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Money rich, time poor and ready for a fresh start?

If you ended 2018 celebrating your business success but reflecting on how little you’d accomplished in your personal or family life, the phrase ‘money rich, time poor’ might resonate with you. It comes from Rob Parsons, who used it in his book The Heart of Success: Making it in Business Without Losing in Life , in which he writes about getting a better balance between professional and personal satisfaction.

Perhaps this is something you’ve decided to focus your energy on in 2019 – and you might even be wondering how to sell a business that’s filling your bank account but not your heart or soul.

The path to business glory is paved with incredibly hard work, which means successful company owners are not shy of some tough grind. The downside of all those long hours and an unflinching commitment is that professional achievement can become the be all and end all of everything, throwing work/life equilibrium seriously out of kilter.

How many of these questions would you answer “yes” to?

Are busy days at the office, long project meetings and business travel leaving you feeling more depleted than energised?

Do you wish you had more time to spend with your partner, family and friends (and do you feel resentful that work is the reason you can’t)?

Would it be a relief to spend evenings, weekends and holidays disconnected from your phone and that constant pressure to respond to work calls and emails?

Overworking can also be a symptom of always needing to be in control when your business could, in fact, operate just as well without you (at least sometimes). Many business owners have the weight of the world (and their staff, customers and competitors!) on their shoulders and long hours at the office can easily become an unhealthy norm as they attempt to juggle all that.

Holidays in the sun can be spent on the phone to the office, especially with all the mobile connectivity we have today, and that birthday occasion might be missed (again) if you have an urgent appointment to take care of. Those who are cash rich but time poor often have more trouble when it comes to stepping away and relaxing but downtime is vital for health and wellbeing – and you can’t put a value on that.

Don’t be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life

Have a think back to when you first started up your company. We bet there were all sorts of reasons why you started this particular entrepreneurial enterprise – and chances are they included wanting to retire early and enjoy life more, once you were in a financial position to do so.

So, if you’ve reached that point and you’re craving a change of pace, 2019 could be the year you finally find time to reconnect with family and friends, learn French, finesse your tennis game or write a book – or whatever other things you may have forgotten about on the quest to make your company a success.

Stepping back gradually

For many, running a business can be a bit like a drug. The cut and thrust of daily operations, the power of quick decision-making and the thrill of continued success might be what keeps you going, like the Duracel bunny, longer than anyone else.

That’s fine but if part of you is thinking you’re missing out on some very important aspects of life outside of work – such as family, fun, and better health – then it’s probably time you started to make a few changes, like these:

  • Attend fewer meetings that aren’t high priority and send your second in command instead
  • Give one of your top performers a new and more challenging opportunity by delegating some of your responsibilities to them
  • Talk to corporate finance experts at Entrepreneurs Hub about how to prepare to sell your company for maximum value, so you can eventually relax and enjoy the profits from the years you have invested

As 2019 gathers momentum and all of us accelerate towards the goals we’ve set ourselves, this quote from George Lorimer’s book provides a dose of wisdom to keep us on the right track, wherever we’re headed:

“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.”

Entrepreneurs Hub is an approachable corporate finance company helping business owners across the UK to sell a business – the smart way. Find out more about our free seminars on selling your business for maximum value, or contact us in confidence to discuss how we can help you.

 

 

 

 

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