Today’s comment came from a busy professional:

How do you separate work and personal life as an entrepreneur?

I am finding it really hard to not think about my startup. There is always so much work and I am constantly thinking about my to-do list. I am not doing a good job turning it off when I am at home. Does anyone have any recommendations on how they manage this challenge?

It should be hard to turn it off – because, as an entrepreneur – you should be working on your passion and your life’s purpose. Don’t fight it — instead, set a date and time for everything that is important explicitly in your calendar. That way you know you have scheduled the time to do those imperative things. The imperative things include important family and personal life things (as well as your business things). Once you have an explicit block of time on your calendar for these things – you can more easily relax because you know you have the time to work on them.

Majority of the things on your calendar should be things that only YOU can do. Other things should be considered for delegation, outsourcing, automation, etc.  For instance, talking to your high-profile clients one-on-one is something only you can do. But you can implement a list server to auto-respond to individuals who are asking for your free products or allow them access to your appointment calendar to make a one-on-one appointment with you.

Look at Your TODO List

Review your TODO list. How many of those things can be accomplished by someone or something other than yourself? Just because it seems like a MUST DO doesn’t mean YOU must do it.

As an entrepreneur, you need to be open to other alternatives. Schedule 80% of your time on things that only you can do; and the other 20% devising alternatives. Alternatives include automating, optimizing, delegating and even deleting.

For example: You may believe you are the only one to get your message out to the masses. This is mostly true. But once you have written or audio recorded your message, someone else can transcribe it, post it, create a newsletter from it, create helpful bullet tips from it, create a video presentation from it, etc.   You don’t have to be the one doing those things.

If you need help in creating effective systems so that you can do more with less – please feel free to contact me. That is my business.

I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for turning big ideas into on time and profitable projects.

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

I have a presentation on “3 Keys to saying YES to everything but on your own terms”. To sign up for the complimentary course, go to www.lauraleerose.com/Say-Yes

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose.  I am a speaker and author. My background is in time and project management.

I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

At the end of the day, I give people peace of mind.

Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur about his marketing plan.

How do I deal with a 50% business partner who can’t hold up his promises?

Right now I own 50% of a technology startup aimed at real estate agents. I am responsible for developing and maintaining the upkeep of all the software associated with our business. The other partner is in charge of selling the product, however, he gets way too distracted with other life things such as his real estate work. Although he makes promises and tries to motivate me to keep working on our business because he will “sell the crap out of it”, I still don’t feel a solid effort on his part. Should I try to find a way to kick him out or continue to engage him to sell our product? Thanks.

Whether you are partnering on a work project or in a business – if you feel that your partner isn’t pulling their weight – then you may be part of the problem.

Business partner:

If you have not done this already – take the time to document a business plan with roles and responsibilities for each partner. The business plan should include SMART goals for each partner (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to your business, and timely/time-bound). Your business plan needs to include consequences (what happens when the SMART goals are not met or delivered).

Including SMART goals (milestones on when you both agree that the goals will be met) – you will have a better footing on whether he is making a solid effort. If/when those milestones or deadlines are not met – then you follow-through on your “consequences” –or next steps that you both agreed to upfront.

Taking the time upfront to map this out saves you a lot of anxiety in the future.

Understanding each role’s timeline

Having a better understanding the other’s role and timeline is also a good idea. Not every role has the same goals or results.

Quick Example:

Take Tom and Jerry. They are partners. Tom is the technical end, the developer. Jerry is the marketing and sales person.

Tom’s SMART goals are often associated with features, what each roll-out is required to do and the timelines for each roll-out or release. These are very specific and measurable goals. And the majority of the time, Tom is only dependent on his execution to make his goals and deliverables.

Jerry, on the other hand, will have a mixture of deliverables. Some results will totally be dependent on his execution (like marketing flyers, landing pages, calendar of events, brochures, release party, etc). But some of Jerry’s deliverables are relying on other: Customer calling back, Customers saying “YES”, customer being available for a demonstration, etc.   Because Jerry’s timeline is dependent on others, it may take Jerry longer to show results. Because Tom doesn’t see immediate results on Jerry’s work – Tom may mistakenly feel that Jerry isn’t making a solid effort.

To avoid this, Jerry needs to create SMART goals regarding his calls. He needs to setup a goal of how many client calls, client visits, networking meetings, speaking engagement and events that he will be responsible for producing each week, month and quarter. He also needs to be responsible for his lead to sales ratio formula. If he knows that for every 10 people he talks to, he makes one sale. And his sales goal for the month is 10 sales – Tom needs to talk and visit 100 potential clients that month. With those numbers, Tom needs to create his sales schedule to meeting and talk to 100 unique people a month, and follow-up with the interested clients in the same month to convert those leads into sales.

Understanding how the marketing works will release some of Jerry’s anxiety, because Jerry now understands that it will take some time to see the sales. Showing Jerry Tom’s call sheets each week will also release some of Jerry’s anxiety, because Jerry now sees that Tom is making all the calls that he needs to be making to his the leads to sales ratio by end of month.

Co-worker partner:

If you haven’t already done this, create a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document that outlines all your responsibilities and roles. This includes SMART goals and consequences for not meeting them. This includes your expectation of your manager, your co-workers and yourself. This also includes steps to follow when things are not meeting expectations. With measurable goals – it’s easier to see if your co-worker is not meeting their commitments. Then you can follow the documented steps when people are not meeting expectations.

I know your situation is different. Why don’t we schedule an appointment, where I get to know more about your unique situation? And then I will be happy to make recommendations on what your best steps are moving forward. To schedule an appointment, book it HERE.