5 Tips on Juggling Your Family and Your Business

When you’re a business owner, your business can consume your life.

All fine details that go into running the business divert time and energy from your family. Creating a balance is a necessity if you want to stay sane.

What are some ways you can be successful at business and at home?

Creating Work-Life Balance

It can be tricky to get the job done all day, but be fully present with your family at night. Here are a few tips to help form that balance:

1. Write a schedule. Whether you plan out each day or each week, keeping a timetable is important. Physically write out what time you will spend with your family and what time you will devote to your business. Having a schedule to follow allows you to see exactly how much time you are devoting to each one while helping you avoid overworking. Both your mental health and your family will thank you.

2. Make a rule that family time is family time. With technology’s inter-connectedness, it can be tempting to multitask at home. However, keeping work and family life separate is essential for maintaining balance. Quality family time means putting work aside and fully focusing on your loved ones. Furthermore, multitasking has been shown to produce lower quality work. When work invades the home life, both sides suffer.

3. Use stress management techniques. Keeping your stress levels low is also important for your balancing act. If you’re too stressed to function properly at work, you’re very likely to make family time unpleasant as well. When you’re a small business owner, your life is extraordinarily busy, and stress is a natural side effect. A few great ways to reduce stress are exercise, meditation, and hobbies. Schedule some relaxation time on top of your work and family time.

4. Cultivate open lines of communication. Communicating both at work and with your family is the only way to build a solid foundation. You can’t expect your life as a business owner and family member to go smoothly unless a good line of communication is fostered. This includes listening to feedback from both your family and any employees or business partners. Also, make sure your employees have a clear understanding of the hierarchical structure of your organization. When they do, they can take questions or problems to the appropriate person, rather than come to you with every obstacle they come across.

5. Maintain structure and organization. Organization at your business is a key aspect of a balanced life. Your work life should be made as easy as possible in order to comfortably make time for family. Structure your business in a way that permits you to leave someone else in charge occasionally. Hire and train an employee to be your second in command if possible. If all workplace responsibility falls on you, it doesn’t leave much personal time and is more likely to create unnecessary stress.

Boundaries Build a Better Life

Running your own business is a challenge regardless of how you do it. Having a family can make it even harder as you work to evenly split your time.

That being said, running a business while maintaining a family is wholly possible and can be done if structured well.

Create boundaries between work and home, and you’ll be more productive at both.

Question: What efforts would you add to help make your life successful at work and at home? You can leave a comment by clicking here.