Work-life balance, is it an option for entrepreneurs?

The debate about the need for work-life balance is an unending one, and it will always come up in spaces where you find both employers and employees – places like LinkedIn. Funny though, that a lot of people seem to think of work-life balance in regards to the employees, and hardly for the employer.

It seems like people hardly expect founders and entrepreneurs to achieve a work-life balance. I remember seeing a post recently where a founder posted that he never had to worry about work-life balance because his work is his life. By implication, a busy workday is the equivalent of a work-life balance.

That statement might have gotten you laughing but in truth, it is a mindset that quite a lot of entrepreneurs and founders share. It just seems to make sense to the founder that if he has quite a career to start this business, invested his life savings and whatever other resources he had, then the business has become his life; maybe because he considers at this point that the business crashing would be equivalent to his life crashing.

But there is a question, what happens if you crash and the business is left running?

Work-life balance is as important to the entrepreneur as it is to employees. You can have an hour or two to take your family out on weekends, or maybe a couple of hours to play tennis with friends or cycle in the evening. Two hours of seeing a movie on a Saturday will not crash your business, neither will a weekend trip to a resort.

The interesting part is that if you pick your fun wisely, it could even enhance your business. You can network and meet with people who will be instrumental to your business growth in the process. I know a couple of entrepreneurs who met their co-founders in the most unlikely places like at a restaurant, at the movies, while playing tennis, etc.

If two hours away from your business will crumble it, then you probably did not have a business anyway. Get a social life. I know this advice sounds difficult especially when it already seems like there isn’t enough time to do all the things that need to be done. Consider your welfare, and yes! your mental health too.

The life of a startup founder will certainly include challenges and sacrifices, but it is not a good excuse to cut off friends, family and allow your health to deteriorate. Running a business gets crazy, and you may need to step away from the madhouse to regain your sanity before coming back in to restructure it.

Just like financial experts say “You don’t need to be earning enough before you start investing. Your income may never be enough but that is no reason not to set aside a little for investing.” In the same way, I like to think “You don’t need to have enough time before taking a little to relax. You relax a little so that you can run your business better and eventually have enough time”.