The sacrifices we make for business success are…….?

When you decide you want to start a business, what you are signing up for? Getting yourself into?

1. A shift in routine
2. Periods of high stress
3. Uncertain cashflow
4. Potentially people management

There are also a lot of positives to be gained from the shift into self-employment.

1. Flexibility
2. Control over business values & direction
3. The ability to select whom (clients) you wish to work with and who you don’t (acknowledging in the early days it is hard to say ‘no’ to an opportunity)
4. Setting your own KPI’s & goals

For many, the pursuit of ‘business success’ is their primary goal, and I am not here to tell you what is right or wrong. Be clear on your values and personal vision of success and you will find the right answer. I instead what to highlight the three primary sacrifices I see many business owners make on the journey to ‘success’.

First: Devaluing their personal time and prioritising work commitments/opportunities: Now, I get it, if a potential client asks you to meet them tomorrow for breakfast, you would jump at the opportunity seeing the chance to deepen a relationship, perhaps even secure some revenue. However, I want you to look at what you have had to sacrifice personally to say ‘yes’ to this meeting:

1. 1. Breakfast/morning time with the family
   2. School drop off
   3. Going to the gym/exercising

As business owners, we know how hard it can be to find revenue. But, do we value our family, health, personal time less than that of income? I am still yet to meet a person (that I would want as a client) that has had an issue with that breakfast meeting being pushed back. In fact, the opposite. I will tell the prospect client that I am unable to see them because that is when I am doing school drop, or when I have my gym glass. Remember, you cannot buy time back with your family and children remember our absence and going back on promises. Your health is going to make you a better operator/business owner. You are doing yourself and your clients a dis-service by sacrificing your physical and mental health because they will not get the best version of you.

Second: Sleep: Simple as that! Sleep is what our body needs to rest, repair, recover. Sleep is what enables us to think clearly, think creatively and to deliver our product or service at the best of our capability. Not every night is ideal, especially when we have young children, however, I have worked with too many people that go to bed at midnight and wake up a 4:00am or 5:00am to get some work done before the family gets up. I have worked with others that wake at 2:00am because this is when they are ‘most productive’. This strategy may work for a handful of nights, and  yes, you can ‘catch up’ on sleep with a few sleep ins. But, long term, the damage cannot be reversed. Think of like driving your car for 8 hours a day, then parking it in your garage at night still idling. Sure, it is not moving along at 60km/per hour or stopping and starting, but the engine never fully gets to rest. It is always ‘ticking over’. Our body is the same. We need to respect sleep and the benefits that it brings. You are;

1. 1. Happier
   2. More productive
   3. More creative
   4. A more dynamic thinker
   5. Maintain a stronger immune system
   6. A higher performer for a greater period of the day.

You owe it to your clients, your family and yourself. Invest in constructing a healthy evening routine. Again, this is something we build as part of the 1:1 coaching work. Your evening routine sets up your ability to enter the four phases of sleep and stay asleep for 6.5hrs – 8.0hrs (depending on your level of exertion that day). Blue light blocking glasses, chamomile tea, magnesium, meditation less than 10 minutes, daily gratitude, binaural beats. A few of the tools we all have available to us.

Third: Family holidays: I bet you did not expect this one! I have worked with some incredibly ‘successful’ business owners and they more often than not have very similar advice or even regrets. Reflecting upon their own journey (noting one of my greatest values is family and so is many of my clients), they site the following:

1. 1. Be present with the kids and don’t miss their big events
   2. Spend time with your kids whilst they want to be seen with you. When they grow up, you often lose that opportunity
   3. Make time (and money) for family holidays where you create memories and have experiences

It does not need to be a $100,000 Europe holiday. Go camping, go interstate, stay in your own state, go to Bali. Don’t put pressure on what you think this holiday should look like and don’t let those around you impact what it should look like as well (keep up with the Jones’). Your children just wat to be with you, they don’t care where that is….you do!

Going into business can be incredibly rewarding. Yes, it will, more often than not, take a lot of work to build, but don’t sacrifice the things you value most, the things you cannot back, in order to build something that can be pulled out from under you at any moment. A business will be successful if you are doing what you truly love and you have a network of amazing people around you. It’s growth will not be stunted if you head to the gym or drop your kids at school or leave at 4:00pm some days to be home for bath time and play. Love You, Love Life, Love Business