As a small business owner of nearly 33 years, we have to learn we cant be all things to all people and we have to stop pulling ourselves in all directions. As well as being very damaging to our businesses, it is also very damaging to our health and those relationships we value.
We are all gifted with 24 hours in a day. None of us get any more or any less. It is how we manage and use those hours that makes the difference. We have to sleep, we have to give time to our families, our friends and our loved ones, we have to have a social life and yes we have to spend a proportion of our time running our businesses to give us the lifestyle we desire – but not at the expense of other areas of our lives.
If we don’t have our life in balance and we spend too many hours working in our businesses, we are damaging every other area of our lives.
Most small business owners work more hours than they ever did working for someone else, and probably most earn less money – but most I speak to would never change that as the one thing running your own business does for you is give you an element of freedom – if we only allow ourselves that opportunity.
I started running my own business in 1987. We did not have computer, or a website or an email address, and have probably gone through the biggest change to the way we run our businesses over the last 33 years than at any other time in history. Technology has meant it is possible to do more in a day than we used to do in a week, and time seems to fly by. I am constantly saying to people that we go to work on Monday morning and by the time we go home at the end of the day, it is Friday,
In the last 33 years, I have never worked more than 50 hours a week, because I learned very early on to know what I was good at, know what I was not good at, and know who to get in to help me on the areas I needed help with. I was fortunate to be introduced to a personal development programme in 1981, six years before I started in business, so this gave me a good grounding.
So I can give you any tip that will save you, save your business and your relationships – ASK FOR HELP.
The sooner you understand you have to ask for help, the sooner everything in your life will begin to look better. This is from someone who has owned and run a small business for 33 years, been through many ups and downs, run the business as a partnership, run it as a limited company, and run it on my own, and managed to sell it. During this time I also built up a property portfolio of 23 properties. I don’t say this to brag, but because I understood what I was good at and understood where I needed help.
Under the Lionheart Management banner, I am now offering my services to small business owners to help them with Advertising and Marketing (an area I have been working in for the last 33 years) and also as a business advisor on other areas of your business. I have hundreds of contacts so if you are not getting a good service from some of your business suppliers, then I am sure I will be able to help here
Make 2020 a year for having many successful crusades, a year for running your business better than you have ever run it before, and make sure you know when to ask for help.
If you would like more information, please email richard@lionheartmanagement.co.uk or call 07798 632173
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This article was first published on LinkedIn by Richard Knight on 27/11/2019