How to Build a Business You Love and Create a Life You Actually Enjoy
Running a business can be exhillrating. But it’s also incredibly challenging at times too.
When things get wild, you’re juggling 10 hats, and your email signs off “team” — which in reality, is just you and one other person — it can be easy to lose sight of why you first started your business. A.K.A. when things are chaotic and work is demanding, it’s easy to lose touch with your initial vision, values and the bigger picture.
When you — the owner — gets buried in the operational tasks, the heart of the business can become cloudy.
Administration, accounting, social media, marketing and operations — these roles can be delegated to other staff members or contractors (if not now, then down the track). But “setting the direction” is one of the only roles that the owner can’t outsource.
The only thing that you, the owner (at the end of the day) are indispensable to show up as, is the leader who can drive and cultivate a strong culture.
It’s your job as the entrepreneur to nurture the organisation’s values and inspire your team to see the big picture. But this isn’t easy. Especially when times get tough and you’re constantly putting out fires — fires that you might not have started yourself.
Business can be tough but it doesn’t have to be debilitating. You can build your business to be one that you love, and create a life you actually enjoy
Here are a few things that I’m currently working on that help me to stay grounded, keep a clear mind and keep the main thing the main thing (A.K.A: learning to love life).
1) build a strong Support-network
In a world that glamorouses being “self-made”, fiercely independent, and needing “no-one” — my first action step may seem counterintuitive:
Reach out for help. Help is always near.
Sometimes we need practical support. Other times, we need emotional support. Many times, we need both. Seeking support by delegating tasks and roles that take up a lot of time and drain our energy is a practical step to take.
It can be hard to outsource when the business cash flow isn’t looking so hot, or you don’t have a heap of time on your hands to train staff. But sometimes (if not most times) — delegating certain tasks and paying people to do it can work in our favour tremendously. Though it costs financially, it should probably be seen as more of an investment rather than a liability. The people you delegate tasks to will get the work done, lighten your load, and in the best case scenarios — do the job better than you and bring in more profit for the business.
The practical support that comes from delegating can also take a load off you emotionally and mentally as it can lead you to feel less alone in it all.
Another way to seek emotional support is to surround yourself with people that love you. If you can — surround yourself with people who care for you and understand the nature of business. Unless someone has taken the road less travelled and pioneered something from the ground up as their main, or only source of income — it will be difficult for people to empathise.
Support doesn’t have to come from just one person or resource. If you think of a building being held up by pillars, the more pillars there are, the stronger the foundation is. This image alludes to how important it is to diversify and strengthen our support network.
Sometimes it just takes a little bit of courage to reach out to a trusted friend or family member to let them know that you’re overwhelmed or stressed. It can also be an incredible investment to reach out to a mentor figure who may be 10 steps ahead of you in business, or even seeking out counsellors, coaches or psychologists (or all of the above).
If you’re running a start up in Australia, and aren’t able to invest financially for support, or don’t have strong relationships with the people around you, there are amazing free services funded by government programs like New Access and Business Connect.
One of the hardest things about running a business is feeling alone in it. And you’re never alone. It takes an incredible amount of strength to reach out for support.
2) Make sure you set time aside to Rest
When you’ve been operating in a high stress environment, working longer hours for a prolonged period of time, it can have a lasting physical, mental and emotional toll on you. Though the advice “rest” may seem simple, it can be difficult in practice.
The demands of running your business can strain your sympathetic system and trigger the release cortisol (otherwise known as the stress hormone). If you’re overworked without much support or down time, you can become accustomed to the intensity and demands of your current reality and difficult to flick a switch to just wind down.
Working for someone else often (though not always) allows people to set boundaries around their “work” and “rest” hours. i.e. You can clock off at the start time, and clock off when the demands of the day are over. When you work for yourself, there will always be a to-do list, and the tasks will be never-ending.
The same way you set to-do lists and schedule out time for work, it’s important that you do the same for rest and relaxation.
Rest can look different for everyone, but we all need to prioritise it. Carve out the. Don’t always use the scraps of your time to watch Netflix — schedule it in every week. Block it out.
Text your friend to go out for a beer. Book in a massage. Go for a run. Turn off your email notifications. Put your phone on flight mode if you need.
If you feel guilty — remember that the time you spend to switch of and “do nothing” is actually an investment. It will recharge you to perform better, think with clarity, remember who you are and what you stand for.
3) Prioritise having fun outside of work
Are you surprised to see the words “fun” and “outside of work” under a blog post about entrepreneurship? (smile).
Prioritising things that you genuinely enjoy outside of work is incredibly important.
Yes, you are the business owner. You are the boss. But you are also human. You’re also a friend. You may perhaps even a parent, sibling or partner. You are more than an entrepreneur and it’s important to nourish your hobbies and see the people that you love outside of your business responsibilities.
This ties in incredibly closely and overlaps with my previous point about rest. Doing the things you love will recharges you. It will fill your cup, and bring you back to equilibrium or homeostasis. When you’re immersed in and surrounded by the people, places and things that you enjoy, your body will release the hormones dopamine and serotonin with can boost and stabilise your mood.
Making time for your hobbies like swimming, surfing, painting, going to concerts and seeing friends means you’r refilling our cup. When you’re actively doing the things that make you feel alive, you’re most likely going to step back into your work with high energy and a fresh mind.
They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder. I believe that cliche applies with entrepreneurship too. Taking time away from your business to enjoy life will allow you to appreciate your work on another level, and approach challenges with clarity.
4) Carve out time to regularly check in with yourself
Checking in with yourself can seem like an airy fairy concept. But it’s important. Extremely important.
When I say check in, I don’t mean sit and ponder aimlessly. When I say check in, I mean ask yourself real questions.
How are you actually going? How are you feeling? Are you motivated? Are you stressed out? What’s causing you to feel the way you do?
It can also help to ask questions that take yourself back to the very beginning. Why did you start your side hustle in the first place? What inspired you? Why couldn’t you ignore the pull?
Think back to the simpler days where the world was your oyster and you had the spark in your eye. Nothing seemed too difficult or out of reach because you had the optimism and vivacious drive of a puppy being thrown a bone in a field of grass. Take yourself back to the time of the seed. The idea-generation. The business plan on the back of a napkin. What did you feel? What did you envision? What did you foresee?
How can you make work more meaningful? What kind of value are you adding to your customers, clients and staff?
Making your business about serving others can have an incredibly humbling effect. How awesome is it that you get to have an impact in other people’s lives through your services or products! Just as you invest money into support structures and training, people are choosing to invest their money into your business. You’re giving back to them. Little realisations like this can realign your passion and heart to the simpler times.
Business will be both wonderful and incredibly challenging. Gut wrenchingly difficult yet rewarding beyond what words could describe. Experts say that building something from nothing is more difficult than scaling it, so if you’ve got a business up and running — well done! It is no small thing.
By reaching out for support, delegating some of the load, setting aside time to rest, doing the things we you outside of work and asking the hard questions — you can build a meaningful business that aligns with your personal values and lifestyle.
Set boundaries. Make bold decisions. Know that you are taking the driver’s seat and setting the course of your life. Make sure you remember to laugh more and enjoy the process.
