{"id":346,"date":"2008-05-18T11:40:05","date_gmt":"2008-05-18T01:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/?p=346"},"modified":"2008-05-19T11:55:57","modified_gmt":"2008-05-19T01:55:57","slug":"business-flexibility-or-constraints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2008\/05\/business-flexibility-or-constraints\/","title":{"rendered":"Business flexibility or constraints?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obviously, there are many reasons behind people starting up a business rather than being an employee. But a common reason, or support for another reason, is the desire for flexibility.<\/p>\n

I have heard “I hate working 9 to 5 so I started my own business” or words to that affect a number of times. And yet those same people may well find that running a business requires more than 8 hours a day, 7 days a week to be a success.<\/p>\n

Valerie Khoo not only discusses this issue but gives some good tips on how to plan flexibility into your business<\/a>in a blog post last month. I think her most important point is the planning – you need to know what flexibility you want (or need) and then plan the business around that.<\/p>\n

For example, one flexibility I want is to be able to go on school excursions with my daughters, especially while they are young enough to be excited by my presence! Therefore, I do not claim to be available during all business hours and my regular clients know I sometimes work at nights or weekends instead of during traditional business hours. One client had a deadline for an article last week when I was at the zoo so we agreed he could call me at the zoo and I would talk him through any technical issues. Flexibility.<\/p>\n

I would find it much harder to go on excursions if I had a traditional office where people were encouraged to drop in for meetings.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a compromise will be necessary to achieve the desired flexibility. For example, to only work 3 days a week you may have to accept earning less than if you worked 5 days a week or accept having staff or outsourcing more.<\/p>\n

If you run a business, from home or elsewhere, do you have the flexibility you expected when you started? Would you like more flexibility in your life to do things other than business?<\/p>\n

I would suggest you plan your ideal week, business and personal combined, and see how far it is from reality then look for ways you can move closer to the ideal.<\/p>\n

Use your time wisely!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obviously, there are many reasons behind people starting up a business rather than being an employee. But a common reason, or support for another reason, is the desire for flexibility. I have heard “I hate working 9 to 5 so I started my own business” or words to that affect a number of times. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[86,302,299,88,91,301,129,300],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-info-tools","tag-business","tag-desire","tag-flexibility","tag-personal","tag-plan","tag-reason","tag-success","tag-week"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t