People start small businesses for many reasons; redundancy, to earn more money, the chance to work for themselves or freedom and the perfect work/life balance.
But, the truth is that working for yourself doesn’t always mean sitting on a beach with a cocktail in one hand and a laptop in the other. It involves a lot of hard work. Business owners have more responsibility, more pressure, and more stress, and unless they actively work on it, they won’t achieve that work/life balance at all.
We all know that having a good work/life balance is good for your physical and mental health, but it can also have a positive effect on your business by making you eager to get back to work, more productive and make fewer mistakes. So here are tips to help you get a step closer to that balance during the summer season.
Get your holidays booked.
We don’t mean actually booking flights and hotels but instead, book the time away from the business. Block out the dates in your diary. Taking time away from your business is a whole lot easier if you don’t have projects or tasks booked in, and blocking out the dates allows you to prepare your workload in advance. It also means no one can book a last-minute meeting with you on the day you’re supposed to be taking a break!
Decide your working hours.
As a business owner or freelancer, you should be able to pick your own hours of work, so why not set yourself a summer work schedule? Some industries slow down in the months of July and August, as people travel further away on holiday, so while it’s quieter, set your hours to fit into your summer schedule. If you can’t take full days away from the business, change up your schedule to finish early or start late, giving you more time to juggle things like childcare and hopefully enjoy some of the summer weather.
Turn it off.
It is hard to completely switch off from your business, and you can rarely do it 100% of the time, but it is definitely a positive step towards achieving that balance we mentioned. Set your out of office on your email and an ‘away’ status on Slack or Teams if you use them. Go one step further and mute notifications from social media so you can have some peace – even if it’s just for an hour or two.
Automate and delegate.
Are there any admin tasks in your business that you could automate with software or delegate to an expert?
Consider taking some of your more tedious tasks off your plate this summer by hiring a bookkeeper or virtual assistant to tackle chunks of work that you really don’t want to be doing while everyone’s in their garden or at the beach.
If that’s out of your budget, you should look at how automation can help save you a tonne of time. For example, automating recurring invoices, so they send out every month, setting up rules in your email inbox so that they’re organised into categories, or scheduling social media posts on the days when you’re out of the office.
Check out our blog on saving time as a small business owner.
Set boundaries.
This is the most important tip of all. You are in control of your own time, and setting boundaries for yourself and within your business allows you to go on those longed-for summer walks or free up the time with family and friends.
It is counter-intuitive to set up systems and prepare ahead of time just to answer a business email or start a task at the end of your working day because someone really wants it done.
So set your boundaries, tell people about them and then stick to them.
Have a great summer!
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