Innovation to achieve a work/life balance
22 January 2009
Tanya Rostron, Founder and Managing Director, Water at Work
Penny Taylor-Jones, Director, Call Clean Ltd
Key Points
- Employees will give more to the business if you establish a culture of flexibility enabling them to balance their work with family commitments.
- When your children see that you are involved in growing a business you become a role model for them. Having a mum as an entrepreneur inspires children to adopt entrepreneurial traits and teaches an appreciation of the value of money.
- You must be prepared to delegate for your own health and well being.
- Resolve staff conflicts by firstly issuing people with a job specification identifying what is expected of them, and secondly be honest and frank if they fail to meet what is required. Sit down with them and explain why they are not performing and ask them their opinion as to how the situation can be rectified.
- Always go the extra mile to prepare proper contracts of employment for your people, especially if you knew them personally before they came to work for you. This is essential for both parties now and in the future, especially if things should go wrong.
- Phone your competitors and ask them how business is for them. Some won’t speak to you but others will. It is often surprising how much information a member of staff will share about the business they work for.
- Recession creates opportunities. Monitor your competitors and position yourself to be able to pick up their business if they go under.
- First and foremost you have to have a passion for your business and its products or services.
- Being a mother and juggling the family’s needs, alongside running a business, requires excellent planning and organising skills. It also means having good people around you whose skills complement your own.