Being an entrepreneur and running a small and medium enterprise is stressful
at times, and can be hectic. Success within a 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 felling 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 business needs
to be viewed as any other type of employment, where personal distractions
could not, and do not exist!
3. Lack of 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 small 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 business is have
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 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 often times too easy to became
couth 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.
Written by Jennifer Lee for SME Indonesia, September 2008 issue.
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