Assert Your Boundaries & Standards to Achieve Balance Stacie Francombe, InspireSmartSuccess.com


Recently you may have heard me mention the importance of setting boundaries for your business and setting personal expectations based on your current situation. I think this is important because many small business owners struggle with obtaining a certain “balance” in their lives, juggling work, family, personal time, and everything in between. Whether


struggling or success-


ful, entrepreneurs often beat themselves up when everything doesn’t go


exactly according to plan.


When is the last time you missed quality time with your family because you got tied up at the office, only to feel totally guilty for missing out? Or the time you didn’t meet a deadline for work because you were running around like crazy trying to take care of the family? When is the last time you took a relaxing vacation (business trips don’t count!) leaving work on the backburner? Let’s face it… for business owners like us, it’s pretty much impossible to achieve a happy medium where everything falls into a utopia of balance. It’s time to stop punishing yourself for not achieving the impossible.


But if that’s interfering with your personal well being and time spent with family, you need to create a limit and stick to it. For some professionals, this means setting office hours even when you don’t work in a physical office. Kindly request clients to respect your 9/6 rule, where they don’t call outside of the hours of 9 am to 6 pm. Make no exceptions! This is a boundary for a reason, so to ignore a boundary would make it useless. Create a time each day that fits into your personal schedule.


With boundaries come standards. A lot of business owners have expectations for their business but not for themselves. Do most professionals have goals? Sure. But standards that allow some flexibility for their personal lives? That’s different. Some business owners have a phone call return policy of 24 hours. Some have a policy of 2-3 days! If you are often bombarded with calls day in and day out, allow yourself time to breath. It might be hard at first to not return calls right away, but unless something is under strict deadline, give yourself a more lenient standard instead of, say, an hour. Understand an adjustment will take time, and doesn’t mean you are doing a poor job. It just means you are respecting your own standards.


Business owners know all too well that they can’t ever totally forget about work. Try as you might, thoughts of client satisfaction and employee performance will inevitably creep into your thoughts. When you run a business, it’s in your blood to care, and that doesn’t work like an on/off switch. “Stacie, if balance is impossible, then how do I have any hope to remain sane?” you ask. Two words: Boundaries + Standards.


I know some business owners that have already asserted their boundaries, and it has done wonders for their personal lives. What do I mean by that? As a business owner, you regularly work around the clock.


WedBiz Journal


We might be a unique breed as business owners, but we are only human and deserve to make the most of other aspects of our lives outside of work. On the flip side, if you have the time and energy to GO-GO-GO with your business and it’s working fine for you, then don’t feel bad about that either!! Consider how your standards will need to be adjusted according to your current situation. Standards you set when you first started your business will surely change through time, as will happen when you add to your family or gain other activities outside of work.


Before deciding your boundaries and standards, NAWP Connect 2011


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