I'm tempted to feel guilty about not blogging more often this month, but then I remember how great it is that lots of families are away, enjoying the last two weeks before school starts. Stuart and I have our own mini-vacation this week: free use of the neighbor's beautiful new, chlorine-free swimming pool. It's 94 degrees today with a "feel" of 104 with the humidity. Right after work, we're there!
Life is but a dream...
Work-life balance is something we all talk about but few of us satisfactorily accomplish. There's always some pressing need, something that needs to be done at work. I'm old enough to remember Weekly Reader mini-newspapers in elementary school--all these upbeat articles about how all the new inventions would create shorter and shorter work weeks in the future, and we would be hard-pressed to figure out how to use all our leisure time. Well, the future is now, and the reverse has happened: we all work more, not less.
Set Your Limits Right From the Get-Go
I remember, also, a more relevant life tip from a nineteenth-century female entrepreneur (The Dutchess of Duke Street) who opened the first upper-class hotel in London. She broke all the rules: rich people didn't stay in public hotels, women didn't run such businesses, certainly not unmarried women. Her mantra was: I shall begin as I intend to continue, which is to say, she was not going to make any compromises today so that she could succeed tomorrow. She was going to set the rules of her success today--and she did. And she was a tremendous success.
What's the use of succeeding with your start-up if you're going to make yourself miserable in the process? Right from the start, when it seems you simply cannot do too much and are overwhelmed by a list of very important tasks--set your limits. Start as you mean to continue: to have your own business that you love to work at, and love to profit from as well, both in terms of money and control of your own time.
Your time is one of the few things you really can control, so prioritize it realistically and daily.
Otherwise, you will be swamped, whether you have too few customers or too many. What are your goals? Why did you begin this business? What do you want and need for yourself? How can you be fair to your family? These questions are just as important as deciding when and where to advertise or picking a logo or improving customer service. And late August is just the time to think about your answers.
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