I was just reading an interesting article in Inc. Magazine called “If Not Now, When?” by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg. She writes about how entrepreneurs often put off things like buying homes or having kids because of all the time absorbed by business. By the end of the article she says that she has no worries because her business was successful, yet her husband is “more overcommitted than ever” because he started another business.
One thing I’ve been learning over the last couple years is that we have choices. If the above scenario describes you, realize that you are choosing your business over your family. Sure, there are consequences either way. Perhaps you won’t make as much money or meet your yearly goal if you work, say only 50 hours this week! One day your kids will be grown and you’ll wonder what happened to their childhood.
Family and business are both very important, so how do you find a balance between the two? My old business coach would say that there’s no such thing as ‘balance’, but rather we counter-balance things. Sometimes work has a busy season and sometimes our family needs more attention. The discipline comes in being purposeful and intentional about how you spend your time.
As a contractor, working for myself, I’ve tried to keep some type of ‘business hours’ so that my family knows when the can expect me to be available. Also, my clients can know when to expect me on the job. Once in a while I’ll get carried away and start working 10 hours days to get a project done. It doesn’t take long for this to take it’s toll on my family.
Oops, my blogging time is up… 
-Peter
