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Blog posts tagged working hours
Workaholic Anonymum
March 22, 2010
I love having my own business. I love the fact that I develop my own products and I meet people who are really good at their jobs who are generous with their advice and can help me with aspects I haven’t got specialist knowledge on - for example, testing my products in a lab for shelf life or designing a website. I love the opportunities, the dream that I can bring a new product to market and that people will love it.
I also like the feeling that I can contribute to helping improve other people’s lives through generating jobs and purchasing goods at fair prices, and be a positive role model to my children.
There is no denying that this keeps me busy. I sometimes have to be away from home a lot and work very long hours. Yesterday, my husband and I were stuck at the Belfast Airport as our flight back from our friends’ wedding was delayed. We set up camp on at comfy sofa in a coffee shop and started planning our next steps for 2010.
We talked business strategy, learning needs, project management tools and the fact that it looks like I’ll have to work away from home a lot. "Do you think the children feel that I am not around enough?" I asked him. Conflicting thoughts. I have heard them speaking about the fact that their mum is an entrepreneur and has a business and that I sometimes appear in the paper and on websites. But they are growing up really quickly and I say to them that although I may not be physically at home, they can contact me and I am always available to talk to them.
"Can you work really hard, be away from home sometimes and still be a good mum?", I ask my children. They both say “yes” and I sigh with relief. They tell me that they know that I care for them and that is, I think, the bottom line. I ask them what they are learning, if anything, about the fact that I have to put a lot of time into my work. “It’s a lot of time, but hopefully if I try really hard at something I really want to do, I can be successful” my daughter says, and I think this is a good lesson.
You can find out more about Marcela on the new interactive business website www.inafishbowl.com
Are you running your business or is your business running you ragged?
March 18, 2010
Think back to those heady, idealist days, before you started running your own business... What was your business meant to stand for? What would your being your own boss give you, which employment couldn’t?
Now honestly, look at how you are running your business? Are you truly in control, or is the tail wagging the dog?
From personal experience, and also my client’s experiences, some of the symptoms of your business running you (rather than the other way around) are:
- you are always busy
- the passion you once had for running your business has significantly diminished
- you don’t get the time or opportunity to work on your business
- your work/life balance is out of kilter
- mistakes or poor service/quality is creeping into your work or product
- you are tired, stressed and potentially run down
Unfortunately, there is no easy one-size fits all solution – every business owner and business is different. Whilst one business owner may want a six figure income, another business owner may be happy with significantly less.
The first step in the process of taking back control of your business is to reconnect with your initial vision for your business and the lifestyle you wanted to lead as a business owner. What was it that so attracted you to business ownership? What was the aim of your business?
The second step is to identify where you have lost control and moved away from this vision, and in what aspects the business is now running you.
The third step is to start to allocate time in your working week to stepping away from the technician role and move into the entrepreneur and manager role. When I talk about technician, this is actually working in the business, doing the client work. The manager is the role where you put in systems and processes into the business, which help run your business more efficiently. Finally, the entrepreneur role allows you to lead your business and take the time to grow it as per your vision.
The fourth step is to plan how you want to run your business rather than letting momentum carry you along. Do you have to be in such a hurry or can world domination wait a little longer?
And then, finally, the last step is to implement the plans for your business.
It may sound simple, but in practice this process may be hard to complete.
Heather Townsend, The Efficiency Coach
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