Running a business can be stressful and time-consuming. If you’re not careful, this can negatively affect your personal life and your general happiness.
A few signs that your business is having a negative impact on your personal life include:
- You spend little time with family and friends and your relationships feel strained
- You prioritize business matters over important events like kids’ sports days, family parties and weddings/funerals
- You are always thinking about work and it is affecting your sleep and ability to enjoy time away
- You spend much of your ‘free’ time dealing with work-related messages and calls
- You’ve neglected many of the hobbies and interests you once had beyond your work
- You don’t have time to tidy your home or sort out personal matters
Getting a healthy work-life balance back is essential for your health and happiness. It can also have a positive impact on your work – being happier and more relaxed in your personal life can make you happier and more relaxed at work.
Below are just a few different ways in which you can prevent your business from affecting your personal life.
Set strict working hours
Without setting strict working hours, there could be a temptation to work every day and spend your evenings catching up on work emails or other admin. Your friends and family also won’t be able to plan things with you, because they won’t know when you are working and when you are not.
Having strict days off or cut-off times can help you maintain a regular and ample amount of free time. To help enforce this, consider having ‘opening hours’ advertised on your website for phone calls and using automated ‘out of office’ replies to emails. Try to discourage staff from trying to get hold of you out of work hours unless it’s an emergency, or tell staff that you will only check WhatsApp messages at certain times so that you’re not constantly on call.
Get a separate work phone and email
It could be worth considering a separate work phone and separate phone number for business calls. You could discourage you from answering work calls and messages in your free time. There are companies that can provide new South Carolina phone numbers to use with an existing VoIP plan. Alternatively, you could buy a separate smartphone and separate number to do business from (there are business phone contracts with perks for businesses that could be worth taking advantage of).
It’s also worth having a separate email address so that you can separate personal and work emails. Having a separate email address for your business could also be more professional and could also make you more organized by helping you to filter out personal emails. Make sure that you only access this email address on work devices.
Take advantage of outsourcing
Need someone available to answer the phone 24/7? Or perhaps someone who can attend to staff matters? It’s possible to outsource call answering companies or HR services to take over these duties during certain hours so that you can fully get away from work. Unless the matter is urgent and you need to be notified, these outsourced services will be able to handle all calls and messages for you.
Fees for these services can vary, but they are generally much cheaper than hiring in-house 24/ 7 staff to take over these duties. When comparing services, look for companies that are reputable. You will have to dedicate some time to giving these outsourced professionals all the information they need so that they can independently handle matters on your behalf, so bear this in mind.
Schedule plenty of time off
As a business owner, you can technically take off as much time as you like. However, some business owners do not take advantage of this and even take less time off than most employees. Scheduling some annual leave is important for focusing on your personal life. It’s also a chance to recharge your batteries and come to work feeling fresh.
Try to schedule time off throughout the year and tell you customers and employees well in advance. Spend this time catching up with friends and family or pursuing personal goals like traveling and focusing on hobbies. If you are worried about being able to fund time off, getting into the habit of setting aside money for holidays (if you pay your employees holiday pay, don’t forget to pay yourself holiday pay too).
Engage in de-stressing activities after work
Work-related stress can also negatively affect your personal life – affecting your sleep, your health and making you irritable. Plan some de-stressing activities every evening to help you take your mind away from work. This could include going to the gym, listening to music, taking a hot bath or catching up on your favorite TV shows – whatever helps you to unwind.
You shouldn’t be coming home from work and going straight to bed. Similarly, you shouldn’t be finishing work, carrying out home chores and going straight to bed. Giving yourself some time to de-stress – even just 15 minutes – will help you to sleep better and give you something to look forward to each working day. This guide offers a few more tips on how to reduce work-related stress.
Invest in passive income streams
A lot of business owners work around the clock so that they can pay the bills. But this is no way to live. By investing in passive income streams, you can make money without constantly working for it. This allows you to take breaks to focus on your personal life while still earning money.
Passive income streams include subscription payments, ad revenue, savings interest, rent from buy-to-let property, ebook sales, online course sales and installment plans. All of these typically involve putting in some work and money initially and then receiving steady payments in the long run. Think about which type of passive income is most suitable for your business and lifestyle. You can read a more comprehensive guide to passive incomes here to give you more inspiration.
