Achieving a Healthy Balance: How Maxed Out is Your Time?

How maxed out is your time?  Most business owners struggle with this question – too much to do, too little time.  To prioritize, especially after tax season, consider:  are you spending more time working on the creation of income or the creation of wealth?  They are conjoined for sure, but by executing on financial priorities that are critical in all the important spheres in your life –in a healthy balance – you will likely achieve more of both. 

That’s an important principle, because in your role as a leader – in your business, at home or in extra-curricular activities - your team looks to you to be as proactive as possible about your strategic plans, so they, too, can minimize time spent being reactive in the process of achieving them.   That means you need to be super clear on what is important, what needs to be done first, and what needs to be dropped, too.

After a very busy period, it’s time to reflect and review priorities and plan with wisdom and perspective.

There are four key steps to working in balance towards the building of income and wealth, whether that’s in your business or your own personal wealth creation goals: 

The Plan and Process that you as Leader develop with your advisors, is a prerequisite for the healthy engagement of people around you who will execute on and celebrate in successful results.  Within the business, that requires an organizational structure that may begin with a sole proprietor, but can quickly grow to include employees, subcontractors, and external advisors. 

Your organizational structure might look something like this:

Business planning sets out the process for achieving the vision in the near, medium and long term.  The business plan will anticipate and target risks to the top and bottom line and how to manage through them.   When this is done well, you have assembled all the ingredients for one success after another, and that’s the definition of business growth. 

When it comes to your financial goals, the vision and its scope are different.  Financial planning will help you answer one of the biggest questions most people worry about:

Will I have enough?

The object of the Plan is to manage risk and leverage both time and money available to the household in a consistent way to meet your objectives.  This goal-based strategy changes the question to be asked to this one:

How much is enough?

When you know your number, because you have set your goals, you can begin to work methodically to meet your plan with sound and knowledgeable decision-making. Building your personal wealth will also rely on the four key pillars:  Leadership, Plan, Process and People.  But this time, the stakeholders are different: they include your professional financial advisors, and your spouse and heirs, too. 

Do you have your home team in place? Are they all stakeholders to your family wealth plan.  Do you have a family wealth plan?   It’s critical to think about this, as it will drive important decision-making that will bring balance to the choices you make in your whole life.   Remember, true wealth is about having the money to provide peace of mind and,  as important,  the time to enjoy a balanced life.

Bottom Line:  The key to achieving financial peace of mind in your personal financial affairs boils down to risk management.  But the risk of giving up valuable time bigger, because, it is not recoverable.  Leadership skillsets recognize both treasures.      

Additional Educational Resources:  Take Continuing Education Courses with the Knowledge Bureau’s MFA™- Small Business Management Program.