Written by: Tim Rylatt, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Work-life balance in the UK may sound like a trendy topic but it is something that really matters to the physical and mental health of everyone, as well as our general satisfaction with life. The elusive work-life balance for UK-based SME business owners is particularly hard to achieve.
This article explores why that is the case and provides some practical tips for going from stressed workaholic to balanced business owner!
What work-life balance for a UK SME business owner means
Work-life balance is not just about the number of hours you work, it is also the mental freedom that you have when you're away from work.
This is where the concept of ‘being present’ comes in.
The idea is that when you are at work, you should be 100% present (mentally) there, rather than 80% thinking about the work and 20% thinking about other things.
When you are NOT at work, the same applies. Be 100% present and focused on whatever you do there, whether it's family or sport or whatever you need to balance your life, and leave the work thinking and worries for when you are back there.
Being “present” will mean different things to different people. It’s an interesting question to ask yourself when at home or other places, “Am I truly present?”
Challenges with work-life balance are particularly acute for SME business owners in the UK
One business survey found that business owners work twice as many hours as employees.
Another study found that 67% of employees report that some aspect of their work, whether that be relationships with their colleagues or some other factor, causes them to feel they have a poor work-life balance.
Work-life balance in the UK for SME business owners is a huge issue, both from the perspective of them as individuals, and the balance they provide their teams with.
There are a lot of stresses and strains that go along with being a business owner.
There has always been an expectation that the UK is a hub of industry and SME owners are industrious people who work very, very hard. The expected norm is you will end up working your weekends and evenings, but is this really a fair or beneficial expectation in today’s modern world?
The truth is that it is unreasonable, and outdated. It is an expectation that leads to more negative than positive outcomes, and if we applied those expectations to an employee, it would be illegal. Unfortunately as business owners, the law doesn’t cover self-abuse in that way!
The definition of what “reasonable boundaries” are needs to come from you – as the only thing worse than working for an unreasonable boss, is being your own boss, and being twice as unreasonable as you would to anyone else!
Business owners need to recognise that they have roles and responsibilities for their workplace, but they also have important roles and responsibilities in terms of family, health and other things that really matter. It's vital that they don't compromise those lines too much for too long, because they will suffer long term mental or physical issues.
None of us, no matter how committed we profess to be, work to our true potential without sufficient rest or relaxation.
Where does the UK rank in work-life balance? The answer is estimated to be 11th in the world, but this obscures the realities and expectations that often fall on business owners. For them, the levels are often much worse.
What is a healthy work-life balance in the UK?
Prioritisation of the business at the expense of everything else is where imbalance starts to become apparent.
It often starts with working slightly longer days, or not allowing yourself the normal breaks: lunch, coffee and weekends, and can spiral from there quite quickly into extremely long days, working evenings, weekends, and sacrificing most if not all holiday time. Do you recognise any of these warning signs in your business yet?
It's been proven that human performance declines when suitable rest is not allowed between bursts of effort. Using tools such as positive time planning and energy mapping can be very effective at helping people actually produce their greatest and best work without just burning hours for less return each time.
First of all, however, you need to explore the causes to identify the right solution.
Work-life balance UK – 3 causes of an imbalance
There are three causes for UK-based business owners to particularly suffer from an imbalance in their work-life responsibilities.
1. Unrealistically high self-expectations
The commitment and passion to succeed are not in question, but the willingness to work long hours, and to overload ourselves with 20 of the jobs that exist within the business, without receiving reasonable support, needs to be challenged.
The business community often reinforces this narrative of self-sacrifice without anybody admitting they are struggling and tired, and yet the physical and mental strains DO exist. Acknowledging them is a sign of strength not of weakness. It is better to raise your hand and ask for help before you drown, not after!
2. Depleted resilience funds need to be built back up
COVID took out a lot of the resilience funds that small and medium-sized businesses had built up over the years beforehand. To survive the business environment that the pandemic brought, many company owners burned through their rainy day funds. Had the situation continued longer, many more would have failed, and several made it through by the skin of their teeth (and bank accounts)!
For many SMEs, there wasn’t a great deal of support during COVID, especially for the Directors of Limited Companies. Whilst self-employed and employed people were covered by the furlough scheme, most Directors of Limited Companies were offered loans. As a result, most used their own savings rather than taking on new debt.
It takes time to build these resilience funds up again.
What this means is that we are in a position where many of the Directors of Limited Companies are running himself ragged to rebuild their resilience pot, at a time where the market is more competitive, tougher and generally more challenging.
3. A tougher and more challenging business environment
The third cause of challenges for UK business owners with their work-life balance is the general economic circumstances. The truth is that the business setting for a lot of SMEs is harder than it has ever been.
The tax burden is higher e.g the changes to corporation tax, and the freezing of tax allowances whilst inflation and interest rates soar (in effect a tax rise).
The recent rises to minimum wage rates will affect businesses where they have a volume of lower paid staff.
Customers are less tolerant of price rises because they are also suffering with the cost of living aspects as well.
The wars in both Ukraine and Gaza both have impacts on the cost of energy, fuel, and other international resources and supply chains.
While the market may not be classed as recessionary, it IS very challenging.
Invest in yourself to be the best business owner you can be to give you the foundation to business success and greater life satisfaction
Most SME business owners are highly skilled and trained in their profession, but have received no formal training in how to run, manage or grow a business. Given the commonality of no business owner training, it is considered to be acceptable.
The truth is, the top performing business owners are the ones that go out and sharpen their knowledge. They sharpen their skill sets, they open themselves up to additional guidance, advice, structure and systems. They accept they don’t know everything and go out to seek that insight, education and support.
Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, gives an analogy of two woodcutters who are in a race and they have to cut down as many trees as they can within a certain amount of time.
One of them sets off immediately to hack down trees and cut down a certain number.
The other woodcutter does not start immediately, but spends the first hour sharpening his axe, and as a result is able to go and cut down many more trees with greater efficiency and therefore actually wins the competition.
There is value in SME business owners investing in some time to slow down and sharpen their skills to avoid wasted effort, going in the wrong direction or learning through trial and error.
Five practical steps for SME business owners to achieve a good work-life balance
1. Write down what really matters to you and your life
Often what you will find is that family or security are the top priorities. Make sure you block time for what really matters!
2. Time tracking
This is a really powerful tool we use with all of our clients and it helps to identify what roles and tasks are taking up your time versus what you actually want to be spending your time on. Look at the interruptions, your management time and the time needed to complete specific tasks to help you become more focused and be able to limit distractions. If something is taking longer than it should be, why is that and what can you do about it?
3. Your working environment
Setting yourself up to work in environments where you know you can be productive rather than fighting against external intrusions is critical.
Many people work better in particular settings or at particular times of the day. Recognise what those are for you, and your team, and maximise time for everyone (including yourself) in those environments. With more remote and hybrid working arrangements, countless studies are finding an uptick in productivity but it depends on the job role, the tasks being undertaken and individual factors too. A single solution may not be appropriate.
4 Task and time mapping
You only have one body and one brain and if you do not look after them, the rest of it is pointless. So map in time in your diary not just for all of the work tasks that need doing (allocating time proportionately to each) but also for health and well being activities, time with friends and/or family, even enjoyment time with colleagues in a social setting, rather than a purely work environment now and again.
5. Be disciplined and focused
We can all procrastinate, especially if there is a task we are less enthusiastic about doing – either because it is something we don’t like doing, something we aren’t as skilled in, it makes us uncomfortable or for whatever reason. But it comes back to being 100% present in whatever you are doing. When you are at work, be focused on that, don’t be half thinking about the weekend or the barbecue. Likewise, don't be thinking about work when you're at the barbecue or with your family.
Work-life balance UK – The key challenge for SME business owners
So many of the challenges, dissatisfaction and stresses that SME business owners have come down to an unhealthy work life balance. Business performance is more closely tied to the personal and life satisfaction of SME business owners than those of larger corporations.
Taking action to not just achieve balance in terms of time between work and personal activities, but also finding ways to maximise business performance which do not simply involve more of your time at work or learning through trial and error should be sought.
There are some simple steps you can take straight away from time tracking, time scheduling and finding the best working environment for yourself. There is also, however, the need to recognise that you should stop and ask for specialist SME business support and education in whatever areas you need it in.
If you could do with some overall business strategy advice and education in being a business owner, that is something I can help with at UK Growth Coach, and am happy to offer a complementary 90-minute business review to any business with a turnover over £100,000 per annum, to help them get you on the right path.
Tim Rylatt, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Tim is a business coach to smaller/medium-sized business who have found themselves on a ‘plateau’ in terms of performance and want to make a change. He gets real pleasure from seeing business owners reclaim control and create personal/work-life balance. His valuable real-world insight and experience spans many sectors and industries, with businesses at all stages of their journey from start-up through to exiting a business. You would be hard pushed to find a more experienced business coach, having worked with around 250 companies throughout his career. He is also a published author on the subject.
