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Running your own business can be an exhausting experience where trying to achieve a work/life balance becomes increasingly difficult.
You may be wondering how you’re going to get everything done?
It can feel like you’re getting nowhere fast and this often results in working longer hours, with no time to relax during the evenings/weekends.
Furthermore, technology has enabled a permanently connected state where it’s more difficult to ‘leave work’. You frequently feel that you need to justify any downtime.
That of course has negative effects to your business. You cannot operate at your best and aren’t able to create the business that you’ve always dreamed of. But what can you do to improve your work/life balance in this situation?
Discover What’s Important to Your Work/Life Balance
It helps to know what you want your work/life balance to look like on a daily basis.
WORK |
There will always be a great deal to do and you have three choices on each task:
- Forget it
- Do it
- Delegate it!
If you choose to carry out the task, it’s worthwhile exploring ways to work smarter and save time. Are you working efficiently? Improving processes and making better use of online systems can free up a large amount of time at a very low cost.
Regain Your Work/Life Balance with a Virtual Assistant!
Outsourcing as much as possible is a great way to gain momentum in your business by freeing yourself from the tasks that slow your progress.
Your VA can take responsibility for tasks, such as administration, customer service, content marketing, social media management, website development and project management to name a few.
This will give you time to focus on your core business tasks that create revenue.
Outsourcing as much as possible is a great way to gain momentum in your business by freeing yourself from the tasks that slow your progress.
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LIFE |
Below are a few mindset tips to help you make time for life…
Set boundaries with everyone:
- family
- friends
- business partners
- suppliers
- clients/customers
Try to manage their expectations, communicate your work hours and stick to it whenever possible.
Don’t reply after hours!
Be kind to yourself. Try to reduce the negative self talk, take a breath and relax.
Put time aside to take care of yourself. Go running, relax in the bath or do something creative.
Do something that shifts your focus away from work.
Following these tips and delegating the support tasks in your business to an expert VA will free up an incredible amount of time each week. This allows you to either increase your earning potential or have more fun with family/friends – or better yet, both!
Delegating the support tasks in your business to an expert VA will free up an incredible amount of time each week.
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Why Efficiency is Absolutely Essential in Business
Most business owners realize the importance of being efficient and increasing their productivity.
However, many have quite a ways to go before they can truly feel their business is operating efficiently.
This progress is often blocked by the common entrepreneurial mindset that the business owner is the most appropriate person to take on each and every role.
Of course, this creates a giant and overwhelming to-do list of tasks such as bookkeeping, marketing, social media, website updates and more.
Dealing with these tasks rather than the essential business operations leads to a huge amount of wasted time, a bottleneck to productivity, lost opportunities and an overall reduction in potential income.
Essentially, it means you need to work unnecessarily long hours to make sure you get ‘almost’ everything done.
Putting in place efficient processes will keep your business running smoothly. Your business will then have a solid platform from which you can operate and grow.
Here are two key approaches on how to become more efficient in the day-to-day operation of your business:
==> Approach #1 – Standardize Your Processes
Businesses of all sizes benefit from establishing and implementing standardized processes. This helps improve customer service and saves a considerable amount of time as there’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time you carry out the task. Really think through your processes… which do you feel could be more efficient and which could be replaced or improved by an online platform?
==> Approach #2 – Focus on Your Strengths and Delegate to Your Support Team
Developing a successful business that allows you freedom to also enjoy life should include delegating tasks and roles within your business. For many, growing their business means bringing in support. But all too often people wait until they’re stretched for time and struggling before doing so.
The real key to growth is to recognize your strengths/talents and focus on your role within your business. You need to truly focus on the tasks that only you can do,while all other tasks are handled by your incredible support team.
This approach will help you to take huge strides towards operating and enjoying a successful business. Your team won’t just increase your productivity, they can also inject creative ideas into your business. You’ll finally be able to reach both the income level and the degree of freedom you first imagined when launching your business!
Improve Your Work/Life Balance Through Delegation
When you’re busy handling all the tasks in your business, the rest of your life can kind of pass you by!
You just can’t find the time to get a handle on any of the other important things in life, such as looking after yourself properly, seeing your family or taking adequate time to just chill out.
That lifestyle can’t be maintained forever and can lead to intense burnout that’s difficult to recover from.
You need to transform your business… you need to delegate. It really is that simple.
Delegation is most beneficial when viewed as a long-term solution, rather than a one-off occurrence.
Good delegation comes down to… what, who and how.
What to Delegate:
You can delegate the majority of your recurring background tasks such as social media management, graphic design, copywriting, administrative tasks and customer service, to name just a few.
This will free up your own time to concentrate on the income generating tasks that are vital to your business.
Who to Delegate to:
Virtual Assistants are the perfect resource solution for many different types of businesses, operating both online and offline.
With a wide range of skills and a wealth of business expertise, VAs are able to provide experienced and specialist support at the level of professionalism required by your business. Many VAs have a team behind them too and are able to revise support levels in response to business requirements.
How to Delegate:
Even with a spectacular team behind you, delegation must be handled carefully in order to be successful.
It’s important to be able to clearly communicate the outcomes you’re looking for, what you’d like to achieve, as well as if there are particular processes and deadlines by which you’d like tasks completed.
If you’re not already clear on this, you can work with your VA to determine both the outcomes and the processes involved. Knowing this is really important so your expectations are aligned and crystal clear to your assistant.
Then… let the task go!
Remain available to respond to communications, but don’t micromanage.
The only thing left to do is consult with your Virtual Assistant as to how you’re going to keep in contact and how they’ll report back to you.
Your VA may prefer to use a project management platform like Teamwork. Perhaps just a written or verbal update once per day/week will suffice so long as you both know what’s expected and when.
Your confidence in delegating will grow. It’s empowering to know that other tasks will be completed to a very high standard and deadlines will be met.
With effective delegation, your business will become far less reliant on your time and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the new opportunities that will present themselves.
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With effective delegation, your business will become far less reliant on your time and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the new opportunities that will present themselves.
You’ll discover that you:
- have more energy
- can build greater momentum
- can reach more customers
- work more efficiently
- increase your earning potential
- take more time off
- spend quality time with family/friends
- and the list goes on…
Isn’t it time you give delegation a try and achieve your desired work/life balance? Image may be NSFW.
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What have you done to help accomplish a more balanced work and life? Please comment below.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Hi and welcome to Virtually Done. I’m Leslie and it’s a pleasure to meet you! If you are an online entrepreneur or small business owner struggling to find enough time in your day to concentrate on the tasks you are passionate about, I can help you!
If you would like to learn more, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you!
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