I am considering myself a working from home webpreneur who is also a micropreneur – I like working solo and work with dozens of talented freelancers. Although work-life balance is a perk that every micropreneur (should) have, I always want to do things better. My goal is simple – generating more revenue while reducing my work hours; in other words, I want to increase “amount made per hour” (I put quotation marks on that statement simply because I don’t work on per hour basis – it’s just a simple calculation of how much I make and how many hours I work to create that amount.)
To do just that, I am actually pursuing a bigger goal: An even better work life balance, to a point that my web business will run in an automated way (in other words, I want my business to be passive income business.) Fortunately, there’s always areas you can improve to achieve my goal.
A way to pursue a better work-life balance
I just got back from a mini-break; I went to Singapore with my family for 4 days. I stayed in a new hotel – Park Avenue Rochester in Rochester Park, Singapore – that I consider being one of the best hotels so far I’ve stayed in.
During my 4 days mini-break, my web business runs normally – it’s business, as usual: Without my intervention. To achieve that, it’s not as difficult as you think; the answer is outsourcing and automation.
I always preach about outsourcing and automation, because in my opinion, those two are the main perks of establishing a web business as a solopreneur. You outsource for tasks that add real value to your business, and automate the nitty-gritty via the available web tools.
I normally need to spend some time working on my web business on daily basis, while spending most of my time in a day to look for tips to make things better and more opportunities to explore. However, my travel to Singapore pushes me to do the week’s work in just one day (I don’t work while having a mini-break,) which lead me to an idea; a better way of doing things: If I can aggregate my work for the week into just one day, I’d have the other 6 days just for me, my family and my passion.
I did those and I think it’s a success. I always believe that the felling of not having enough time to work on your business is a mindset you need to change; I always believe that we can do more, better when we are given tight deadline. With that being said, I give myself a deadline to get things for the week done in a day, pushing me into a “rush” mode: Focused, concentrated effort to get things done with quality in timely manner.
Keep it up and you’ll see!
It’s not easy, really – but I believe that when you are doing it on regular basis, you will get use to it – and actually enjoy it! I enjoy doing the “rush” work knowing that I can do whatever I want with the free time I have (which is, for me, finding new lucrative opportunities; but hey, the free time is yours – you can do anything with it!)
So, give it a try and see how many things you can do for your business in just a short period of time! Please share your experience by leaving your comment on this post.
Ivan Widjaya
Pursuing a better work-life balance
Image: lululemon athletica / Flickr