Being an entrepreneur/business owner allows you to give birth to a dream that lies deep within you. Many entrepreneurs can attest that moving from dream to reality takes a considerable amount of blood, sweat and tears. Time and love are often the drivers that allow the blood, sweat and tears to manifest into an entrepreneur’s dream come true. However, the amount of time and love an entrepreneur spends building and operating their business can have an adverse impact in the quest to find or maintain love.
The reality is you only have 24 hours in a day to allocate across the various areas in your life. Many entrepreneurs who are married, in relationships or desire relationships find themselves torn trying to allocate time between what they do and the one they love or desire to love.
“I want my business to be successful.”
“I can’t afford NOT to work the hours I’m working in order to be successful.”
“It’s hard to find someone who understands what I do.”
“I’m having trouble managing time for business and pleasure.”
Do these statements sound familiar?
As with most of life’s challenges, you try to treat the symptoms instead of addressing the source. You don’t have to remain torn between two loves. The challenge of balancing business and pleasure is one of perspective.
Consider the following keys for balancing what you do with the quest to find or maintain love:
1. Time Block You can ALWAYS find something to do when it comes to building and operating your business. One of the best pieces of advice I learned from Casey Cunningham, a mortgage industry trainer with Xinnix, is to learn the art of time blocking. Successful people have a way of not only organizing their professional lives, but also their personal lives.
Designate specific office hours. Answer e-mails during a specific time period. Return phone calls at designated intervals during the day. Set aside time to spend with friends in social settings or to spend with your spouse or potential love interest. Time blocking is helpful with being able to address the needs of your business along with your need/desire for love.
2. Delegate The art of delegation is one many entrepreneurs struggle with. Money and lack of trust are usually the biggest contributors, but successful entrepreneurs have learned to master the art of delegation. A great way to make progress is to barter your goods/services with other providers. For example, if you’re in PR, you may be able to barter your services in exchange for web development services. Unless you’re bored, you shouldn’t spend valuable time developing a website when that’s an area of specialty for someone else. Also, consider using contractors via sites like Fiverr (www.fiverr.com) or Elance (www.elance.com). You can usually find great resources at affordable rates.
If you have trust issues, then train an employee by starting them off with basic tasks and allow them to grow into taking on more responsibility. Disappointment generally comes because you place a level of responsibility on someone who isn’t equipped or trained to be successful. Remember, delegation will free-up valuable time you can spend with the one you love or time you can spend meeting other people.
3. Invest Most entrepreneurs don’t have issues investing time or resources into their businesses. However, many struggle with investing the required time to be successful in their personal lives. Relationships are like financial accounts; you have to invest in them in order to receive any kind of return. You spend considerable hours investing in your business, be willing to do the same with your personal life. Otherwise, you can’t get upset when you experience a low yield or no return on your investment.
You don’t have to remain torn! You CAN experience success in both your business and your personal life. Be willing to work smarter professionally and invest more in your personal life. Doing so will allow you to learn so much more about yourself, the potential of your business and the benefit of having strong relationships.
Kenny Pugh is a Life & Relationship Strategist, Author of ‘Can You Do It Standing Up?’, Speaker, HLN Contributor, Host of the Chat Kafe Radio Show (http://www.chatkafeonline.com), singles leader and sought-after speaker on singleness, relationships, finances and life. You can find more information about Kenny at http://www.kennypugh.com. You can follow him on Facebook at Kenny Pugh or on Twitter @mrkennypugh.