What’s the Hardest Part of Being a Business Owner?

Being a business owner often means doing a little bit of everything for everyone (or a LOT bit of everything for everyone!).  It is hard to balance all the different component parts of your job.  Or, as Meichelle Arntz of Recipes Organic Bakery says in our earlier interview, being a business owner means wearing a lot of hats.  (recommend making underlined string the link.

Whether you’re running a bakery, a law firm, or a food bar company, usually after starting a business you go from doing what you love to running payroll, filling 1099-Misc Forms, to selling your goods and services as a one-person sales team.  You love your job but you’re worn thin under all the commitments!

There are a lot of discussions in the media recently about the importance of a work-life balance and we even wrote an article earlier about the importance of business owner self-care, but a lot of people don’t realize that striking this balance is actually the hardest thing a business owner has to do.

Hopefully, all business owners have a real passion for their business.  They think that they can do it all if they just care enough!  But when does caring, go to caring too much, go to not caring about yourself?

How to know if your business is taking up too much time:

• Time you used to spend with friends and family is gone
• You don’t remember the last time you exercised!
• You find yourself huddled over the computer late into the night doing routine tasks
• Your falling behind on sales tax or filing payroll at the very last minute
• You have a hard time keeping track of your accounts, cards, bills, etc

When you’re juggling it all it’s hard to not fall behind!  Oftentimes business owners are smart enough to understand the basic concepts behind all components of business ownership so they do them all themselves!

This can lead to burnout so we always recommend that the business owners touch base with themselves every 6 months or so to see if they’re still taking care of themselves, not just their passion.

Ask yourself:

• What do I feel excited by when I get up in the morning?
• Is my body telling me anything?  Do I feel energized or run down?
• Why did I get started and why do I keep going with what I do?
• If my life looked like this in 6 months would I be happy?
• How do the people in my life feel about my work schedule?  Am I spending enough time with them/is it quality time?

These are hard questions for anyone to answer and they don’t always fit every moment.  Maybe you’re feeling run down but its been a busy season (a CPA in tax season, a startup just gearing up, a smaller company taking on a big order for the first time).  It makes sense that work is taking over. If it’s your daily life and the foreseeable future, though, you might want to reconsider!

One way to save a ton of time as a business owner is to outsource your bookkeeping to a reliable bookkeeping team!  Contact us if you want to reach out to talk about how a bookkeeping firm can alleviate business owner’s stress.

Another way is to use your financial numbers to evaluate your business and then make clear goals to help you achieve the business you dreamed of.

What does this look like?  Perhaps it is an analysis to make sure your product and/or services are priced right.  Sometimes, seemingly simple changes can make a world of difference and help you afford that next employee to help out.  Or, maybe it is a closer look at your product performance to see what you are making money on and what you are not (or you are not selling) so that you can make smarter decisions on inventory purchases.

Our advisory accounting services are geared toward helping you grow your business and be more profitable so you can live the lifestyle you envisioned.