Are you a business owner with no work life balance? Are you always at work? Thinking about work? Worrying about work?
The fact is, that’s no way to live your life. It’s not healthy, and what’s more, it can have a detrimental impact on your business. Sooner or later you’ll physically and mentally burn out, leading to poor performance, lack of direction, and – in some cases – the complete destruction of everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to take a step back. Remove yourself both physically and mentally so that you can return with fresh eyes and a clear mind, ready to spot the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls.
Loosening Your Grip
When a business is small, you can do so much more. There’s more time, less pressure, fewer deadlines. But as it grows, there will come a point when you need to loosen your grip on certain tasks and responsibilities, instead employing people who are better suited to them.
And as you build your team and bring in more work, you must be careful that you don’t remain too involved with the day-to-day, to the detriment of the bigger picture.
By micromanaging your staff, you deny them the opportunity to buy into what your business is all about. Leave them to do what they do best, and they will more often than not form an emotional bond with the company, leading to a strong morale and a proactive workforce, actively seeking opportunities to help the business flourish.
Letting Go Completely
You then need to make time to work on your business, rather than in your business. And the only way to do this is to delegate more of your tasks to people you can trust within your organization.
Never be afraid to hire someone who is smarter or more talented than you in a particular area. They are not there to step on your toes; rather, they should unburden you, leaving you with a clear run at the things that you are good at and enjoy.
New faces also leads to new ways of doing things. By relinquishing your death grip on your business, you must also accept that changes will be made. As you give employees more autonomy, they will find better solutions, more cost-effective systems, and more agile workflows.
Don’t let the “well this is how we’ve always done it” attitude derail a positive change for your business.
Now Choose Your Role
With your business all but released from your death grip, you must now think about the kind of leader you wish to be.
Are you a dictator or a diplomat? Well, the trick is to land somewhere in the middle. Find a balance between the two and you will enjoy the respect of your employees without scaring them senseless or allowing them to walk all over you.
And in order to improve further, you must be confident enough in yourself as a business leader to ask for advice from professionals in their field. This could be a business coach or a CPA (like Whittaker) who will guide you and your business towards further growth and success.
With a wealth of experience often a phone call or email away, their advice can lead to invaluable action.
Strike the Right Balance
The day you get the balance right as a business owner is the day your business takes its first steps towards extraordinary success.
By taking the time to improve as a business leader, and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, you can unlock potential that you perhaps didn’t know existed.
If you’d like to tap into our own business experience, and discuss the opportunities that come with better business planning and management, contact us today.
