3 Ways to Balance your Business and your Family
Having your own business is much like having a new baby. You bring it to life, you spend time nurturing, making time, asking yourself if you’re doing everything right, and so on. And it doesn’t stop there either, right? Being an entrepreneur is incredibly demanding and many people (if not most of us) find ourselves losing sight of ways to balance your business and your family.
Because, we tell ourselves that we want our own businesses to spend more time with family and somewhere the opposite happens. This is one of the primary concerns with our clients and, those in our online communities.
So, it was important for me to revisit this topic with you.
Before I dive into a few strategies for you to apply, remember why you started in the first place. I would bet, your family had a big part in your decision — maybe even your WHY. So, use them as fuel while you strive to create the necessary balance in both your business and personal life.
Balance your Business and your Family Life
Creating balance in anything takes work however, I strongly believe that it is worth the trial and error along the way. You will find that the strategies included in the video and those I’ll summarize below, include your family. Meaning, I’m not suggesting you ‘work around them’, but instead they’re inclusive.
My wife and I have found over the years of establishing our own balance is that the more each other are included, along with the kids balancing does feel like such a chore.
In fact, in a lot of ways it has brought us closer together!
Stop Seeking Perfection and Focus on PROGRESS!
I get it … between your business and family life it can sometimes feel like you’re drowning and even can feel like you’re trying to catch your breath.Whether it brings you any comfort in knowing this — I’m going to tell you anyway, you are NOT alone.
It is so important to give yourself some grace first! Finding balance in your business and home life can take time so it’s imperative that you focus on taking things one day at a time. There are days that learning to balance your business will feel like a breeze where there will be other days that you will feel like it’s impossible. The good news is … it IS possible and I would encourage you to start by implanting the next two tips.
Introduce and Use a Family Calendar
My wife Dani and I use a joint calendar called Acuity. There are others out there with similar functions we’ve just found this one to be the most beneficial. It allows us to sync it to our phones, and block off days and/or blocks of time for work, appointments, etc.
In the event you aren’t totally in love with the digital models, hanging a calendar in your kitchen is also a great option. There are a variety of family calendars out there to choose from — some with fun stickers to help you jazz it up a bit too!
And, once you have the calendar in place and working for you — stick to it! Make the time blocks you set aside for whatever task, non-negotiable.
Establish Order and Communication
We operate our home in the following order;
- God
- Family
- Business
If any one of these finds itself out of order, we reconvene and communicate with each other to get back on track!
In addition to open communication with your partner, be sure to share goals, dreams and your vision with your kids so they know what you are working towards! We often don’t give our kids enough credit, right? They are incredibly resilient and often have a better pulse on things than we do. So by including them in what you work so hard for they can become your biggest cheerleaders and, pretty understanding too.
Over to you — what have you found helpful in learning to balance your business and your family? Is family dinner a priority? Maybe regular family meetings are your thing? Let me know in the comments what strategies have worked best for you or, which ones you plan to implement right away.
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