I have been thinking about what this blog should be about. First thought was to provide little tidbits about business but after careful consideration I decided that maybe I should also talk about my journey as a small business owner and try to let every one know what I have encountered in the past twelve years, what has worked and what has not and in some cases talk about topics as if I was talking to my clients.
Today what was running around my mind was balance. When you work from home as I do it is easy to blur the lines between your work life and your personal life. With a home office you can never really “go home from work”. Your clients know that you are there so they call at all hours and on week-ends. It is very difficult, especially when you are just getting started not to walk around with the business phone in your back pocket so that you will not miss the one call that will be your best client. If this goes on for to long you will burn out. You need time away from the office to regroup and relax. For me the hardest part of the time way has been the feeling of guilt that I should be in the office getting things done instead of taking time for me. In recent months I have come to realize that as hard as this may be I need to set boundaries and work at achieving a balance between work and personal. I do not have to answer the phone every time it rings, that’s why I have voice-mail. I can take the week-end off and get back to the issues on Monday morning. I can ‘leave” the office at 5 and have dinner with the family. As I make attempts to do this I am finding that nothing falls apart and just maybe I will be more productive when I am “at work”. Next step is to actually take a vacation and not spend it worrying about all the things that are not getting done back at the office.