Are you a slave to your business?
We here at Lombard Accountants understand that sometimes it’s very hard to switch off when you own a business. You feel like you have to be available to customers 24/7 and always available to your staff and clients. There are lots of reasons why you feel like a slave to your business. In other words, lots of excuses. So, what can you do to stop feeling this way? How can you get back in control of your business?
First, review and update your working practices. If customers are contacting you at all hours, put in place a timeframe for responding, e.g. within 24 hours, and communicate this with your customers. Turn on out of office responses or delicate the job of manning out of office emails to an employee that would like to work on an adjusted timeframe.
Next, if you don’t feel like you can trust your team to run your business without you, establish why this is. Do you think your staff need more training and support? Have you given them the opportunity to step up and take on more responsibility? Do you need to hire new members of staff or outsource some tasks?
So what can you do to improve your work-life balance and making time off a reality? The Lombard Accountants team has some ideas for you to implement. Set goals for what you want your business and personal life to look like in 12 months. Break these down into 90-day goals and actions to achieve those goals. Take ownership, accountability and responsibility for regaining control of your business.
Consider these tips from the Lombard Accountants team:
- Set a time to get home on time every night. Try to get home at least three nights a week initially and then build from there.
- Set your online calendar to schedule meetings to times that suit you. You cannot be available 24 hours a day.
- Hire new staff to man your out of hours calls or offer the job to existing staff that may be interested in alternative working hours.
- Review your staff’s responsibilities. Do you need to train and empower your team to take on more responsibility?
- Turn on out of office email replies. You can’t reply to every email you receive out of working hours. Unless it’s urgent it can wait until the morning.
Whatever your reasons – or excuses – are for feeling like a slave to your business, now is the time to reflect on what it is you wanted your business to deliver to you. The Lombard Accountants team hope these tips will help you strike a new work-life balance.
If you would like to discuss your business needs. Call Lombard Accountants on (01) 678 9960 or email hello@la.ie
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