Category Archives for "Purpose"

0 How to Finish Your Project

It may seem odd to move from keeping your project going to closure!  But perhaps we all benefit from understanding how to finish our projects.  The community sector is particularly prone to organisations that continue well past their sell-by date.

What I say here about finishing applies just as much to businesses as it does to community organisations.   The big issue for businesses is cash flow.  Failure to make sure cash flow can bring about a sudden end to a business. Maybe cash flow is not so crucial for community organisations; it depends on how they are funded.

Equally though healthy cash flow can keep a business going even though it has lost sight of its purpose.  Perhaps most business people would see healthy cash flow as a reason to keep something going and perhaps build a new strategy upon it.  That is a good and proper response and reinforces my main point, planning is important.  If it is inevitable a business or organisations must close, then plan it.  Don’t leave a bad organisation to drift.

Planned Closure

Do not be afraid to close an organisation or business.  It is better to read the signs and close than allow your organisation to drift into oblivion.  The first thing you need to do is decide.  Then plan how you’re going to do it and do it.

Planned from the Start

Some organisations are able to plan closure from the start!  They exist to meet some goal and once it is complete, the organisation closes.  This means closure can be included in the original business plan.

There can be many advantages to working this way.  Everyone knows what they’re letting themselves in for and understands their role through to the end.  There are no unrealistic expectations and perhaps a focus on team work and not so much organisational reputation.

Of course, this is perhaps easiest where an organisation has several projects on the go and needs to keep stock and end projects once they have completed their purpose.  The organisation itself has an open-ended lifespan but plans projects with life-cycles.  Loyalty might be to a team of people and not so much to what they are doing.

Planned as a Response to Changes.

Perhaps most businesses and organisations do not have a planned life-cycle.  This is not a problem so long as they produce and interpret management accounts.  Management accounts enable managers to see trends and respond to them.  Many organisations keep going for many years because they monitor and respond to trends.

When it becomes clear your organisation is no longer viable, you need a plan.  It is not a case of keep going until the bank account hits zero.  You need to factor in the costs of closing.  Staff will need statutory redundancy notice and are entitled to redundancy payments.  It is possible to calculate roughly what these costs are likely to be and many organisations hold this sum in reserve.  This means they know they can cover the costs of closing, so long as they don’t spend their reserves.

Organisations registered with Companies House have limited liability and this is a possibility for community organisations as well as businesses.  This means members are responsible for business failure but only to a limited amount, commonly £1 or £10.  There are various ways you can manage this and it is always worth considering options where you have significant cash flow or staff.

Unplanned Closure

Without management accounts organisations are flying blind.  You really don’t want to do this, especially if you employ staff.  Handing them their cards on a Friday night, without notice is not a good place to be in.  Don’t kid yourself, you cannot steer the organisation away from bankruptcy at the last-minute.

Usually the reason for unplanned closure is cash flow gets out of hand.  On paper, you might be an affluent company, but if you have no cash in hand, you will be in trouble.  You may have plenty of clients on your books but if income from them is not available, you may find paradoxically you must close even though in time money will come in.

I’m not going to go into all the reasons why cash flow fails.  Let’s just say management accounting should pick up issues before they become critical.  If you’re not chasing your debtors, your accountant should point this out!

Forced Closure

With no planning and no monitoring you can put yourself in danger of breaking the law.  This is why forced closure is not desirable and should be avoided at all costs.  There are end creditors who will insist upon payment.  If you use management accounts you can schedule these payments into your financial planning.

The problem for many communities is businesses may be reluctant to pursue money because they know if their debtor go under, they will not receive the full amount.  You can end up with chains of businesses, where they’re waiting for someone at one end to pay their bill, so that the finance can be passed down the line.

If the business that owes the money at one end goes under, it can take down several other businesses, even businesses with which it has never had relations.  When we fully appreciate the impact on others of our own failure, perhaps there will be a greater incentive to plan and monitor performance.

What is your experience of well-managed project closure?  Do you have any advice?

0 How to Keep Your Project Going

How to keep your project going over the long haul is a challenge.  What do you need?  Let’s assume you’re delivering a service people want because it is a good service.  Your business or organisation is growing and you have to manage a team plus various stakeholders who want a say in it.  Here are three aspects of your business or organisation you may need to consider:

Governance

Here are three simple questions:

Who Decides?

This is day-to-day management and it should be delegated to a manager or small management team.  They will usually be employed by a project or entrepreneur.  The aim is to be crystal clear about who is in charge.

Normally, managers contribute to the strategic direction of their project too because they have experience and are closest to the work.  However, they should not have the final say on strategic direction.

Who Decides Who Decides?

There is usually a board of Trustees or Directors who appoint the project managers, to be accountable to them.  They debate and decide overall strategic direction, usually advised by the managers.

Where there is a partnership, there may be a small group who make the decisions.  The main drawback is, what happens should an individual at the top of the organisation be unable to continue in that role?

Who Decides Who Decides Who Decides?

The Board is usually appointed at an Annual General Meeting, made up of members who have an interest in the work.  For a business these may be share-holders.

Usually, a constitution of some type governs how people are appointed to the governing body.  There are many different approaches to governance of  businesses and other organisations but this general three-fold pattern is common.  Any business or organisation that doesn’t have it needs to consider how it addresses the missing elements.

Those familiar with my three function model of community development, will see parallels.  In reverse order, these three questions parallel the model’s functions of representation, planning and delivery.

Financial Control

Every business knows management accounts are important or at least if it doesn’t, it soon finds out.  Many community organisations struggle for years without financial management information.

Let’s be clear.  If you do not see management accounts, you have no idea what financial resources you have or any sense of where they are heading.

Lack of financial knowledge is a problem for businesses as much as it is for community organisations.  It is not merely about keeping good accounts but being aware of how to finance the work and how to build an asset base so the business or organisation can keep going.

Marketing

Marketing is how you tell people why you are there; explain the reasons for your existence.  It is how you communicate with your market and help them understand their problem and your solution.

You may need several marketing campaigns. Besides people who use your services, there may be others who provide resources for your use.  Suppliers, if they understand your cause, may be able to put good deals your way.

Partners need to understand what you are doing.  They can provide better support if they understand your offer.  This can reduce duplication, although in my experience, once you lead the way, there can be any number of copycat projects.

Conclusion

If you pay attention to these three aspects during the earliest stages and review them from time to time, you will minimise the issues that crop up for poorly managed organisations.  You will be in a position to respond positively to setbacks and tackle problems as they arise.

What else have you found you need over the long haul?

0 How to Start a Project

This is the first of ten posts inspired by ideas in the book, “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t”.  I plan to review it at some stage!  Everything I write under these headings are my own thoughts. This first post is about how to start a project.

What is a Project?

A project is a discrete piece of work and community development projects are usually started by local residents, who have a problem they want to tackle.  They may have approached their local authority or other agencies and found there are no resources, so their only option is to take it on themselves.

Businesses usually start a project to solve other peoples’ problems.  They won’t necessarily think of their project as a project, perhaps preferring terms like offers, products or services.

It is interesting to compare these two.  Perhaps, the business appears to be more altruistic.  Businesses certainly can be altruistic but they usually deliver their offers in return for money.  The community project is usually run by volunteers, who manage a paid worker or a team of workers.  Note someone gets paid for both approaches; the source of payment is different.

There are pros and cons to both approaches.  The community project is usually free at point of delivery and can target services for people who cannot afford to pay for them.  The business is potentially sustainable.  It aims to do better than break even and if successful can continue to deliver its offer indefinitely.

How to Get Started

Every project is different, so you need to tread carefully but there are three things you need.  You may need more than these but they all need to be in place for any chance of success.

A Market with a Problem

In community development, we don’t think about markets.  A market implies people who are able to pay for a service.  Some community projects do charge for their services but they are seldom conceived as businesses.

I’ve covered the need for a market with a problem many times, indeed my current Monday post sequence is about your market’s problem.  It is crucial you understand your market’s problem for the success of your project.  So, the market may be elderly people, who have loneliness as their problem.  They might have other problems, eg low-income, ill-health.  For whichever of these is the main problem, you must market a project that addresses the problem, eg befriending, advice or medical services.

An Idea

So, let’s run with loneliness.  The next thing you need is an idea.  You know you need some sort of befriending service.  How are you going to deliver that with the resources available to you?  Whilst befriending may be the primary need, according to your data, what else might your market need?

So, befriending could be through teams of volunteers who visit people in their homes, offering company whilst alert to other needs a customer may have.  Alternatively, it could be a lunch club.  People picked up, taken to a venue, given lunch and perhaps entertainment with an opportunity to meet others.  Or perhaps a self-help project where the customers draw on their own resources to build community.

An original and realistic idea will help you find resources.

Resources

Once you have an idea, you can find resources.  The first point to note is once you commit to an idea, it becomes easier to find resources because you and others know what you need.  Three main places to look:

So, get these three in place and you have a project.  The next thing to consider is how you keep it going!

In your experience, have you found you need anything else to start a project?

0 Four Questions to Ask of Any Public Statement

Here are four questions to ask routinely about any public statement, written or spoken.  Note these are not judgemental questions; their aim is to help you work out whether the statement is reliable.  You will still need to make a positive or negative judgement!

Who is Saying it?

The same statement made by a billionaire and by someone just sanctioned and finding their benefits suspended, will carry very different meanings.  Words do not carry only their surface meaning.  Their context is just as important, if you are to interpret their underlying meaning.

Remember, words may have more than one context.  If I quote someone else, it may be worth asking this question of both the originator of the words and me.

Why Are They Saying it?

This questions both the speaker and the listener.  The listener needs to understand the speaker’s motivation.  The context may help you decide about their motivation.  Remember too, the motivation may be layered.  A story about personal hardship may be intended to be inspirational but at the same time may be a way to build trust as part of a sales talk.

Words spoken by a wealthy business person may be intended to be helpful but they should meet a degree of suspicion.  The speaker is trying to build credibility and will meet suspicion of their motives.  This is a real challenge for people in business.  On balance the more suspicious your audience is, the better.  There’s not a lot you can do about the fact of suspicion.  You simply need to take up the challenge of building trust.

Who Benefits?

If a billionaire business person, standing for election, promises to cut taxes for the wealthy, you have the answer to this question.  It cuts to the core of any message, however the speaker dresses it up, other wealthy people will benefit.

No amount of speaking the language of the people, promising them real change, etc will make one iota of difference.  Of course, the answer to this question can just as easily be good news for the most disadvantaged.  The challenge is to spot what is genuine and take the rest as window dressing.

Who Loses Out?

This can sometimes be the hardest of the four questions.  We all want to believe the promises we hear from politicians and preachers.  A message that speaks my language and offers easy solutions to my problems can be very seductive.  The challenge is to listen carefully and work out who will indeed lose out.

I don’t mean the obvious.  A speech, like so many we hear these days, may blame immigrants for our social ills.  This question is not so much about the truth of this claim but pushes us to ask, who actually will lose out.  History is littered with populations who, carried away on a tidal wave of rhetoric, vote against their own interests.

By all means leap on the next passing bandwagon but it is always worth checking you know exactly where it is taking you.

Do you have any questions that help you test whether what you hear or read is valid?

0 Working on Your Inner Capacities

Last time, in this series about self-employment, I touched on why paying for personal development is important.  As I approach the main body of this sequence, about developing a new business, I shall consider the inner capacities you need to build a business.

What are Inner Capacities?

An inner capacity is something behind the scenes that helps make your business viable.  Someone observing your working day, will see you do things to deliver your offer to your customer.  This may mean various meetings, technical work, paperwork, preparation, etc.   Your customer might not see all this but they see the results. Much of the work, behind the scenes, is not an example of an inner capacity.

Inner capacities are not activities so much as those factors that build your resilience to setbacks and keep you going.  So, here are three examples of inner capacities:

Emotions

You need to work consistently and so being able to handle emotions is essential.

Let’s say you have an interview with a prospect and it goes well but they don’t take up your offer.  Or they say yes and then change their mind.  It is difficult not to feel emotion when this happens but the key thing is being able to process it and move on.

Not dwelling on setbacks and being ready to keep going is essential to the success of any business.

There are several ways to deal with negative emotions and the one I use is to walk.  Walking allows my mind to settle.  There is some value in rehearsing what you said and asking if you could have done things better.  If you can take note and do things better in the future, that is good.  But there comes a point when dwelling on some event and going over and over it becomes counter-productive. You really must move on.

Expectations

Every internet guru makes promises of untold wealth if you follow their prescribed path.  Many have a lot to offer and can point to the success of their business and the businesses of those they have helped.

There is, however, a problem, rarely voiced.  Not everyone will get access to untold riches and more to the point most people don’t want to and don’t have to.  Why?  Lots of reasons:

So, there is scope for variation in expectations.  I suspect most people would settle for a reliable income that covers their outgoings.  Their needs may vary over their working life but the key is understanding what you need and how to get there.

If you do exceed your current needs it is worth considering what you would do with any surplus.  Consider the following:

If you get the first in the list right, you may find you are able to do at least one on the rest of the list.  These are expectations of not so much your own wealth but your contribution, as a business-owner, to your local economy.  If you get your financial affairs on a secure footing you are free to make sustainable financial contributions to the local economy.

Time

Patience is critical and most business people have stories about their failures before they were able to find a sustainable business strategy.  You can be sure you will fail, repeatedly and be frustrated by making the same mistakes several times.

Your vision for a better future will keep you going.  Remember your aim is sustainable wealth and not necessarily vast sums of money.  If you think in terms of wealth, for you and your local economy, you will know what to do should good fortune bring in massive riches.

If your focus is solely on making money, you will crash and burn.  Business owners need to visualise a future for themselves, their families and their communities.  Without that money becomes a numbers game, a game of power untempered by humanity.

I have been in business for a few years and these are some of my observations.  If you have other observations, please comment.

0 Your Business Outgoings

Last Wednesday, I described sources of income for your business and this week’s post is about your business outgoings. They can be divided into two main types; your drawings and the costs to your business.

How you manage these depends on how you structure your business.  For example, additional rules apply  for incorporated businesses.

Drawings

Your drawings are the money you spend on your private life so this covers food, housing costs, transport – everything you need to live.

The point to remember is if your business breaks even on costs, it may not break even when you include drawings.  So, it is important to think of your drawings as you would staffing costs.  You need a business plan that takes your drawings into account.

Your business will break even when your income equals or exceeds your business costs plus drawings.

Remember though your drawings are not counted as business costs for tax purposes.

Business Costs

The costs counted for tax purposes depend on the tax legislation local to you.  And it is always best to refer to your tax authorities’ guidelines direct and not through a blog.  Your accountant will do this for you.

So, avoiding the fine detail of your tax returns, how can you decide what makes up the costs of running your business?  You will need to find some or all of what follows to keep your business going, irrespective of whether you can count their cost against tax.

Business Development Costs

These are the direct costs to your business and most people recognise them as legitimate.  They include things like supplies, office costs, staff, marketing, travel and subsistence.  Some trades need special tools, clothing or premises.

In short this category covers everything necessary to actually do the work.  If you are unable to do the work without something, it is a business cost.

Personal Development Costs

These are expenditure on what you need to keep up to date or learn new skills.  They might include books, DVDs, training courses (live or online), coaching.

This may be a grey area but make sure you budget these costs because personal development is essential for all business owners.  It’s all very well arguing you shouldn’t set out in business unless you have the necessary knowledge and skills but in reality, you cannot manage without personal development.

The Case for Self-Development

How much development does anyone need to keep going? It is possible to spend a lot of money on personal development.  Some offers are better than others but commitment to personal development is important and if you can find something that works for you then build on it.

Being in business is about marketing and marketing is primarily educational.  If you are setting out to educate the public, it is important you commit to self-education.  You need to create space for strategic thinking.  Daily pressures of keeping your business going can overwhelm good intentions to do essential thinking.

Some coaches offer not only organised knowledge or tuition in skills but also space to do your thinking.  It introduces accountability.  If you’re paying a coach, it helps to do the work if you want your money’s worth!

Many businesses get stuck because whilst they are able to work in the business, ie delivering their offer, they are poor at working on the elements of the business that will make it work in the market place.

This is why I offer a consultancy to local businesses and organisations, where I help them take their first steps in understanding what is involved in marketing their business.

Can you show how self-development has helped your business?

1 Income for Your Business

It is impossible to write about how you finance your business because every business is different.  But there a few things about business income everyone should consider.

Keeping Track

Keeping track of your finances, income and outgoings, is paramount.  This is where many businesses fail.  You need to monitor your financial situation carefully because:

Sources of Income

So, as a self-employed person, you need to work out where your income will come from to cover both business and household costs.

There are four main sources of income available to you.  They all have their pros and cons and some are more important than others.

Earnings

This is the obvious one and the one that entails most work.  Most of your work will focus on increasing earnings.

Beware this is not as straightforward as it may seem first.  If you are self-employed you must do everything.  This means your product or service is only one demand on your time.  There are other things you need to do and pre-eminent among these is marketing.

If you’re excellent at what you do but can’t market it, then you do not have a business.  You need to plan things so that you balance what you do with your marketing.

Let’s assume you have a service and can handle 6 clients at any one time.  They pay upfront for a 6 month contract.  If you have 6 clients at a given time, you’re living off the fees they have paid upfront for 6 months.  If you don’t have time to market because you have 6 clients, you will have no new clients at the end of the 6 months.  This can play havoc with your cash flows.

Also consider, if you do have time to market during that 6 months, what happens if you land a new client and don’t have space in your schedule for them?

The good news is this problem comes with success but don’t let success draw your attention away from your business, you need to work on it as well as in it.

Investments and Loans

If you can persuade someone to invest in your business you are in luck.  You have something for which someone else is prepared to risk their income!  The chances are they will not only offer financial support but also expertise.  This needs to be agreed before you accept the money.  Will they offer support?

It is worth agreeing in advance the type of support they will offer.  Are they going to advise you or expect you to make changes to your business?  If so, what is the nature of these changes?  Their expertise may be really helpful but it is always better to be prepared.

If you don’t want someone who expects a say in your business in return for investment, you may be seeking a business loan.  Loans are more arm’s length.  Where an investment grows or shrinks with the business fortunes, loans are repaid to an agreed schedule with interest.  Loaners demand interest irrespective of the business performance.

Grants and Other Support

Some ethical issues apply to grants and so they are not usually a source of income for businesses.  They are generally available for social enterprises and so there is a temptation to become a social enterprise to qualify for grants.

There are generally two criteria for social enterprises; if either or both apply, you have a social enterprise.

It is a mutual or self-help group.  This means a group of people work collaboratively to improve some aspect of their lives or community.  So, a group of people who share a disability might work together on an enterprise that benefits their community.

The second is to have a charitable object, such as providing a service for people with a disability.

Sometimes businesses with no track record go down this route before they have a proven market.  This may be more of an issue for the second type, the first type will be a group of people who clearly exist and will benefit themselves.

Funding bodies often focus on financial management and not so much on the effectiveness of the business.  I have seen businesses receive awards for their planning whilst unable to show a market exists for their products or services.

The other issue is cash flow.  A cash rich business can quickly spend its money if its focus is not on reaching its market.  Front loading a business is not always the best way to approach it.

Savings

Savings support some businesses.  Obviously, this cannot continue indefinitely but it is a way to get started.

The downside can be the business owner lacks urgency.  They know they can keep going  and hope that they’ll work it out in time to recover financially!

However, savings can be an advantage because they allow a business time to experiment.   Many businesses fail because they run out of money and others fail because they run out of patience.  If you have savings, you have independence to try things, learn from mistakes and so build a business on sound foundations.

Assets

By assets I mean anything you own that generates income.  Assets cover things like stocks and shares, rental income, intellectual property and so on.  Pensions may be included here although they come into play in later life.  Assets do not include possessions such as your home, car or other things.  These are really liabilities because most of them depreciate in value, add to your expenditure or both.

Some people add to their assets consistently during a lifetime of work because they understand assets allow financial independence.  Anyone who has assets that cover their business and lifestyle costs are in an enviable position but they will be a small minority of the self-employed.

0 The Power of Routine

Last Wednesday, I wrote about work life balance and suggested the problem most self-employed face is poor accountability.  It is difficult enough if you have only a partner who demands accountability but just imagine how bad it is if no-one does!

After my mother died, my father, who suffered from MS, had to structure his life around the home.  He was on his own and his movements restricted.  He appreciated routine.  Routine is actually a powerful tool for anyone, especially if self-employed.

Here are some of the advantages of routine:

The point is the more you do routinely, the better you can focus on the time dedicated to your business.

Allocating Time for Your Business

There are probably 4 or so hours in the day when you are at your best.  You can work at other times but your mind is sharpest during those hours.

So, when you’re at your best, do the creative work you need to do: preparation for clients, package design, blog posts, etc.

At other times you can answer emails, edit blog posts, monitor your marketing.  These important tasks need your attention but they do not need you at your peak.

The other things you need to do, such as housework, need to be scheduled into the day as breaks or when you’re tired.  Sometimes a break, doing something else can refresh you.  So, tired after a working day, you may find cooking tea a refreshing break!

Housework

Look it’s probably not that important.  If you have a room for meeting clients, it must appear clean and welcoming but your family and friends are not that bothered.  Indeed your shabby home may reassure them about theirs!

Obviously there are things you must do daily and weekly and these should be part of your routine.  Things that should be kept clean include you, your clothes and pots and pans.  Most other things can be cleaned when necessary, that is when you can’t bear it any longer!

Another thing to remember is when you move to another room, what can you take with you?  The term I use, from chess, is en passant, in passing.  Things circulate around the house and whilst you can organise hunting parties from time to time, it is more efficient to make sure you have something in your hands.  If you have something in your hand, it harder to forget about it!

Finally, as soon as you can afford it consider paying someone to do cleaning, decorating, etc.  This is a service you can provide for the local economy!

Have you any suggestions to how to work more efficiently whilst developing your business?

1 Relationships and Your Work Life Balance

Perhaps I’m the last person to ask about relationships and work life balance.  I’m single and have rarely been in relationships.  It’s a lifestyle that suits me and I’ll write about its advantages towards the end of this post.

It is possible though for people who are not in long-term relationships to contribute.  Not always of course, because there’s no guarantee that our take on the world is relevant to people who live entirely different lifestyles.  But here are a few pointers you may find helpful.

Balancing Your Relationships and Your Work

Self-employment is an attractive option for people with childcare responsibilities.  The implications for your business are there are times in the day when you are not available.  This is usually early morning (which rules out breakfast meetings) and late afternoons onwards.

As children age, these times become more flexible.  Also, as children age, they may be able to co-operate to some degree with your business.  So, long as you keep your word, turn up when expected and can explain your absences it may generally work for you, your family and your business.

You are not dependent on the whims of an employer and that can mean you are able to control the times when you are present to your family.

This does depend on co-operation from your spouse and a good routine that includes regular communication is essential.

You need to create space for spontaneous activities and the best way to do this is to schedule them.  This may sound bizarre but actually it is what many couples do in practice.  If employed, it means certain times are ring-fenced and so your employer determines your spontaneous times.  So, why should it be a problem for you to plan the times when you do stuff together, when you’re self-employed?

Real problems can arise when one partner has a demanding job that is resilient to alteration.  A manager of a business or organisation may have to be there at certain times.  This means the other partner has to fit in as best they can.  If one partner is the main bread-winner, the arguments to fit in with their schedule can become over-whelming.  Your business may be under your control and so can in theory fit in with your partner’s employer’s requirements but on the other hand the employer’s requirements can overrule yours.

There can be other advantages.  If you are building your own business and can rely on income from your partner while you are building it, this can be an opportunity.  But even with the partners consent and active support, it is easy to feel beholden to them as the junior partner.  This can become frustrating where you know you are good at what you do but need more space to do it.

It is hard to suggest what to do under these circumstances because every family is different.  Certainly communicate and explain to your partner, what you need and the extent to which you are encountering barriers to success.

Partners can be towers of strength.  Some couples run their business together, combining their strengths in creative ways.  This can have its own disadvantages.  A couple can be domineering and difficult to negotiate with for other businesses.  It can be confusing if it is not clear the person you’re talking to is able to decide.  So, agree who makes decisions and how you make it clear, if you do need to consult.  For some business people, if you both need to decide, they would rather meet you together and pitch to you together.

Work Life Balance in Isolation

Contrary to popular fantasies, people on their own do not have to be sad losers.  There are many advantages to working alone and it can be a good place from which to run a business.

The obvious advantage is you are in charge of your own time.  You can make decisions, good and bad, on your own without needing to consult.

If you’re used to living and working on your own, it can work very well.  However, be aware you may have difficulties working with business partners or staff if you normally make your own decisions.  It is easy to forget the obligations you have to others if you usually make your own decisions.

The big problem for the solo worker is accountability.  This may seem odd, given I’ve just explained the freedom the lone worker experiences.  However, the issue is accountability to yourself.  If you plan a day off work on Friday, do you actually take it?  If you’ve promised your partner, you have to run your reason for back-tracking past them.  A promise to yourself may be harder to keep.

Accountability is not solely a problem for singles.  Everyone has the problem of knowing what they should do and then actually doing it.

So, in my next post, I’ll outline a concept that will help anyone who is self-employed and needs to manage their life as well as their business.

What issues do you encounter as a lone worker?

0 Your Personal Work Life Balance

This post is about your personal work life balance; keeping yourself together. The next will explore work life balance and relationships.

Your Body

Walking is a natural part of the working day, if you do it! Unsplash / Pixabay

Keeping fit is essential for any self-employed business owner and you have many options.  If you have a sport or exercise regimen, use it.  You may need to cut overheads and so gym membership may be a luxury for the first few years, so think about how you can keep fit.

One simple way to keep fit is to lose your car.  Cars are very expensive and if your business does not depend on carrying huge amounts of stuff around, you may find you can manage without.  This saves money but also opens up opportunities to walk.  Walking is good basic exercise and easily taken into your daily routine.

Walking is not empty time, it is an opportunity to work on problems away from your desk and often brilliant insights will occur while walking.

When employed full-time I did not take opportunities to exercise and this made me ill.  If you use self-employment as an excuse to sit in front of a screen all day, your health will suffer and ultimately, so will your business.

So, schedule physical exercise into your day.

Your Mind

It is important to understand how your mind works and it doesn’t work to its capacity whilst in front of a screen, day in and day out.

Your subconscious works on problems even during times you are not aware of it.  Taking a break can make a big difference.  Exercise allows the conscious mind to rest and if you are alert, new ideas will pop into your head.

So, get to know how your mind works and what it feels like to come up with a solution.  Many people get stuck because they don’t know how to listen to their own mind!  Create spaces during the day for your mind to work on problems and then listen to it.

Most people find they know a lot more than they are aware of and the aim should be to cultivate confidence in your personal knowledge and insights.  You may feel stuck this evening but in the morning the solution may present itself modestly and without fanfare.

How do you keep body and mind fit?