Are You an Entrepreneur That is Starved for Time?
By Vishal P. Rao
Posted Sep. 22, 2004
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.
