Are You Working Your Business as a Hustle or as a Flow?
Are you working hard or are you working smart?
Are you working hard or are you working smart?
One of the primary answers given by many entrepreneurs to the question of why they’d rather work for themselves than to work for others: “If I’m going to work so hard, I might as well work for me! Of you have to work very hard to start, build, and maintain your business, but are you working to live or living to work? There is a difference.
Unless you are independently wealthy, the primary reason you are working is that you need ongoing income to support your life. You have to pay to live somewhere, you have to pay for food to eat, you need to purchase things for yourself and your family. All of that takes money, of course, so you work to get money. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. The issue is how and when you are making money and whether making money is at the top of your list or if living your best life is at the top of your list. At the beginning of setting up your company, you really do have to hustle.
The “Hustle”
When you first become an entrepreneur, it is almost imperative that you really hustle in order to get things going. I remember that in the summer of 2008 when I started my first business, I was hustling by putting in 12–14 hours a day on building and growing my business. I taught myself everything I needed to know, and I did everything myself. The entrepreneurial hustler is the person who learns how to just make things happen and to get things done. Hustlers have a strong work ethic, don’t let the inevitable rejection get in the way of moving forward, and learn how to get noticed.
Somewhere along the line, overworking became a badge of honor. People thought that living only to work was the only way to truly be considered successful. But non-stop hustling for your business should not be the end in itself. There is only so long that you can keep up a frenetic pace before you start to burn out.
Constant hustling and working long hours will cause you to begin to sacrifice your health, your personal and family time, and can even make you lose sight of the original goals you had for your business when you started.
You have been hustling and working so hard because you want your business to be successful. You want to be successful, but success is not just about doing things more. Success is also about doing things differently.
At the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, hustling has its place. But once you have your business to a certain point, it’s time to move to the next, and hopefully, permanent phase: The Flow.
The Flow
Once your business is up and running, it is time to start enjoying the fruits of your initial labor. Of course you will still be working hard, but hopefully not as hard as before. There will always be emergencies to deal with and there will always be times that you will have to work extra hard to meet a specific goal for your business.
But overall, it is now time to pivot from working to live to living to work. Your work and your business become only a part of you, not the entire reason for your life. There are a few ways to reconfigure your daily and weekly schedule so that your business/work time is more of a flow and less of a hustle. You will find you have more time for the other things in your life that matter.
THIS Year, Set GOALS and HABITS, not Resolutions
Happy New Year! Wait! It’s now the middle of February! How are those resolutions you set at the beginning of January…medium.com
Positive Changes
During the day, make sure to fit breaks into your schedule. As hard as it is to do, try to focus on only one task at a time. Multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain can only attend to one thing at a time, and when you think that you are multi-tasking, what you are actually doing is quickly flitting from one task to another, and it takes more time to finish one thing.
Work on one task or activity for about 50 minutes at a time, and then take a ten-minute break. If you can, stand up, walk around, get a glass of water, stretch, and clear your mind. When you come back to the task, you will be fresh and the next fifty minutes will be more productive.
Eat your lunch away from your desk. It is so easy to eat while working, but again, this is counterproductive. Leaving your desk or your work environment to have lunch has many benefits: a change of scenery, a chance to clear your head and concentrate only on your meal, and the opportunity to stop your mind and your body from racing and to slow down.
If you are a solopreneur, one of the best things you can do to stop so much hustling and getting your business into a “flow” is to hire help. Even part-time contractors who do specific tasks during each week will help immensely so that you can concentrate more on the “big picture” and on doing just the things no one else can do.
About the YB2C Companies
YB2C is the acronym for Your Business Your Brand Creatively, the branding and marketing consultancy I founded in 2014…medium.com
Improving your eating habits will go a long way to improving your health and your body. We’ve all heard the adage that says, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” It doesn’t matter whether you eat breakfast at 7:00 am or at noon, depending on your regular schedule. What is important is that you start your day with a good meal, and then have healthy snacks during the day. This will keep your energy level up and help you to avoid fattening foods during the day that put on weight and make you sluggish.
Daily exercise will give you more energy, not less. Even if the nature of running your company and/or caring for your family involves a lot of moving around during the day, including a minimum of 30 dedicated minutes of exercise will be a boon to your business flow. You will have better digestion of your meals, and you will sleep better, too. Entrepreneurs, and especially solopreneurs who sit at their desks all day often feel they just don’t “have time” to exercise, but it is very important to make the time. Like many others, I find that exercising first thing in the morning works best before the activities of the day take up more of your attention. On the days that I talk myself out of my morning workout because I’m just “too busy,” my body suffers and my energy level is low.
As an entrepreneur, there is a time to hustle and a time to flow. Your most important job is to figure out when it is time to make that all-important transition.
Work with Me: Customized Business Coaching and Consulting
Through Your Business Your Brand Creatively, I work specifically on branding and marketing “for the rest of us.” If you are looking for coaching or consulting assistance for your creative, solo, or small business, booking a “Pam’s Power Hour” is a great and affordable place to start! Weekly appointments are available: book your slot here.
I invite you to join the #1 Facebook Group for Creative and Solo Professionals, YB2C Premium. Get ideas for branding and marketing your small business and network with other entrepreneurs and solopreneurs like yourself.