How do you manage and grow a successful business and maintain a home life balance? Well first off you have to prioritize them. For me, and what my advice and insights are based on, my priority is my home life. In fact, the reason I have grown my business to where it is today for the purpose of providing a successful home life.
What does your successful home life look like to you? Knowing what you want in life enables you to better understand what you need to do to enjoy it. Mine includes concerts, weekday trips, camping, vacations, Disneyland, the beach, holiday dinners, working on the yard, spending time with my family, and the newest addition, Tuesday date nights. These all take two things, time and money. I tell you this not to boast about how awesome my home life is, but rather to demonstrate that you can have both a successful home life and a successful business. You just have to be smart with your time. Here is how I did it.
In the beginning. All businesses have a starting point. Mine started on an old desk picked up for free off Craigslist in the corner of a small dining room, with a land telephone line, an old computer, scanner, printer, and digital camera. Yes, a digital camera. They were new to the industry, and the quality was poor (or maybe it was the photographer), but boy did I think I was cutting edge! As my business grew so did my investment in technology. My computer kept freezing due to its inability to run the software upgrades, so invested in a newer, faster computer. My printer was constantly running out of ink so I purchased an all in one printer/fax/scanner that used less than 1/4th the ink. My neighborhood only had dial up internet available due to antiquated phone wire, so I researched and talked with local internet providers, and was able to get DSL by installing new phone wire in my house, from my house to the phone box, and from the closest hub to the phone box by my house. All of these investments served the purpose of saving me time. Time I now had to spend with my family. The point is to always be looking into new technologies and don't let obstacles prevent you from using them. I have tried and failed at using several, pocket pc's and original tablets to name two. But my successes have far outperformed my failures. Yours will too.
As I grew. Do you use technology to make you faster? Over the years the technology in my industry has changed. Computers are faster, my all in one printer/fax/scanner is obsolete, and digital camera's have been replaced with smart phone's. Of all the advances, the smart phone has been the greatest time saver of my career. But as with all technology, you have to learn how to use it before it will save you time. Spend the time needed to learn how to use it, the company you purchased it from should be able to demonstrate all the functions. Learn how to use all features of your software on it, and equally important, learn how not use it for non-essential functions as these will 'spend' the time you saved plus some. Stay away from the gaming and social media temptations and you will find you will have more time for home life and business growing.
Bill Gates once told Congress a business that wasn't trying to grow was going to eventually fail. But how to maintain balance? We've all experienced it, you have to grow the business before you hire people or invest in technology to maintain it. How on earth is it possible to take a day off, go the beach, or (gasp!) take a full weeks vacation when you're in the midst of growing your business?! Well, consider this. You should be in the midst of growing your business at all times, so you better figure out how to make time for your home life while doing it. In the early years I would get up at 4:00 am and use the hotel computer to respond to emails, schedule work for when we returned, and appease my clients needs. A few years later I was able to wait until 5:00 am and use my laptop (another great innovation) in the hotel room. Today I am able to handle most items with my smart phone, which I recommend planning a couple time slots each day to do this, which enables me to enjoy my vacations while still maintaining and growing my business.
The future is made today. This applies to both business and home life. Don't wait until tomorrow to get started on your future. Spend some time researching and learning technology, get your thumb off the social media and gaming functions, and use your time to make today, and your future, amazing!