Invest Manage & Grow

Maintaining Work/Life Balance

One of the most challenging aspects of operating a business is balance.  Business start-ups require significant time investment and many new business owners struggle to find time for themselves and their families.

Below are five business owners who have offered to share some thoughts on their challenges and successes with work/life balance.  

Mark Stevens, Pulse Communications, Geeknet and Encore Interactive
Dave Veale, Vision Coaching
Yennah Hurley, Day Tripping
Jenny Scott, Stylin’ Mama Baby and Tot, Elements Spa
Rick Brown, Master Mechanical

Mark Stevens, Owner Geeknet, Pulse Communications and Encore

Mark Stevens is the co-owner of Geeknet, Pulse Communications, and Encore Interactive. Mark has been a business owner in the ICT industry for 11 years.  He currently has 20 employees working in three different businesses.

Mark’s thoughts on running the business

As the years go on, I think you need thick skin as an entrepreneur.  If you don’t allow things to roll off of you, you’re going to have a lot of problems.  You need to enjoy what you do. 

Understand people.  Connect with them one-on-one.  If you have this relationship, you will have recurring business, and once you can bank on this business, you don’t have as much stress.  Having loyalty and trust in these relationships is very important.  Our biggest customers are my best friends.  We want our employees to have these relationships as well.

As an IT firm, we have our own infrastructure that lets me work from anywhere.  I can run our operations from a boat, China or a back yard BBQ.

Mark’s thoughts on growing the business

It took me 10 years of pig headedness to figure things out.  I did a lot of things wrong.  I didn’t delegate properly.  When I had more trust in my employees, things got better. Also, I didn’t think I needed administration staff; now I don’t know how I could live without it.

Mark’s thoughts on family

I sacrificed time as a husband to start the business.  I chose business over my family initially.  I’ve tried to balance the two, and because of technology, I don’t have to be as attached to the office as in the past.  I have more comfort at home because I can be in constant communications.  The blackberry did a lot for achieving balance.

Balance is also about what you discuss with your spouse.  I use to bring everything home.  Merging those two worlds is too much.   I try to shelter my family from the stress I feel at work but it’s not always easy.

When starting a business, regardless of whether or not you have a companion, you need to build in to the business case that you might have a relationship.  If you don’t factor this in, it will be a rude awakening.  You can only work 20 hours a day for a short period of time.  This is not true success. 

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Rick Brown – Partner, Master Mechanical

Master Mechanical started in 1995. The company services two markets: Commercial Plumbing and Heating as well as Industrial Process Piping Fabrication and Installation. Master Mechanical is a company that believes in servicing its clients with quality products and services, safely delivered.  The company has between 120 – 200 employees depending on the season.

Rick’s thoughts on running the company:

The key to managing work/life balance is to be surrounded with quality people.  When you get to be a certain size you can’t micro-manage.  You live and die on this.

We used to put in long hours, but it comes to the point where you have to start hiring quality people so that you don’t drain yourself mentally and physically.  You have to establish trust in people that they will do a good job.  It’s about steering the ship rather than running the engine.

When we first started, we knew all of the details.  It’s hard to let go of this.  At some point, you have to trust your people.

Rick’s thoughts on managing growth:

It’s important not to get burned out and discouraged.  We’ve had a lot of success doing what we do.  We don’t want to be the biggest; we want to be the best.  We’ve avoided the mistakes of doing more than we can handle.  There’s only one thing worse than having not enough work, it’s having too much work. We can service our customers well this way. We don’t have many customers; we service the ones we have well.

Rick’s thoughts on family:

When our kids were young, we bought a time share and we forced ourselves to take a holiday.  Some people won’t take vacation.  If you plan it and you take it, you can plan your business around this.  We’re always away the same week.  You have to set aside time for family. 

Friday night is my night to cook.  I don’t schedule anything for Friday night.

You have to decide what time is family time.  Things can be done at other times.

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Dave Veale - Owner of Vision Coaching Inc.

Vision Coaching Inc. partners with organizations to help them unleash their full business potential. The company has a team of 12 people with five based in New Brunswick and the rest spread across the country.  Dave has owned various businesses over the course of approximately 15 years.

Strategies for balancing both work and life

For me, the most important thing to remember is that everyone has a different idea of how they manage work and their home life.  Part of what I’m learning is that I love what I do so I don’t get too caught up in “what’s my personal time” because  I don’t see it as work. I love coaching. I might be out having dinner talking about business and that’s okay.

Still, I have time that I block off - Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.  Things can invade this space, but it is always set aside.  Doing this creates awareness because they are recurring times that I have to physically remove from my calendar.

Dave’s thoughts on managing growth

I can’t be the super doer.  I need to try to build relationships with people that I trust - people who can do things better than I can.  I shouldn’t always be the one delivering.  There are a lot of things I am not good at and I need to leave these to other people.  This frees up an amazing amount of time. I have to get out of the mind set that I have to be front and centre with every client.  This isn’t the best thing for me or the business. 

I try to determine what’s important and build in the appropriate amount of time for what’s important for me.  I love Stephen Covey’s work.  It helps you define the various roles in your life and prioritize what’s important.  You have to make time for this.

Dave’s thoughts on family

I want to be a good husband, father, friend, brother and also run a business.  Right now, what’s most important to me is being a good father.  This is my sacred time.  My friendships are important but they take a back seat to being a father. Fortunately I get a lot of reward from my work relationships. A lot of my clients become friends.

I also have a wife who holds me accountable.  We’ve blocked of time for vacations and I wouldn’t trade this time for anything.  We also try to have a family dinner each night.  We both come from a family-oriented background and know that bonding happens over meals.  We don’t want to stay at work until 9 p.m.  This is family time. 

Dave’s Common Mistakes

I make lots of mistakes.  I can become consumed by what I’m doing and forget to take time for myself.  I need to make more time to go out for a drink, or go to a movie,

Also, I continue to think there are 32 hours in the day. I can be overly optimistic in what I can do in an hour.

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Jenny Scott, Owner of Stylin’ Mama Baby & Tot and Elements Spa

Stylin’ Mama is the biggest baby store in New Brunswick with two locations in Saint John and Fredericton. Elements has recently opened in Market Square in Saint John.

Jenny’s thoughts on running the business

Managing a work/life balance is an ongoing struggle and something you have to work at. 
The state of balance is different for everyone. You have to figure out what’s important to you.  For me, my family is everything, so I make time for this.  I have stepped away from work more in the past few years.  It makes me a better business owner.  I’m happier.  If you’re working 100% of the time, you’re going to miss out on what’s important.  Over the last few years, I’ve been able to embrace what’s important to me. 

Starting off, I was overly emotional.  I care a lot about my employees so was available 24 hours a day.  When I first started the business, I was single, but things changed after I got married.  It got to the point that it was too much. I allowed myself to be too available, and the staff expected this.  I should have trained my staff to be more independent. 

When starting a business, you’re going to be overwhelmed.  It takes time to get to a spot where you can step back.  You can’t open something and only be there 7 hours a week.  You need to train your staff. 

Also, find support from other business owners.  Take training and get the chance to talk to like-minded individuals who you can talk through challenges.

Jenny’s thoughts on growing the business

My spa grew really quickly from 5 – 25 staff.  I didn’t delegate well early on.  I tried to do everything myself.  You have to have faith in the people who work for you.  If you don’t give them a role, they won’t flourish.  I didn’t trust my staff enough.  I should have let them try things and then helped them evaluate it afterwards.

To find some balance, I sold the spa and the pilates and yoga studio.  I also hired a manager for my Saint John store that allowed me to step aside a bit.  At this point in time, I’m only in my business 15 hours a week.  I do the rest of my work at home.  When I’m in the store, I want to be able to talk to clients, so I do all my administrative work at home.  We normally have someone in the house taking care of things, so I still see my kids during the day.  

Jenny’s thoughts on family

My husband and I have some things set.  We go out on a date once a month. This is set in stone.  I also take each of my kids out on a special date each month.   I try to make time for them separately in addition to doing things with them altogether.

Take time for yourself.  I’ve always done this, but I think I do it more now.  Take vacation.  Take time off.  We take two vacations a year – one with the kids and one without.  It’s our one week a year.  You have to work on your marriage - I know that I have to work on it.

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Yennah Hurley – Owner, DayTripping

Daytripping is an outdoor adventure company specializing in group programs and equipment rentals for Nordic walking, mountain biking, hiking, pond hockey, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, geo-caching, rock climbing, canoeing, kayaking and pedal boating. It is located in Rockwood Park at the Lily Lake Pavilion.

Yennah’s thoughts on running the business

I have learned that balancing work and life is a difficult thing to do.  The first year is basically just work.  It’s hard to do this in the first year.  It requires an extremely supportive family. It’s your business, and in the first year, you’re the only person who’s going to really care about it. Until you’ve been in the business for a couple of years, you’re not going to have staff that will care about it as much as you do.  Now I have staff who I know will take care of everything.

Having staff you can trust is really important.  In my first year, I was in the business every day.  Now I don’t have to be.  In the second year, I started to step away a bit.  A family tragedy in my second year forced me away from the business and it made me realize I could be away.

Yennah’s thoughts on growing the business

My plans for the future are to grow the business and maybe even franchise it.  The family has been through the start-up before and they know there may be a time when they have to go through it again.

I have great staff, and I fully depend on them and trust them.  If I am going on a big vacation the staff knows I can depend on them.

I don’t think I could have done things differently in the beginning.  It takes time to build a staff. You can’t leave your business to someone else when you start.

Yennah’s thoughts on family

I’m getting my family more involved in the business.  The kids help me.  They help organize the events, and equipment.  I also have cut offs.  I’ll say “This weekend I’m not coming in.  You’ll have to take care of things.”

Technology has made it easier for me.  I can be reached easily.  With a blackberry I can get e-mail and be away but not really away.

You have to discuss your business plans with your family so they understand the commitment required.  Then you can reference the conversation you had.  You can remind them that it will get better.  A supportive family is important.

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