30 May It’s hard work – work/life balance of the self-employed
A survey out of the US of A of over 4,000 self-employed and small business owners revealed something completely, well, expected. We work hard. Some of the findings included: 91% work weekends, 69% answer calls and emails ‘outside of work hours’ and 16% haven’t had a holiday for 4 or more years.
In contrast to this, 32% responded that they started out for themselves because of wanting greater work-life balance and 43% said they wanted more time having fun with friends and family. While USA is a little different to little old NZ, we suspect that many of the trends would be the same here.
One of the interesting conclusions: working so hard is somewhat at odds with at least part of the reason we got into this in the first place (at least for many of us). So, what can we do?
It so happens that small business owners are often inefficient with their most precious resource: their time, spending too much time on mundane tasks that could/should be automated/delegated/outsourced or even gotten rid of.
If you’re your own boss, are you spending the overwhelming majority of your time on the most valuable tasks? Or are you getting dragged into tasks that are ‘below your pay grade’? If you’re wasting too much of your time (or aren’t sure where all your time goes) get in contact.
Reassuringly, 61% from this survey said they could never go back to a regular job and another study suggests that for 70% of people, being their own boss is the best job they have ever had. That’s streaks ahead of the engagement levels for employees.
Yes, it can be hard work, and it can come with all sorts of pressure, but being your own boss can be fantastic. Don’t lose sight of why you decided to be your own boss in the first place.
