, PurpleTree PR
