Work Life Balance What's That? Part 4 Family Priorities

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on October 27, 2006

As I was thinking about the Royal Banks recommendation that business owners simply "Put your family and home life first" I really struggled coming up with suggestions and ideas that would be 100% in alignment with putting "family and home life first".

Then I got an insight, most entrepreneurs would feel insulted by the inference that they are not putting their family and home life first. Trust me for business owners with family their loved ones are never far from their thoughts.

Sometimes putting 'family first' translates into working in the business instead of being at home. For example:

• Being short staffed.


• Month End.


• You need to finish a job so you can deliver on time and get paid.

"What looks unbalanced to many people who work as employees could feel like balance to an entrepreneur. Understand this - an entrepreneur has a vision of what she is trying to accomplish. She becomes very driven and committed to achieve this objective.

From the entrepreneur's perspective, to do anything else would show a lack of balance or poor judgment. After all, when you have invested every penny in it and spent years developing a business, it would be foolish and irresponsible to quit. However, there is still a need to achieve some sort of balance."

Via Life Balance for Entrepreneurs

Business is dynamic and these days all the more so. That does not mean that your family should always take a back seat to your business priorities and problems. Being open and honest about what is going on with the business goes a long way to improving communication with your family.

In my experience, when I hear that my family wants to spend some time with me it is usually because I have been so focused on my work that I also stopped communicating with them.

One of the perks of being self-employed is being able to take breaks during the week. I have found that taking my family out for a surprise lunch, walk in the park, or something as simple as a coffee or ice-cream in the middle of the day helps create balance. Plus it gives me an opportunity to bring them up-to-date.

My last point is planning specific outings, dates, special events (concert, holiday) are a great way to re-balance your home life. How do you deal with the demands of business and needs of your family?