More Life, Less Work: Why Entrepreneurs Need Time Away

Most entrepreneurs when launching their small business dream of building wealth while spending more time on the lake, golfing or fishing. But the reality is quite different.

Instead of building an amazing life, many business owners get caught up in the day to day, soon finding that their business controls them. They are caught in an ongoing cycle of hiring, pricing, planning, developing partnerships, sales and growth challenges. As these stresses pile on, the scale of life tilts badly toward overwork.

In fact, in a recent survey of small business owners, here is what we found:

·  49 percent of small business owners work at least 50 hours a week and 19 percent work more than 60 hours a week.

·  79 percent believe they are working too hard

·  56 percent would like to work less than 40 hours a week

·  93 percent of business owners sometimes work on weekends

At the advisory meetings run by The Alternative Board, or TAB as we affectionately call it, we challenge one another to find time away, to book a golf game, to arrive later or leave earlier, or to spend time with kids and family.

One of our members – the owner of a body shop – arrived at work every morning by 6:30am and often didn’t leave until 8:00pm or later when he first joined TAB. Through the executive coaching he received and the challenges from his advisory group, he reduced his hours dramatically to just 6-7 hours a day and grew his business by more than 80 percent in the first year.

Another member worked day and night at her event production company, always running to oversee the latest event and manage her team. With the help of her business coach and the TAB peer advisory group, she has developed processes and systems to manage each event, hired excellent project managers, assigned tasks carefully for each event and now enjoys an average of five hours work a day. And she gets to just show up at each event to encourage her team, celebrate the event with her client, and then head home to her family.

If you have ever been in the situation of wanting more free time and feeling like your business has you trapped, then you may want to look at getting some help to change things.

In our business, these stories are not uncommon. The power of an advisory board combined with a dedicated business coach can make a significant difference – leading to more work-life balance, better structured teams, more empowered employees, and often dramatic improvements in business growth and profitability.

Who wouldn’t want that?