Is life and business all about balance

Life is all about balance.

If we don’t find balance on our feet, or sit balanced in our wheelchair, we fall over.

If we don’t get the work life balance right, we feel stretched in all the wrong ways.

If you’re not being yourself you usually feel unbalanced.

The conversations continue about gender equality and balanced views in our society, as there is still unequal pay, unequal opportunities, and biased views expressed in our communities. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is Balance for Better.

Accountants would advise that you need to “balance your books” – matching your income to your expenditure as a starting point in your household budgeting as well as your business. [Obviously in business you’re looking at having a bigger income than expenses to make a profit, but that’s a different topic!].

Healers and spiritualists talk about balance. Balancing your chakras, or your energy, or your meridians. [Forgive my poor description, this is not a specialist area of mine].

What do you mean by Business Balance?

For me, business balance is two fold:

• The balance of your business in your whole life. How much time and energy are you spending in and on your business, compared to being with family, friends and doing other things you love.
• Working on all aspects of your business so your business growth is balanced and sustainable. So you’re not just focusing on creating new products or services without spending time with your existing customers.

The first of these may be where you focus your attention – creating schedules, lists and ensuring you have the right team around you.

The second can be more complex, and may not be something you enjoy doing! You’ve probably gone into business because you have a fantastic skill, talent or idea to share with others. You may be an expert marketer or sales person. You may love working with customers and clients and spend your time on those areas you love.

However, if you don’t keep your books in order, or send invoices out, how can your customers pay you, which in turn helps you pay your bills?

Running a business isn’t easy, and there is a lot to think about. It’s not just about balancing life with your business, but about ensuring all things in your business are looked after. You have balance in your business.

I often describe a business like a wheel, with each aspect of business as a spoke. If you prefer cheese, then think of a large round cheese and take slices of it. Or pie. Whichever analogy works best for you. If you focus on one or two aspects more than others, and some get forgotten about, then your wheel / cheese / pie will have segments missing. If you’re thinking of a wheel it won’t go round smoothly with these holes in the rim.

How do I get business balance in my busy life?

It will be different for each of us. What’s important is you recognise the whole of your business, and working on each area at different times of the month.

Depending on your business, you may spend much more time with customers than creative business owners who spend the majority of their time creating. Whilst we will all have the same number of spokes in our business, they will be different sizes. The size of each segment may also change over time.

If you’re coming up to a launch, you’ll be spending more time on communication and marketing, for example.

Support for your Business Balance

The Business Cheerleading Club offers a balanced approach to business growth and development. We recognise that you need to balance your life with your business, and it’s usually hard to find this balance! There’ll be periods of time when family comes first, and others when you have a real focus on your business growth.

Each month’s tutorial and expert workshop covers a different topic relating to personal or business growth. You simply pick up and use the ones you need at that particular time. Each week the questions and support asked for in the online forums varies from websites to marketing, to book keeping. Each business owner and manager is encouraged to look at their business through their own eyes, creating it and growing it in the right way for them and their family.

You’re encouraged to take a balanced approach to your business growth – you can’t do everything all at once, so focus on one thing, then move on to the next.

I know what it feels like to be out of balance. Life is definitely better for being in balance. My businesses have always grown quicker if my life and my focus on my business is balanced.

As we think about what balance means in our society right now, I encourage you to think about Balance for Better in your business too. What’s your thoughts? Leave a comment below.