Why did you start your own independent advisory business? More than likely, you wanted the freedom to serve your clients in the way you thought was best and you also wanted to create a business that fits your lifestyle. Unfortunately, once they get into it, many advisors find that serving their clients suddenly overshadows their second reason for going independent and their lives quickly get out of balance. If you don’t take back control, you’ll find yourself sacrificing your personal life for your business, which was probably one of the reasons you left corporate America in the first place. This is why it’s crucial to schedule your life first, your business second.
Are Your Running Your Business…Or is it Running You?
If you’re running your business correctly, you’re paying yourself first, molding it to fit your lifestyle, and designing a legacy. If your business is running you, however, you’re working too many hours, paying yourself too little, and generally being so involved in day-to-day activities that you have no time to focus on higher-level pursuits or on your personal life. This is when things get out of control. Not only can your family suffer if you let your business run you, but so can your health, your friendships, and your overall well-being. So what’s the solution?
How Do You Schedule Meetings?
Whether you’re scheduling virtual meetings or in-person meetings, you need to have some sort of strategy. One of the suggestions I share with those I coach is to have ‘game days’ and ‘non-game days’. On game days, you schedule your client meetings and on non-game days, you work on research, strategizing, and business building. This ensures that you’re never so busy meeting with clients that you can’t work on the internal necessities of your business. But wait, there’s more! Before you even get to the point of scheduling game days and non-game days, you first must reserve time for you.
Blocking Off Personal Time
If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you know how important I believe it is to get several mentors in your inner circle and learn from their mistakes so you don’t have to repeat them. One of the most valuable things I learned from my mentors was the importance of blocking off personal time in my calendar. What you use this personal time for is up to you. I like filling mine with continuing education, reading, getting out of town, and of course, spending time with my family. The key here is that you put this in your calendar BEFORE it fills up with client meetings and other work responsibilities. I know it seems like you’re doing this backward, but it’s the same concept as paying yourself first. If you wait until the end to take care of yourself, you’ll end up living on whatever scraps are leftover. You didn’t start your own business to live on scraps, right? When you block off time for yourself at the beginning of your scheduling process, you ensure that you’re at your best for yourself, your family, and your clients.
Want to learn more about creating an advisory business that YOU run instead of it running you? Take our Evolved Advisor course today.