NFIB

Build Your Business by Getting a Life
06/ 25/ 2002

by Lisa Waddle

Ever notice how othersÆ eyes light up when you say you own your own business? Chances are they envy the freedom and happiness that come from being your own boss.

Yet too many small business owners struggle to have any sort of life outside their business. The reason? Most confuse building a business with just having a job.

Ask yourself this: How well would your business do if you stopped showing up? The answer holds the key to your work/life integration. Because if you feel you canÆt leave the office for your childÆs baseball game, or that your business will go under if you take a weekÆs vacation, then what have you done by founding your own company, other than create a job for yourself?

Everyone knows you need to have a life outside work. The question is how to do it. We turned to small business owners successful at work/life integration for the answers, which youÆll find in the story that starts on page 26. The overall finding ù hardly a shock ù is that integration isnÆt easy, but well worth it.

What is surprising is that the main difficulty isnÆt in finding time for family or hobbies, but in changing old assumptions about work. That means realizing that more time in the office doesnÆt equate with a bigger profit statement. That productivity suffers when you work without a break. That too much time in the office results in poorer quality work, from being overtired and out of ideas.

The payoffs of integration ù more time with family, friends, hobbies and to relax ù will develop you holistically as a human being, and better prepare you to run your company for the long-term.

It may be comforting to realize that integration isnÆt a new idea. Poet Robert Frost wrote in 1936: ôMy object in living is to unite my avocation and my vocation as my two eyes make one in sight.ö Keep that analogy in mind as you focus on your business and life.

Let me know how you manage to run a company without letting it run your life. Write me at lwaddle@mybusinessmag.com.

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This article originally appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of MyBUSINESS magazine.

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