Category: Work Life

This article is submitted by Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO, SBTV.com. Submit an article today.
The stress of growing your business can take its toll. That’s why it’s important to take care of you. Stress is the number one cause of illness in our country. Learning how to manage your stress level is not only a smart decision, but it’s also critically important for your business success. When you are stressed or not feeling well, your motivation level drops. Your judgment and decision making can become impaired. Certainly, emotions can quickly escalate resulting in irrational behavior or fits of anger.
Be realistic about what you expect of yourself and don’t over commit. Learn to say “no” and really mean it. Before you say yes to something make sure it is the appropriate use of your time and resources. Remember, there are only so many hours in a day, and no matter how hard you try you can’t change that. You should manage your time and plan ahead so your schedule can accommodate time to focus on your personal well-being. If you don’t, you’ll burn out, and so will your business.
Try scheduling time during the week that is just for you to do something you really enjoy. For example, a woman recently told me she leaves her office once a week to take a piano lesson. The lesson and her practice time during the week forces her to think about something entirely different than her business challenges. As a result, it helps her feel refreshed and more creative.
Elizabeth Kekrney, CEO of the California-based Kekrney & Associates: The Experts Alliance suggests calendaring your personal time. “I just decide what amount of time I am going to need, and I actually put it on my calendar. Now that may sound stupid, but I write it down. I flex it if I need to, but if I don’t put it down I won’t even get to a party that I am planning on attending,” she explains.
Julie Fogg, CEO of Active Port, a full-service reseller of converged telephone systems, says she has learned how important it is to keep her health and happiness as her two top priorities. She signed up for a fitness boot camp five days a week starting at 5:30 a.m. and sees a nutritionist regularly. “I have so much more energy now that I am careful about what I eat and I participate in group exercise. My health was affecting Active Port, so I will never neglect that area of my life again.”
Discover what works best for you, but make a commitment to yourself and your business that taking care of you is as important as caring and nurturing your business growth.
This article is submitted by Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO, SBTV.com. SBTV is the first television network on the web devoted 100 percent to the small business market – from business start-ups to established enterprises. Founded in 2000, SBTV is becoming the number one choice for small business information on the net.

I’ve analysed what is happening and begun to point the way for those who want to pre-empt the changes rather than wait until they are overtaken by them. Now is the time to decide which category you come into.
Those willing to plan will be rewarded; those not willing to do so will have to take potluck. There are six essentials for your new work life:
Be a specialist in one area but make sure you are more widely qualified and trained than just for your specialisation.
Understand yourself as thoroughly as you can.
Doing this is not a ‘one-off’ operation. We all change as we learn more and grow. Now is the moment to find out what you really want to do. Those who are ambitious to make money have a chance to get themselves equipped to take advantage of the new workplace. Those who want to help socially can prepare themselves for the new needy. They will be quite different from those we think of as ‘poor’ today and their requirements will be much more challenging. Those who seek to advance science or enjoy an academic life will have to be closer to the application of their studies and teaching.
Write a career plan.
It doesn’t have to be a major document, bound in silk. One page should be enough to tell you where you are heading and how you are going to get there. But it has to be a well-thought-out page. You should take stock of your career at least once a year, however well you are doing. You wouldn’t leave your money unattended for any longer. Why leave your career to find it’s own way.
Based on your career plan, equip yourself with the qualifications you need. You don’t have to leave work to do this. There are many courses you can take outside work hours. Select the ones that will benefit you in the portfolio of jobs you will most likely be doing to which I referred previously.
Train and re-train so that you keep your skills up to date.
Just as a building needs retrofitting quite frequently, so your skills need honing and polishing, especially when they are concerned with the new technologies. Sales personnel who don’t know their products are going to the wall. Surgeons who don’t keep up with the new developments are going to the courts.
If you are not already equipped to handle the main new technologies, remedy this failing without delay. You are going to need all the resources you can muster. I already notice people who can’t or won’t understand the new communication technologies falling well behind their rivals – and that applies at the top of the organisation as well as at the bottom.
Prepare the family to be part of the work team.
Yes, even the young children should understand that the breadwinners are working for them and they must help in their own ways. You couldn’t prepare them better for their working lives.
Establish and cultivate your network.
Networking is already important – we all know that. In The New Work World it is going to be even more so. This aspect of your preparation for dealing with The New Work Revolution is so important that I am going to devote the next article exclusively to it.
John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

I advised preparing to be able to work from home. This is not because I think you are going to be thrown out of a job immediately. But one day you may be. Or you may decide that your future will be better secured and more under your control if you take the plunge and go solo. If your home routine has already been modified to allow you to have time and space to work, that will be one shock less for the family to have to cope with. It will also have given you some experience of doing so and of what the problems are.
But there’s another reason why being prepared to undertake work at home is valuable. Full-time regular jobs will continue, of course, but there will be many more ‘portfolio’ workers, people who have several jobs at the same time. Every consultant has been doing it for years. Many more of us are ‘consultants’ now; even more will be in the future.
A portfolio of jobs may seem strange to those used to working for a large company that demands more than full-time attention. In fact, until the arrival of the MNC and the big international conglomerate, it was quite common. In parts of the world over 90% of the workforce have portfolios of jobs even if they don’t always describe them that way.
Will portfolios consist of a number of identical jobs? Probably not. There will be common characteristics, of course, especially the required qualifications and training, but too much similarity can lead to a conflict of interests. So there will be experts who span several aspects of the subject on which they advise. For example, builders will do more of their own design and, for simpler and smaller jobs, rely less on architects. Financial Advisers will become more ‘hands on’ managers of their clients’ portfolios. General Practitioners are already conducting minor operations in their clinics. Chemists will, in addition to having a Pharmacist on duty, employ a part-time GP for ‘instant’ consultations. Trainers will be prepared to train in a number of areas, not just the one for which they are well known.
The portfolio life will consist of much more project work – you will take on the job of getting something up and running, after which you will go on to another project. Many will combine academic work with actual operations, achieving a better balance between the theoretical and the practical.
To get a flavour of how dramatic the changes may be, think of the old grocery shop fifty years ago; only a limited range of products, counter service, delivery, specialist butchers, greengrocers, fishmongers. That today is the supermarket, selling everything from carrots to cars.
It is very important that you prepare yourself to take on portfolio work. To do so you should undertake a thorough personal SWOT analysis. I prefer the PASDAQ analysis*. It seeks to establish your interests as well as your abilities and when planning a career change or job move is much more successful at getting the right fit.
Equipped with a clear idea of not only what you can do but what you want to do – and what you need to do financially – you are already half way to a happier, more varied and more financially rewarding life.

The clash between Global Village and Balanced Life Style will create many changes for, and require unprecedented adaptability by, those now working or soon to enter the work force. My earlier articles on the subject defined the problem and began to show some of the impact it would have.
Home life will be affected. Keeping your information and fears bottled up is counter-productive. You need support. Your family must know that they have to be prudent with money. Don’t frighten your spouse unnecessarily but do discuss, calmly and rationally, the implications of what is happening. Start with the global picture and gradually show how this might affect your industry, your company, you and them. You need rational, supportive contributions, not hysteria.
Think together about the longer-term effects of Global Village. Your spouse may be bent on a more Balanced Life Style, especially if it involves helping with the children. Point out that Balanced Life Style comes at a price, which you are not, or may soon not be, in a position to pay.
We devote much training time to Managing Change in Business. We devote none at all to Managing Change in the Home. Yet this is the base from which we go out to work. Without a solid home base we cannot do our jobs. If you are the de facto head of the family you now have to manage change at home. Do it as seriously as you would manage reorganisation in your own company. It will pay you handsomely when the occasion arises.
Make sure that there is a place and time where and when you can work undisturbed at home. This may not be easy but insist on it. You may have to share space with your spouse or the children. If you do, see that it is available exclusively to you for some of the time. Quite apart from the need for this space now, you may need it as your office in the near future.
Even if you are still in a full-time job you will need a minimum resource from which to study the changes taking place and where you can devote yourself to getting a new job or alternative work. A breadwinner, man or woman, who has no private space at home may seek it elsewhere with potentially disastrous consequences.
Equip yourself with the sources of information you need to gauge how quickly the changes are taking place. This may require newspapers and magazines; access to the Internet is a vital component of it. Stockbrokers’ reports can be very helpful if they relate to your industry. Your industry or trade association is a mine of information. If they have a library, get to know the librarian. Librarians are wonderful people, full of information and nearly always willing to help those seeking it.
Talk to your friends in the business, they will be better informed than you think. They have the same worries as you. Most importantly, talk to your boss. Remember, he has anxieties for the same reason that you do. If he values your observations and comments on the industry you may keep your job when others lose theirs. Don’t be shy about doing this. Any reasonable boss likes to see his subordinates taking an interest in the progress of the company and the business.
Keep a small computer file on the things you learn about the business – nothing lengthy, just short notes every few days. You will find them invaluable later on.
It’s the information age. Make use of it.

Inspired Business Growth: In my experience, too little work-life balance can actually put you out of business, especially if you are a solopreneur. It doesn’t mean you can’t work hard; there are times when you have to put in extra hours in a business – just like sometimes you have to take extra family time, or extra me time to keep sanity in check.
So how do you fit little balancing acts into a busy workday, or keep your head on straight when you are in the midst of a huge project? Well, since I’m rather desperately in need of these tips right now (in the middle of a huge project!!), I figured I would share my research with you.
Set up a “busy schedule” and stick to it
You probably have a normal daily routine, and it all gets out of whack when things get busy at work. But work can suck you in, and you can justify far too many hours in the name of growth. So set up a routine for “busy days” – perhaps you work 2-4 extra hours, and stick to that schedule, working nothing beyond it.
Schedule down time
Schedule things like “break”, “coffee”, or even “video games” into your calendar just like you would a conference call. Protect and honor your downtime with just as much care, too.
Squeeze in walks
Whether you park further away from the office or store, or you work from home, try to squeeze in short walks (I’ve started walking my kids to school regularly). Not only does it force you to reconnect with yourself, but it also gives you some exercise which will improve your concentration when you are working.
Ask for help
Sometimes so hard for an entrepreneur to do, but so necessary if you ever plan on growing your business long-term.
20 Work-Life Balance Tips for the Overworked Entrepreneur [Inspired Business Growth]