29: How Many Hours A Week Do You Need To Work To Have A Successful Small Business Whether You Are S
29: How Many Hours A Week Do You Need To Work To Have A Successful Small Business Whether You Are Starting A Business, You Are Self-Employed, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, Virtual Online Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant Or VA
When you have your own business, it can be hard to create the work life balance many people only dream of creating. Although having your own business sounds like you are in control of how much and how often you work, you may hear otherwise from many small business owners. Are they working long hours, and do you need to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to be successful? If not, how many hours do you need to put in as a small business owner to achieve success in your small business? Believe it or not, the most important part of this question is really how you define success in your small business. Every business owner has their own opinion about what success means in their small business, but once you have that definition and you know what your successful business looks like, you will be able to create your work schedule around it. You will also notice a big difference in the number of hours a startup business owner works in contrast to a more seasoned business owner. Today I am covering many aspects of work life balance and how many hours you should be working to reach the success you are looking for in your small business. I am talking about the many differences there can be to each individual business and how your family life will have an impact as well. Listen in and see if you are working the right number of hours in your small business, whether you are just starting your small business, you’re a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, virtual online bookkeeper or virtual assistant…
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Show Notes:
When you have your own business, it can be hard to create the work life balance many people only dream of creating. Although having your own business sounds like you are in control of how much and how often you work, you may hear otherwise from many small business owners. Are they working long hours, and do you need to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to be successful? If not, how many hours do you need to put in as a small business owner to achieve success in your small business? Believe it or not, the most important part of this question is really how you define success in your small business. Every business owner has their own opinion about what success means in their small business, but once you have that definition and you know what your successful business looks like, you will be able to create your work schedule around it. You will also notice a big difference in the number of hours a startup business owner works in contrast to a more seasoned business owner. Today I am covering many aspects of work life balance and how many hours you should be working to reach the success you are looking for in your small business. I am talking about the many differences there can be to each individual business and how your family life will have an impact as well. Listen in and see if you are working the right number of hours in your small business, whether you are just starting your small business, you’re a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, virtual online bookkeeper or virtual assistant…
Welcome Back…If someone told you exactly how many hours you needed to work in your small business to be successful, and you followed their advice, do you think your business would achieve the success you were hoping for? You could talk to fifty different successful business owners to find out just how many hours they work in their business and you would probably get 50 different answers. Why is this? Well, it all depends on the type of business, your definition of success, your family obligations and even what you are working on when you say you are putting in the hours in your business. We’re going to jump in and go over these variables to help you decide just how many hours you should be working in your business to achieve the success you are looking for.
First, lets start off by finding out if your business is full-time or part-time. Do you need this business to be successful to support yourself and your family as it is the only income stream you will be receiving? If this is your main area of income, you will find yourself working more hours in your business, and the success of your business will be more important than ever. This business is your livelihood, and you will more than likely find yourself working far more hours than if it is a part-time business. You will have more hours available to do the work since you will not already have a certain number of hours you are spending at working another job. If it is a part-time business, you may find you need to work additional hours outside of your normal 9 to 5. This can be tricky to maneuver as well since you have less available hours.
Next, let’s take a look at your family life. Do you have a spouse, partner and maybe even children? You will want to make sure you find time for these people that matter most to you and make sure you are spending the appropriate amount of time with them. When you communicate with your family and friends about the times you can spend with them it will not only help you keep your work life balance in check, but they will also know when they can expect your full attention. When you are just starting a small business, you may need to let them know that this new venture will be taking up a lot of your time, but in the future, this should be able to change. Talk about how these sacrifices will benefit everyone in the long run. Open communication will be very important to ensuring everyone understands the pressure and stress you may be feeling without adding additional stress from your family and friends on top of the stress you may be seeing with your small business. This also may mean that in order for you to get everything you want to get done on a daily basis, you may need to get up early or stay up late to allow you the special moments you want to spend with your family and friends. By setting up strict family time or hours you can spend with your loved ones, you will be able to plan your days much more efficiently and reach the work life balance you are striving for.
Being your own boss means having freedom to do what you want, and it can be very rewarding. This is the main reason most people start their own businesses. When you are spending time working in your business, you want to make sure you are doing everything you can to be the most efficient. Find out when you do your best work. Do you work the better in the morning, or you more of a night owl? Either way, you want to make sure that you capitalize on your most effective working hours. Schedule your most important and highest priority work during these hours. If you find yourself overworked and you are not able to get all your work done throughout the day, it may be time to start thinking about delegating work or outsourcing. You definitely don’t want to continue hustling until you reach the stage of burn out. Know when you have reached your limit and when you should get additional help. Your first step may be to hire a virtual assistant to help you with any repetitive or administrative tasks. A bookkeeper could also take over your financial tasks and allow you to have timely and accurate financial information so that you are able to make smart business decisions. You may find that the virtual assistant and bookkeeper are able to help you streamline your processes allowing you to get more work done. They will more than likely get the work you assign to them done in less time than it takes you to complete these same tasks. Either of these options would be easy for you to get started with just a few hours a week and could grow as time goes on and they become more familiar with your business. Overall, you want to make sure you are spending the time you have available to work in your business on tasks that will increase the success of your small business. Prioritize your task list by which items will make the biggest impact on your business and focus your attention to those tasks first.
Make sure you are taking breaks. The fastest way to burn out would be to not take care of yourself. If you find yourself working on a task in your business and you feel you are spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere, it may be time to take a little break. When you take this break, you may find your decision-making skills improve. You may also be more creative without feeling excessive stress from working straight through the workday without any breaks. You don’t have to feel like you need to take a long break, even setting yourself up on a schedule of working for fifty minutes and taking a ten-minute break can overall help you get more accomplished. If you feel like you have lost your focus on a project, try getting in a quick walk or some sort of exercise. Even though I mentioned earlier how you may need to get up early or stay up late to get things done in your business, you also want to make sure you set getting enough sleep as a priority. When you start functioning on very little sleep, you will notice your productivity will start to diminish. Sleep is important to staying focused and to ensure you remain healthy.
Are you starting to get a grasp on just how many hours you need to work in your small business? Create a schedule and try to stick to it as much as you possibly can. I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast that one area of deciding how many hours you need to spend working in your business depends on your definition of success. So, how do you define success in your small business? Is it the money, is it the amount of time you can spend with your family and friends, is it the impact you are making on other individuals or something entirely different? Every business owner is different, and you want to make sure you are basing your success and work life balance on yourself and not other businesses or their owners. Make sure you consider your health and happiness when you put your own value on success. Whenever you are working in your business, you should be working as efficiently as possible and creating a work life balance you enjoy. Have a strategy for getting all your work done and know your limits.
If you have been thinking about starting your own business and have an interest in becoming a bookkeeper, you will definitely want to check out my 4-step framework for creating a profitable bookkeeping business. In 3 months or less, you will gain the confidence, skills & knowledge to create a profitable bookkeeping business without feeling alone, overwhelmed or confused about your next steps. This program is for entrepreneurs who want to start, grow or scale their own bookkeeping business. I will be opening this program up soon. You can sign up for the waitlist and you’ll be the first to know about this exciting opportunity. To make sure you get all the upcoming notifications, go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/Elevate-Waitlist - I’ll post a link where you are listening to this podcast for you to sign up as well.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you need some accountability, join our PRIVATE Facebook community and post your action item, we’d love to support you.
