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Stephen Hall is Tax Partner at Deloitte »What with all the sunny weather we've finally been experiencing (one week into June!) myself and the business partner have been struggling to keep up our work ethic of late. We come in from our 'other jobs' and somehow the allure of a night in front of the computer, answering emails and preparing invoices just doesn't compete with a nice cold white wine spritzer out on the patio (yes it's retro and possibly unfashionable but it is tres refreshing!).
I don't think it's possible to breathe down your own neck, but as my own boss I really need to take myself into a quiet room and ask me why I've let my performance slip over the last few weeks. And yes I know it's only been sunny for like two days but maybe I'm using the weather as an excuse for my general laziness towards our little fledgling business of recent weeks.
The thing is though although I love the time away, the freedom of not feeling like I always have to be doing something, it does come at a price.
There's the guilt of course, left all alone our baby business is not developing, not growing through our nuture and attention. Add on to that the very serious truth that without you there is no business and it's not like we're in a friendly market where your products are just flying off the shelves and you soon come to realise that what you're really doing when you take time off is shooting yourself in the foot.
That's why so many small business owners work sometimes up to 90 hour weeks just to get their businesses off the ground and then to keep them running. The figures I found were that small owners worker 60% longer hours than average.
So how as a small business owner who also works a full time job do I maintain the work-life balance? And before lots of small business owners let me know the answer to this most difficult of questions can I take a stab at it myself and guess that basically...you don't?
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