by Cat Crawford
Turning your side hustle into your dream business takes significant time and work. If you’re like me and trying to do this, as well as maintain a regular 9-5 office job, things can start to get a little messy and hard to cope with.
I read so many articles from successful solopreneurs, telling me I needed to use every second of my free time building my business. So I did. I woke up early, got into the office and started working on my own projects before starting my 9-5. Then I would use my lunch break to do some more work, finish work, go home and work right up until bedtime, before waking up and doing it all over again.
Can you guess what happened? Major burnout!
Use your time productively, not excessively
I had been told by my boss babe inspos that I needed to constantly be working on my business in order to make it work, or I wouldn’t get to where I wanted to be. Working this way was not only damaging to my health, it was damaging to my business.
I was completing tasks that didn’t further my goals but made me feel like I was doing something nonetheless. It took a major burn out for me to realise that this was not the way I want to grow my business. A tired stressed and ill me was not the foundation for a healthy company.
So instead, I started working on balancing my life. I cut down the time I spent on my own projects and balanced it with some ‘me’ time.
Guess what happened? I actually made more progress in my business within that first week than the last month I’d been working myself to death!
How to balance business and pleasure without the guilt?
For those of us working hard to create our dream business, taking rest breaks can fill us with guilt. We feel like we are slacking or being lazy by taking some time for ourselves. This is not the case!
Balancing your business and life is something you will need to do from the very beginning of your business, right through to the peak of your success! So it’s important you get the hang of it now.
The best way to balance your time is to note down how long you are spending on your tasks, prioritise the most urgent things and then work in some downtime around those tasks. If you need to physically schedule in a nap into your diary, do it!
The only person that is going to look after you, is you, so treat yourself like a patient that needs constant care. Your dream business will never get built if you are constantly spending your time run down with no energy to do what you love. Put yourself first and your business will thrive off your strength and healthy mindset.
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Cat Crawford is a digital campaign manager at a leading Manchester agency, as well as running her marketing blog, catcrawfordmarketing.com, on the side. She loves to help fellow solopreneurs and bloggers understand the actionable tasks needed to create an online business, from SEO to YouTube, social media and blogging. In her downtime, she likes to lock herself away to paint with watercolours and listen to her discover weekly playlist on Spotify.
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Abbey Ashley is a wife, mother, and the Founder of The Virtual Savvy. Through her free tools and online resources, she helps savvy women launch and grow their own virtual assistant business from scratch. With a background in marketing and a passion for empowering female entrepreneurs, she has helped hundreds of women create a business they love with the flexibility to work from home.