It’s no joke when we say that running a trade business (or any small business for that matter) is seriously hard work. As a trade business owner, where’s the work-life balance?
You often stay up until all hours of the night invoicing and quoting. You spend all weekend completing admin tasks you just didn’t get to during the week. Or, you’re even spending all weekend working on the tools just to make ends meet that month.
Being a hard worker is an awesome trait to have. It just isn’t viable for you long term.
The solution? Chasing that ever elusive work-life balance.
Having a proper work-life balance results in decreased stress, greater concentration, higher job satisfaction, and overall improved health. All of which are SUPER important for you and your family. You probably wonder if you’ll ever find that work-life balance amongst the piles of paperwork and the mountain of tasks you have to complete.
But trust us when we say it’s there. The key to finding it is through setting both personal and business goals.
Personal goals
In the past, you probably only ever set goals for your business. In reality, business goals should be built around personal goals. After all, there’s no point in working 15-hour days to achieve your business goals, if you’re just going to become stressed and burnt out!
Personal goals can include:
- Spend more time with the kids
- Spend more time with husband/wife/partner
- Start eating healthy
- Take a family holiday
- Take that boys/girls trip you’ve been dreaming about for years
- Join a gym/do more exercise
- Make more free time
- Find a hobby.
Business goals
There are two ways you can go about setting and achieving business goals while still making time for your personal ones.
Break them down
Having ambitious business goals is the status quo. Setting the goal of doubling or tripling your turnover can be inspiring, and you might even enjoy the challenge. Goals like this can also cause you to lose sight of personal goals and ultimately your work-life balance.
Instead, break these goals down so they are more realistic and achievable. Instead of having a goal of ‘double turnover’, set one that’s to increase turnover by 25% in the next year, increase by 50% in the next two years, and so on.
This way, instead of bending over backyards to just ‘double your turnover’, you can take your time, plan ahead, and have free time to complete your personal goals.
Synergise
The other way of ‘attacking’ your business goals, is to synergise them with your personal.
Set business goals that help you achieve your personal goals.
Let’s say one of your personal goals is to spend more time with your family. Your business goal could be to systemise and automate your business to free up some, or more, of your time!
At the end of the day, it’s no secret running a business can sometimes be overwhelming. However, you shouldn’t lose sight of your personal life in the midst of it all.
Setting goals both for yourself and your business will help you finally find that much needed (and deserved) work-life balance.
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.
