Finding happiness in your job is important. It’s one of the 4 pillars of your life, along with family, passion and friends. But if you’re a business owner, it gets a bit more complex than that.

Not being fulfilled in your business can make you more stressed, anxious, moody, which can then have an impact on your family or private life.

So let’s analyze this:

Here are 13 smart things that happy business owners do. #Happinessify Click To Tweet

 

#1. Keep a healthy work/life balance

If you survey 100 business owners, I bet 95 will put this on first place. Show me an entrepreneur who gets this balance right from the scratch. Normally the way how it works is Mr Entrepreneur starts his business. He leans in to get things done. He answers last emails while dining. He does some more finetuning when wife and kids are sleeping. And before going to bed, he prepares for the next day.

And this repeats 7/7! No wonder that Mr Entrepreneur is hit by a burnout. And then, finally he learns how to slow down and respect private time.

Sounds familiar? Hope your name is not Mr Entrepreneur, I don’t want you to get any close to burnout!

So take out your discipline and self-regulation from the closet and use it to establish structures and boundaries.

Know at what time you start and finish work, when you’re having a break, how many times a day you’re checking emails, how much time you spend on social media… you name it!

 

#2. Build on your strengths

How many supermen and superwomen do you know? Really? Have you met them?

I haven’t… Ever.

My suspicion is – you’re just an ordinary biz owner, just like me or him or her out there. But…

You have something I don’t. You have a unique set of strengths.

In order to be in alignment with your values and to find fulfillment in your business, you need to build on those strengths.

Do the VIA Character Strengths Test. Check out your top strengths and find ways to use them more often.

Establish your entrepreneurial strengths (eg. conceptualisation, strategizing, teaching, building community etc.) and do more of that.

Everything else – delegate or automate.

(Really! You can even automate social media conversation starters by finding proven content and get them posted automatically.)

 

#3. Hang out with inspiring biz owners

You need inspiration. Who doesn’t, right? 🙂

It’s not about stealing others’ ideas, but seeing best practices in work, learning from others’ mistakes, broadening your business toolkit…

For that though you need a group of likeminded business owners. People who support, cheer lead, celebrate, share… people who inspire you.

Four years ago I met an enthusiastic group of people in a virtual event. We decided to get together after the event (virtually) and form a mastermind. We have been meeting every two weeks since then. A blessing in my life.

 

#4. Stop isolation

Working from home has its undeniable advantages. You can move switch between private and business sphere as often as you wish. You don’t need to rent an office, all you need is a computer and you’re good to go.

But on a long term this can be pretty much dragging… Sitting at home by yourself the whole day. Especially if you’re as bad in self-regulation as I am! 🙂

Don’t isolate yourself! Do activities outside, hang out with friends or just do a Starbucks working day once a week (not to increase Starbucks’ business, but to see people around you).

 

#5. Do enough self-care

Switching off your laptop at 7pm is not self-care. Stopping checking your emails or social media reaction at 11pm is not self-care.

Self-care is something extra you do for yourself to destress yourself.

It can be as little as exercising or doing breaks every 1.5 hours, or minding what you eat (vs eating junk food just because it takes only 10 minutes).

What self-care measure will you introduce?

 

#6. Be focused

Being a business owner means juggling hundreds of plates, I get it. But even by juggling only two, you are so much less productive! It’s not only about switching back and force between two “simultaneous” tasks – it’s also the time you need to get back into the spirit of your task. And that’s time intensive, believe me!

So ditch multitasking! Create a master list of tasks and ideas. Put all your ideas on this sheet. Then pull out one that you work on. And work only on that – no cheating! 🙂

 

#7. Have a role model

We talked about the importance of having inspiring likeminded people around you. Which is great, because you have a lot to share. But it doesn’t replace the role of a… role model!

Someone who has done it all and has seen it all and knows how to take your biz to the next level.

One typical mistake I often see is people signing up for 100’s of newsletters and put together the pieces of the big business building puzzle from these chunks of information. The problem is – every expert will tell that their piece is the missing link and you should care more for that. So you dive in even more and before you realize it, you’re spending your time learning about every shiny object on the market, whether you need it or not.

Unsubscribe from those 100’s of newsletters. Not only will you get rid of contradictory market info (and 100’s of sales offers! 🙂 ), but you will save tremendous amount of time and stress.

Pick the ONE person who is worthy to follow and learn from. You’ll see how much more enlightened you’ll feel. And focused. Promised! 🙂

 

#9. Be persistant

A typical biz owner symptom is learning about a new strategy, leaning in to implement it, then realizing a week later that it won’t work and moving on to the next shiny object.

It’s false! How can you ever harness the fruit of your hard work, if you never leave enough time to get results?

Select ONE strategy. Check.

Implement it. Check.

Stick to it for THREE months!

Hopping on and off to new strategies all the time won’t bring results. Keep doing it and if it doesn’t bring results after three months’ time, you can tweak it or leave it, your choice. But until then, JDI (you know, the Nike slogan!).

 

#10. Focus on your lowest hanging fruit

You have a vision. I get it! But what’s the point of having a vision (whatever noble vision or mission you set!), if you die before you get there?

Before you start doing projects that bring results on long term, ask yourself:

What is my lowest hanging fruit? Focus on that for a balanced cash flow. #Happinessify Click To Tweet

Once you covered your financial bottom line, you can start thinking in long term projects and vision.

 

#11. Know your why

This is a biggie! You go into business because of a reason. Don’t cheat, you too! For some admittedly, it’s earning money. But you don’t do it for money. It’s for the buying power that money represents. Why is money important to you? Is it to put it aside for your kids’ tuition? Is it to buy a new car? Is it for traveling 3 months every year?

Know your why, because that’s what will help you out in times of despair. You know, when you’re on the edge of abandoning it all.

By the way, if you’re reason for going into business is to help others, come on, be honest. What’s your selfish reason behind that? Is it to please to others? Is it recognition? Neither is bad, it’s just important to know your real why. And when hard times hit in, just reconnect with it, why you’re doing it after all…

 

#12. Grow

Do you know this saying:

If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got. Grow. Click To Tweet

The idea is, you don’t remain the same person as you’ve been when you started your business. You change. You learn (hopefully). You grow.

Growing means stretching yourself… outside your comfort zone. Trying out new things. Taking (calculated) risks.

It’s not just for the sake of your business, but also for yourself. Growing means reaching goals and sense of achievement is a basic pillar of happiness.

So, GROW! 🙂

 

#13. See problems as opportunities

How good are your resilience skills? Hope you ace it! Because as a business owner you need a great deal of them… 🙂

Hint – don’t get overwhelmed when you encounter an obstacle. It might be some work to find a solution, but think about the benefits of that solution. It will help you to… grow!

You’ll solve a situation, which creates a new situation. A new opportunity.

9 years ago, when I was fired in the last month of pregnancy due to company reorganization, I thought I had a problem. I was stressed out and gave birth directly after the news was communicated to me. Now looking back, it was the best opportunity I could get from life (apart from having the pleasure to get to know my son a month early)… the opportunity of starting my business.

I hardly set up my biz, here was my next challenge. I had no list. Had tons of things to say and write, but all those articles and videos are worth nothing if no one sees them, right? So I decided to host a giveaway event. I reached out to industry leaders and guess what – they all accepted. I built a 3,000 people strong list with this single action and forged strategic partnerships with influencers that last till today. That was another problem turned opportunity.

Or my cancer story. When I was diagnosed with cancer, that was pretty much a problem. During that time I started to research happiness, dug myself into every book on happiness, signed up for Positive Psychology specialization. Fast forward to now, I started Happinessify and I’m grateful for this every day. That’s how my personal problem created an opportunity.

 

Wanna be part of the Happinessify Family? A community that is committed to implement some happiness hacks and flourish? Join us in our closed Facebook group.

 

Now your turn! What are your smartest hacks to become (and stay) a happy business owner? Leave us a comment below.