Dreaming of making the leap into full-time entrepreneurship? You’re definitely not alone! Thousands, even millions, of people share your dream, but dreams don’t work by themselves. You are the thrust and the propulsion behind the lift off and climb you are embarking on.
Balancing a full-time job while launching a business is not an easy undertaking. After you’ve put in the work building someone else’s dream for up to 10 hours a day, there’s barely and time or energy left to put into making your own goals happen.
How do you balance, or better still, how do you integrate it all and create some sort of harmonious lifestyle that allows you “have it all”?
Schedule Everything! When you’re super busy and manage multiple competing priorities, your calendar is your best friend! You have to become a calendar fanatic! You’ve heard it before, “If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist.” During the years that you’re doing double duty and even after you’ve made the leap, you must stick to following a strict schedule. It’s the only way you can avoid having things fall through the cracks.
There are two practices that make scheduling even easier, blocking and batching. Time blocking allows you to create consistent scheduling routines that make it easier to remember appointments and tasks. Think about it, if you know that every Wednesday at 2pm, you focus on sales calls or discovery sessions, it easy to remember that you can’t schedule that conference call about the venue for your upcoming event during that time slot.
Batching is similar to blocking, but focuses more on tasks than appointments. For example, I batch similar tasks into certain time blocks each day. I write my blogs on Sundays. My goal is to write 3 blog posts per week and I usually write them all in a single sitting. You can do the same thing with other tasks that are similar to help yourself stay on task and be more efficient and productive in your business.
I recently received my new planner in the mail. I order the one shown in the image above. It’s absolutely gorgeous! I’m going with the Day Designer Planner because it gives me everything I need to run both my business and personal life. My planner is the only area in my business where I have to put pen to paper to make it click. These planners sell out every year, so I jumped on the band wagon for next year. I’ve officially become a planner addict!
Check out the latest planner options by clicking here >> Day Designer Planners.
Use a Dedicated Work Space. Having a special spot set up to run your business is super important. Do everything you can to ensure that the only thing that happens in that space is business related. Think of it as sacred space. Once you commit that space, it’s a smoother transition into work mode when you enter it.
The other important thing about using a dedicated work space is that it’s the only way you can legally take the tax deduction for it on your tax return. It’s hard to measure a corner of the dining room table and calculate the split between business and personal use. It’s much easier to pick a room or nook in your home that is underutilized and make that your home office space.
Rely on Cloud Based Apps. Using apps based in the cloud makes accessing your files and calendar much easier. Most of the apps I use to run my business are cloud based and accessible from all of my electronic devices. Who wants to have to wait until you get home to update a customer file or add an idea to an outline for a blog post? That’s so 2010!
There’s a whole new way of driving revenue in your business! From creating graphics, to scheduling, to note taking and even billing, I can completely run my business on the go. Check out my Top 5 Favorite Productivity Apps to get an idea of some of the apps I use.
Be Strategic about Your Commute & Lunch Breaks. I use my time in the car very strategically. I use that time to return phone-calls and record notes for things that I don’t want to forget. In case it’s a little noisy, I use ear-buds that cancel most background noises. The person on the other end of the call doesn’t need to know you’re calling them from the car. I keep several sets of ear-buds handy because mine tend to grow legs and walk away.
The car is also a great place to learn. I listen to my favorite podcasts and audio books while I’m driving. Check out Audible.com for some great reads! It helps me stay up to date on relevant topics and clears these sorts of passive activities from taking up valuable real-estate on my already overloaded calendar.
I’m not a huge fan of scheduling lots of appointments during your lunch breaks, but from time to time I have to do it. Try using that hour as a time for decompression, meditation or thinking. I believe we simply don’t spend enough time in quiet contemplation. Lunch hours are a perfect time to brainstorm a solution to your client’s problem or to come up with your next sales campaign.
How do you create the time to get everything done for your business while working your 9-5 job? I can’t wait to hear about your challenges and solutions in the comments below!
Kemberli Stephenson is a Business Coach and Cash Flow Strategist financial professionals who desire to turn their skills into consistent cashflow and grow a profitable business away from corporate America. Kemberli empowers women, specifically women entrepreneurs, to be financially independent by teaching them to discover their danger zones and blind spots, and develop and implement profit strategies that will grow as their organizations grow. Follow her @SparkHustleFlow on all social media channels.