Published on June 17, 2024.

You’ve made the life-changing decision to follow your dreams of starting your own business. The next step after deciding to become a business owner is establishing the work-life balance that you need in order to be successful in both your new career and life as an entrepreneur.

Pursuing your passion and making a living from it can be an incredible and rewarding experience, but it’s important to maintain some sort of balance in your life as well. You may think that running your own business means that you never really stop working — there’s always more to do, more clients to please, and more progress to make towards your goals. But with the right approach, you can find the time to enjoy other parts of life as well.

Whether you’re just beginning your journey as a business owner or have held that title for a while, implementing these five steps can help you successfully achieve a work-life balance. 


1. Start with your mindset

It all starts with your mindset. If you don’t know what you need to be fulfilled and happy in all areas of life (personal, business, and career), it will be hard to create that balance. When you think about your life holistically and define your values, priorities, and dreams for each area of your life — both personally and professionally — achieving work-life balance becomes much easier. This process will likely take some time; after all, it is a journey and not a destination. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving balance in all areas of life.

To help you get started, take time to establish your goals for a work-life balance and map out what that looks like for you. By creating a visual, you’ll be able to identify how you can schedule your time so you can accomplish all that you want to for the day or week.


2. Track your time

If you are starting your own business and want to achieve work-life balance, you have to be self-aware of how much time you spend on your business. You can make time for yourself by tracking your time and using it wisely.

Start small with an app like Toggl that tracks what you do in 30-minute increments and at least three times per day. This will give you an idea of how much time you are spending on business tasks versus personal ones, and help you manage your time more effectively. Once you start tracking it’s easy to see where and when improvements can be made — like making sure there is enough room in your schedule for taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. 


3. Give yourself time off

Your job is probably your greatest source of satisfaction and financial security. But it can also be incredibly time consuming. To achieve work-life balance, you'll need to allocate time for yourself and do things you enjoy so you aren't always working.

One key to fulfilling this balance is thinking about it in terms of work and life. When you get home from a day at work or when it’s time to clock out, your objective may be to spend time with family and friends, enjoy hobbies, and do other things that make you happy. Your business is important—but it’s not all-consuming. So when you need some time for yourself, take it.

Setting aside one day or half-day per week to get your life in order will help restore some balance. As you're doing things you enjoy, think about what other activities might bring more balance to your life. It could be exercising, joining an after-work sports league, starting an adult class like dance or art, volunteering at a local soup kitchen (or donating food there), or taking trips with friends on weekends and weeknights instead of just weekends. By doing things that make you happy, you’re allowing yourself time to rest which will help you feel rejuvenated come the next work day.  


4. Hire wisely

Any seasoned business owner will tell you that the right people are critical to success. As an entrepreneur, your time is precious; you want to be able to work on your business (and not in it) so it’s critical to hire the right people for the job. But how do you hire wisely?

The first step is knowing exactly what your business needs. If you don’t know what kind of help you need, how can you find someone who does? Identify the tasks that you can delegate to someone else. By sharing the workload, you’ll have more time to focus on things that grow your business and for leisure activities. Once you have a clear idea of what help you need and have the right people in place, the process gets easier. 


5.  Learn from successful entrepreneurs

As a business owner, you have a unique opportunity to balance your work and personal life in any way you see fit. In fact, there are different strategies for achieving work-life balance that can help maximize happiness, productivity and success. To achieve all three of these outcomes in equal measure, you'll want to learn from other entrepreneurs who have achieved work-life balance and have a thriving business at the same time.

Select a few business owners and entrepreneurs that you admire. Learn about their career journey, follow them on social media, and read any helpful articles or tips they post about growing their business. Gathering this type of insightful information about the experiences of other entrepreneurs could help you shape the way you do business and formulate your work-life balance.  


Establish Your Work-Life Balance

How do you balance your work and personal life when you’re the owner of your own business? It’s easier said than done, and it will take some time to get used to, but there are ways to ensure that your life doesn’t completely revolve around your business. If you want more time with family, friends, and hobbies while still taking care of business, try putting these strategies to practice. Remember: success means different things for different people. If a work-life balance brings you success, then that’s something worth striving for.

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