It used to be, when you were in school, that if you had a big project and you did an all nighter because you procrastinated the worst that could happen was that you’d get a bad grade. But if you’re a business owner working on a big project you can’t afford to do all nighters at the last minute, at least not if you want to succeed at business. Most business owners I know aren’t chronic procrastinators, but its still easy to get behind on a big project, especially when you have a variety of other tasks to do.

I find it effective to break big projects into chunks. I’ll write the next step of a big project on my white board and I won’t worry about the rest of it, until that chunk is completed. By focusing on chunks, I’m able to get the project done without stressing about how much I have to do. Additionally, I always feel accomplished when I wipe an item off my whiteboard.

You can apply this approach to smaller projects as well. You may not need to chunk them down, but approaching them as tasks that you have outlined on your whiteboard can make it much easier to get them out of the way, so you can focus on your bigger projects without distraction. You can put dates by the items if that helps you accomplish them. I find that dates can be more of a distraction and stresser, but some people find them useful.

I find management of projects easier when I can see the list of things I need to do, and when that list isn’t in a virtual medium such as email. It’s easier to ignore email than to ignore the whiteboard which has a physical presence that can’t easily be ignored.

One tendency I’ve observed in various people I know is a habit of spending money faster than they can make it. These people may make a lot of money, but they don’t know how to handle it, or in some cases, they simply don’t know what to do with it, and have no plan beyond figuring how to spend it.

I love buying things I want as much as the next person, but I find that a responsible financial lifestyle is one where you never live up to your full earning potential or beyond it. In other words, you don’t let the money you make dictate how you live your life and how you spend your money.

Money should never dictate your lifestyle and the reason is simple. If you live based on how much you earn, inevitably you will encounter a situation where you won’t be able to cover an emergency because all your money is already spent. Additionally, another reason is that spending money can sometimes become a reason to avoid dealing with issues in your life that need to be addressed. If you are always buying the latest distraction that comes you way you may not be present in ways that really matter for your overall health and well-being.

When money dictates the focus is on using money as an end goal instead of recognizing that its a means to an end. It’s important to ask yourself what you’ll actually do with the money you earn. If you’re investing it, you might ask what purpose that investment will serve as it relates to living your life. The point is that you want to define your relationship with your life as it applies to actually helping you sustain your life, as opposed to using money to define your lifestyle in the moment.

When you approach money in the context of how it will help you sustain your life over the long term, you quickly realize that the purpose of money isn’t to buy everything you want, but rather is to help you live a life that provides you the opportunities you want to experience while also enabling you to enjoy your life at all times, instead of just in the moment.

My big vision realization is actually pretty simple. Up until very recently I didn’t have one, not for my businesses, and not even for my life. That probably sounds odds, but when you are a detailed oriented person you can get used to focusing on details so much that you don’t look up at the big picture. The truth is that you have to find a balance between the big picture and the details.

A detailed approach helps you work on the details that need to be resolved, but if you become too myopic all you see are the details and your constantly putting out fires. A big vision approach lets you embrace a vision for the future, but if you only see the big picture, you might not be resolving issues that need to be handled.

I’ve found my balance because I recognize that to effectively deal with the details I have to have a vision I can steer towards. Where do I want to be? What do I want to do with the money I make? What kind of life do I want to live? These are the questions I’m asking lately as I work on my business. I have to consider these questions as I work on my business, because it forces me to see how the details fit into the big picture and ensure that what I’m doing actually serves my business and life as opposed to just making the motions because that’s what’s in front of my at that moment.

Knowing your weaknesses and strengths is part of what makes you successful as a business owner. You learn to play to your strengths and either improve your weaknesses or compensate for them. And knowing all of this helps you devise a realistic plan for your business and your life. For me, the recognition that I really had no big picture vision was liberating because it allowed me to see my business and life in a different light and start developing a more proactive approach. What about you? Are you balancing the big picture with the details?

How I figure out what my market wants is I pay attention to what they are telling me or telling each other. When someone tells me s/he has fears about money, I come up with a class dealing with financial fears, or if s/he has problems presenting a coherent statement of what s/he does, then I come up with a class that explains how to tell a story. I figure if a few people are talking about a problem, even more of them are thinking about it.

That kind of market research is what directs me to create a product I can sell to them. I know they need it, and chances are they’ll go for it if its presented to them. If I create something without doing that research, I’m taking a shot in the dark. I’ve got no direction, no focus, and no way of knowing if I’m meeting someone’s needs.

I’ve heard stories where someone decided to create a piece of technology because it was something s/he wanted. That usually doesn’t work out, beyond meeting the need of the person who wants it. You’ve got to find out if more people want it. Talk to them. Find out what they’re worried about and then develop you’re class or product and market it to them. Market research doesn’t have to be hard. After you do the research start talking about your service or product Make sure people find out about it. Give them something to think about so that when they see your product or they know they can rsvp they make the choice. It will make business much easier for you if you prep them before you create the product.

No matter what business you are in, you need to have the right business tools in place to support your business strategy and the tactics you use. Whether those are tools you use for working on your business or tools you use to work with prospects and clients, they need to be the right tools.

A business tool can be technology such as using Quick Books for bookkeeping, but it could also be a business assessment tool. Regardless of what it is, it needs to be something that you understand how to use and that makes running your business easier than it would be otherwise.

Some business tools are ones you can buy in a store. you have to learn how to use them, but you ideally know what their purpose is and what you’ll use them for. Other tools are ones you develop yourself. They are developed as a result of experiences that help you recognize the need for them.

I always recommend that you keep yourself open-minded to learning a new business tool, but a business tool should never take up too much time. It needs to be something you can integrate quickly into your business and it needs to serve a function that directly benefits your business.

Evaluating your business tools can be helpful. Are you using the tool on a regular basis? Is it helping you cut down on the amount of work you’d be doing? Is it providing you insight into how you run your business? Answering these questions can be very useful for helping you understand if the tool is helping you with your business or just becoming a distraction.

If you don’t know where the money goes, you can’t know where the business will flow.

It’s a saying I’m fond of telling my clients. It comes from a realization I had years ago, when I realized that my end goal of making money was not a good goal, because I was treating money as the end goal, instead of treating it for what it is: A medium and means of achieving goals.

If your end goal is to merely make money, you won’t really grow your business. You could get more clients, but will they be the right clients, or will you just take anyone? In my experience when you are focused on only getting money, you’ll take anyone, but this actually scatters your focus.

What will the money go toward? Will you use it to sustain your lifestyle, beef up your retirement, or for something else? Until you answer this question, you are in a void when it comes to your business. If you don’t know why you are making money or what it will be used for, you aren’t in touch with your goals. You haven’t even made any.

The successful business owner is not just someone who has clients. It is someone who has goals that s/he is shooting for, in terms of his/her life as well as for the business. When you know what your life goals are, then your business becomes what you need it to be, a means of supporting and focusing you. The money becomes a means to an end, and no longer defines the clients you’ll take.Instead you take the clients that will help you embody the business you want to have.

The other day I was with a client who has been experiencing business burnout for a while. I asked her what she did for play and it took her a moment to answer. And even when she answered, she framed the play in terms of how it might apply to her business. She caught herself in time, but she also realized how much she’d conditioned herself to just work on her business.

One of the biggest problems that business owners face is business burnout, where they are working on the business so much they get burned out. There’s no balance to their lives, and every day is focused on working on the business or doing client work, with little or no time for anyone else.

Another business owner told me that he works six days a week and only has one hour put aside for exercising. The seventh day is spent taking care of family, with no personal time. He is feeling the burn of too much time spent on business and not enough time spent on himself, or with loved ones.

Neither of the two case studies I’ve used are all that unusual. I meet business owners every day who tell me similar stories. They are burned out, tired, and yet they feel they have no choice but to work, and work, and work. Does this sound like you?

You need to play. You need to re-balance your life and business and have fun, while still growing it. I can hear you now. You’re saying “That sounds Fine Taylor, but how am I supposed to do that?” The problem is that you’ve been taught to work hard, but you haven’t been taught to work smart and hard, and more importantly you haven’t been taught to clock out from work.

First you have to figure what you consider to be play. For me play involves painting, playing video and board games, going for a walk, reading a good fiction book, and meditation. For you it could be playing a piano or singing a song. It could be going for a run, or reading a good book. It could be other things, but whatever it is, its need to be something you do solely for your enjoyment.

Secondly, if you frame it as a business activity, you need to ask yourself why you are doing that. Not everything you do needs to be for business, and not everything should be. Play for the sake of playing, not for getting something done for your business.

Third, its important to recognize that time spent away from your business is good for you and your business. When you have time away from your business, you relax and unwind. It gives you fresh perspective. You come back recharged and inspired to work on and in your business. And if you are consistent about giving yourself time off, you will consistently feel recharged and refocused. In fact, you’ll be able to grow your business better precisely because you’ll be more relaxed and focused. Nobody wants to do business with someone who is burned out, or who reeks of desperation. Taking the time gives you time to live life for yourself.

Finally, its still important to prioritize your personal time. Who is important to you? What do you want to do with them? What level of balance do you need between time with them and time with yourself? All of these are good questions to ask and they can help you figure out what’s best for your business.

Play…you remember how to play don’t you? So go have some fun. Your business will still be here.

Jay Baer recently posted about why he isn’t writing a new book this year. He recently lost his brother (my condolences Jay) and with such occurrence, it will cause you to look at your life. Jay writes that his dad asked him what he was trying to prove and that question helped him get some clarity. It’s a good question to ask any business owner or entrepreneur.

The reality is that there’s this pressure to be successful, to prove yourself, that is is in this culture. I used to be a workaholic, spending most of my day working on some project or another and I have to admit I was trying to prove something. I was trying to prove that I could be successful. I was writing a book a year, working late into the night, and I ended up burning out. It took me five years to write a book, because for the first three years, I was so uninspired to write.

When I started this business, I made the same mistake. I spent every waking moment on it and doing that didn’t help my business. It likely held it back. I felt like there was always something that had to be done and I tried to do it all in one day. It never worked, and sometimes it made it very hard to work on the business the next day. Eventually I learned the truth that there will always be something to do the next day. So instead of stressing about it, I do what I can and then I punch the clock and I focus on living my life.

Balancing your business with your life means that you prioritize what’s rally important and make a point to bring it into your life daily. For example, my wife and kids are important to me so I make sure I spend time with them. My personal time is also important so I make sure that I do activities that I find fun. And the result of making those changes has helped energize my business. Instead of trying to get everything done, I prioritize what’s important for that day and do it. If I can get to other activities, I do so, but I don’t stress if it nothing everything is finished. I’m no longer trying to prove myself to everyone else or even myself. Instead I’m focused on enjoying my business and my life at my pace.

What about you? What do you have to prove and is it really worth it?

I read an article recently where a young professional opted to cut out social media from his life for 90 days. He did it because he wanted to see what it would be like.

It’s an interesting commentary on our culture and I think he makes some great points about how much time social media eats up, as well as how interactions change as a result of using social media so much. Truth to tell, one of the reasons I limit my time on social media so much is precisely because I want interactions with people that are more genuine and I find social media diminishes to some degree, if that’s the only way you interact with people.

But I don’t think its realistic to live in a social media free world anymore. Social media has become part of our culture and lives. Companies are even starting to use it as a primary method of communication. The challenge isn’t how to live without social media, but rather how to balance it in your life so that its something you use as needed, but not something that replaces your interactions with people.

I schedule a weekly game night. I use it as an opportunity to see friends and do an activity that allows us to not only play a game, but also catch up with each other. I go out to dinner or host dinners. I do other activities that involve spending time with people. And as a result I don’t feel like all my interactions occur just on social media.

What do you do to make sure you get the time you need with the people who are important in your life? What do you do to balance your social media time with in person time?

Owning and running a business is a lot of work. Unless the right support structures are in place it can be a lot harder to succeed. When I first started my business, there was a lot of pressure from my partner at the time to take any work I could find. There also wasn’t a lot of support for what I was trying to do. I ended up taking a lot of work I didn’t want to take because the support I really needed wasn’t there.

Eventually that partner moved on and I found myself with my current partner. The level of support I’ve received has been mind-blowing and what’s most interesting to me is that shortly after this person came into my life, my business started to improve a lot. I realized that because I was getting the support I really needed, that I could actually focus on developing my business the way I felt it needed to be developed.

Having support from your partner(s) is essential for achieving success with your business. A person who believes in you will support you when you doubt yourself and will help you look at your business in a different way, when you really need that perspective. A supportive partner won’t hesitate to raise objections, but also won’t hand you ultimatums about what level of income your business needs to bring in. At the same time, s/he won’t just support you without expecting support in return. Even if the support you provide isn’t monetary, there are ways you can help your partner as well.

What it really comes down to though is that part of what makes a business successful is feeling that someone has your back. That feeling can make all the difference in your business success. If you feel like there is resistance from your family, its time to sit down and have an open discussion about your business and how they feel about it. Be willing to listen with an open perspective. They may have reasonable objections or issues and you want to address those so that you can get the support you need. Addressing their concerns will go a long way toward helping you find the necessary balance you need in your life, and getting the support you need for your business.