In general terms, Personal Goals should be determined based on obtaining a good work-life balance between running a business (40 hours a week) and personal life.
Work life balance is where you try to find a balance between personal living and life and the amount of time and effort you put into growing and developing your business. It is important to get this balance right so that there is time left each week for family time and weekend recharging of the body and mind. Weekends are a good time to “down tools” enjoy your family activities and relax. This balance reduces stress and burnout and conflicts in relationships.
Individual Personal goals
Determining the personal goals of both owners in the business is important as each partner in the business may have different ideas on what these personal goals are they may differ on what are the priority of those goals and how to achieve these goals. From my experience I find that most business owners do not usually spend enough time to put down on paper their personal goals. It would be usual for the spouse to have a strong maternal group of goals based around career, family life and children. Whereas the husband tends to be more absorbed in the business as a means of creating money to support the family and give a better lifestyle for them. It is important for the joint personal goals to be agreed upon and priority given to each of the personal goals so both partners are supporting each other.
Basic personal goals are principally centered around five major aspects of Career, Wealth, Health, Family and Love. Business life intersects all of these.
The Career role in a business means that each partner should define their strengths and weaknesses and acknowledge that each brings their skillset to running the business and be employed and paid a reasonable rate of remuneration for those roles.
Wealth is created by the business making a profit after all expenses, debt and taxes paid and distributed by way of remuneration to the business partners while retaining enough in the business to fund growth and pay unexpected business expenses. The business partners can then agree to use this wages remuneration to pay personal and family expenses and invest some in savings and other forms of investment. It is important not to forget that the business will be adding to creating retirement wealth also through the payment of Employer Kiwisaver contributions as well.
Personal and mental health is also very important, especially in owner operated businesses where the owners are the principal key employees. Running a business can be stressful so looking after physical and mental health is very important. Good health regimes can be maintained by setting aside weekends for personal and family time, socializing with friends and family as well as enjoying some individual personal space to unwind each weekend doing something enjoyable
Family Time is an important part of life where you enjoy time with your spouse and children and that can involve going on social outings to the beach, carnivals or sports events where personal family bonding and enjoyment are important.
Love is one of the most important personal goals. Money issues and work-related stress can have an impact on family life, so it is important to have a strong bond with your spouse so that family life and individual health is not compromised.
Personal Family budgeting
Completing a personal family month by month annual budget that personal income, costs, debt reduction and savings is an important part of personal serenity. This can be achieved by budgeting personal finances well and drawing a living wage from the company that will support family and personal costs. If this budget is managed well then pressure is not put on the business cashflow and this reduces any stress on the partners and pressure on business funding needs. There are many cashflow and budget templates as part of Microsoft Excel online templates that can be easily adapted for this purpose.
So, take a moment to reflect on what truly drives you. Set those personal goals and let them light up your path towards business success! If you need some help designing a wellbeing program for your workplace, get in touch today!