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By Vishal P. Rao
Being an entrepreneur and running a successful home-based
business is stressful at times, and can be hectic. Success
within a home-based business though, absolutely demands time
management skills, or the chores that need to get done will
be left undone, and procrastination, as well as a serious
"personal time deficiency" will occur.
Several studies have shown that many first-time
entrepreneurs spend too much time on "non-essential"
activities within a business, activities that have nothing
to do with business, or that have little impact on business
success. At the end of each business day (when it finally
ends), they are left feeling stressed out, burned out,
separated from their personal lives, and worse yet, with a
feeling of non-accomplishment and inefficiency.
You probably have met entrepreneurs like this occasionally
in your own life. They constantly seem "busy", yet they are
constantly late for appointments, don't ever have time to
attend personal activities or outings, and are always
stressed out about what still "needs to be done" each and
every day!
A "personal time deficiency" occurs when an entrepreneur
seems to spend all their time either working on the
business, or thinking about the business. The entrepreneur
can neglect family, friends, activities and personal
pleasures, in pursuit of business functions. This is not
only counter-productive to the business (creativity shines
through when entrepreneurs also schedule time away from the
business), but personal losses can occur to the
entrepreneur. Horror stories abound about divorce among
entrepreneurs, shattered family lives, and personal ruin.
What causes "personal time deficiencies"? A variety of
factors:
1. An entrepreneur does not sufficiently plan every activity
during the working day, with a pre-set amount of time
allotted for each business activity. Without an active "work
schedule", an entrepreneur can feel unrestricted, and
therefore spend too much time on some activities and not
enough on others. All activities should be done "on
schedule" if possible and within a certain amount of time.
Too much "fussing" over each activity will lead to very
little accomplishment each day. Neglect of other activities
will lead to a sense of little accomplished.
2. An entrepreneur becomes distracted quite easily during
the business day. Personal phone calls and activities need
to be kept to a minimum. If an entrepreneur were working
outside their own business, for someone else, they would not
have the luxury of "dropping everything" and going shopping
or out to lunch, if time were not allotted for this! Also,
family members and friends could not drop in and "visit"
whenever they liked. A work-at-home business needs to be
viewed as any other type of employment, where personal
distractions could not, and do not exist!
3. Lack of a succinct business plan that effectively spells
out business activities that need to be completed in an
organized step-by-step fashion and that entails certain
accomplishments within a certain timeframe. A business plan
is essential for success in any work-at-home business, just
as in bigger businesses. A business plan is the "blueprint"
used for mapping out "where" a business is headed, and just
"when" it will arrive! A good business plan will have
weekly, monthly and yearly growth accomplishments built into
it, with planned implementations towards that growth.
4. An entrepreneur does not possess enough self-motivation
to "be their own boss". Half the battle of running a
successful home-based business is having the correct mindset
to do so. The gap between "employee thought processes" and
"business owner processes" must be bridged before business
organization is accomplished. Motivation is different in an
entrepreneurial endeavor, as no "boss" is standing over the
entrepreneur, making certain they finish the allotted chores
each day.
5. An entrepreneur does not actively "separate" business and
personal time in their minds, and plan their personal time
as effectively as they do their business activities. Having
personal time will refresh and energize, not distract from
the success of a home-based business. It is absolutely
necessary to plan personal activities into each day, and
also stick by the plan for those activities. This is an
emotional health issue, and one that needs consideration by
every entrepreneur, as it is oftentimes too easy to become
caught up in the business to the exclusion of all else.
Overall, all the above aspects need to be managed in order
to balance an entrepreneurial lifestyle. The life of an
entrepreneur is without a doubt, an "atypical" lifestyle. It
is a lifestyle that needs more work and more determination
than other types of lifestyles. Time and energy can be
balanced in this lifestyle, but it may take a while to
achieve this. When a balance is achieved, "time starvation"
will disappear!
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Vishal P. Rao is the owner of
Home Based Business Opportunities
- One of Internet's leading website dedicated to starting,
managing and marketing a home based business.
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