The life of an entrepreneur is full of challenges and sacrifices — at least, that’s what traditional wisdom would have you believe. The business world is organized in such a way that many business owners falsely believe that the weight of their company rests firmly on their shoulders. Holding all this weight on your own, though, can quickly become overwhelming unless you build a support system to help you manage your business and personal life more effectively.
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How to build a support system
The goal of building a support team for your business is to find where hiring someone can give you, as the business owner, back some of your time. As a business owner, you will naturally be overwhelmed with all of the tasks required of you, but these tasks still need to be completed — just not necessarily by you.
“The temptation can be strong to do everything yourself, especially for new business owners,” explains Craig Goodliffe, CEO of virtual assistant services company Cyberbacker. “However, that simply isn’t practical, especially as your business grows.”
A great first step for entrepreneurs looking to build a support team is determining where they spend most of their time and delegating some of the more monumental tasks. “Take social media, for example,” says Goodliffe, “Running your company’s social media is a full-time job on top of your full-time job of managing the business’s operations. By delegating this task, you can not only get yourself back dozens of hours but also yield better results by having someone dedicated full-time to the task.”
One place to start is to look for the lowest dollar-producing activities, as these tend to be the easiest to teach someone else to do. That isn’t to say these activities aren’t essential to the successful functioning of your business — but if someone else can do them just as easily as you, why take time away from the tasks that only you could do?
Why you need a support system
As an entrepreneur, you must look at the things you are neglecting and find a way to free up time from the rest of your duties to take care of these things. Some areas that entrepreneurs tend to forget about are their families, their mental health, and even eating and drinking regularly at times. It can be easy to get so busy with work that you don’t remember to take breaks when you need to, which can prove detrimental to your work-life balance and overall health.
It’s important to remember that entrepreneurs have people problems, not just business problems. “Yes, entrepreneurs spend their workdays busy dealing with meetings, investors, and everything else that goes into running their business,” Goodliffe asserts, “but when you get home, there is important work to be done for yourself and your family.”
Indeed, if you work yourself down during the workday, only to have to do more work when you get home at night, you will be exhausted day in and day out. The same is true for more extended periods. If you work all week and then have to do more “work” at home on the weekends, for instance, you’ll return to your job exhausted on Monday, which isn’t a healthy way to live.
The key to achieving success as an entrepreneur is to be willing to ask for help. “Asking for help is not a sign of weakness,” says Goodliffe. “Many entrepreneurs think that, since they are the head of their company, they are expected to be under tremendous pressure and stress at all times, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Find people willing to help, figure out how they can help, and let them help you. Not only will you be happier, but your business will also benefit from this mindset.”
