7 Easy Steps To Finally Finding Your Work - Life Balance

Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Life Work balance. These three seem like myths, but two are and one is not. Here's a question I get asked often. Can you have life work balance as a restaurant owner? I have two words to answer that. Hell yeah. Achieving life work balance as a restaurant owner is not only possible, but it's crucial for your long term success and well being. Stick around and I'm going to show you the seven steps you must take to achieve that ever elusive balance. Hey. Donald Burns, the restaurant coach. Now, I emphasize in all three of my books in the your restaurant sucks trilogy the importance of striking a balance between work and personal life. I get it because I've been there. My first restaurant started out on rocky ground and I did what most people do. I just work longer hours in a restaurant doing the same thing I was doing, hoping things would just magically change if I work harder. And sadly, it didn't work that way. My business was drowning, my health was declining, I was overweight, depressed, ruining my marriage and getting more disconnected from my kids. I mean, I have to be honest with you, it was quite the three ring shit show. Then one night everything changed when I admitted that I was the problem. And I took an offer from a very successful businessman to be coached on building a restaurant. You know, it's hard to admit that you're the one dragging your business into the ground. It's rough to come home to a quiet house because everyone went to bed. It's so sucking to work so hard and have so little to show for it. I want to save you some pain and avoid a possible future where you are alone and broke. So here are seven tips that I coach my private coaching clients to help them accomplish the balance game and start to get their life back. I have to admit, it makes me so happy to see my coaching clients take regular vacations and enjoy the fruits of their years of hard work building a restaurant that doesn't control them. Now, it can happen for you if you're willing to implement these following tips. Number one, Prioritize. Determine what's most important to you in your personal life and your business. You see, clarity is powerful. Set clear goals and objectives for each area to ensure you are allocating time and energy appropriately. Number two, Delegate and empower. Learn to delegate tasks to your team and trust them to execute their responsibilities effectively. Now, this is a hard one for those of you that have control issues. And I'm going to tell you right now, you can't do it all by yourself. Well, I guess you could, but you might as well just handcuff yourself to your restaurant and throw away the key. By empowering your staff, you can free up time to focus on other aspects of your life. Number three, establish boundaries. Set limits on when you're available for work related matters and communicate those boundaries to your team. I can tell you from real world feedback from clients, this one is tough to implement because we're in the hospitality business and you feel like we're saying no to people. It's not that you're saying no, it's just you're saying not now. It's a subtle shift in mindset that's going to allow you to get back small blocks of time during the day where you're going to start to work on your business and create your ideal lifestyle. Now, the trick here is to get out of the role of being chief problem solver. Right now, you're most likely the person everyone on your team runs to when they have a problem. You got to put a stop to this and train your team to seek solutions for themselves. Here's an easy way to start. When someone on your team comes to you with a problem, say this. Hey, you know that sounds like a challenge. Here's what I would like you to do. I want you to come up with three positive solutions and then while I sit down and talk to you about it. Now this works because you allow them to become the problem solvers and not problem seekers. You gotta always require them to brainstorm three solutions. The three options gives you choice where just two options is a dilemma. Because at a dilemma you can either do this or that. I don't like dilemmas. I always want to be at choice. Once the team starts solving their own problems, you see that this is going to help you maintain that separation between work and personal life. And it will also stop those kind of text and phone messages that you get when you're trying to enjoy some quality time with your family and friends. Number four, time management. Effectively managing your time is critical for achieving work life balance. And here's the secret. The majority of the population suck at time management. And yes, you probably suck at it too. Think about it. Until you were around 18, you were pretty much told when to go to school, what time to be at, what class, when to take lunch, and so forth. And then you became an adult and now you have to figure out all this time management stuff for yourself. And you suck at it because no one taught you how to actually manage your time better. I am relentless with my coaching clients about managing their calendar. I Make them take screenshots each week and send it to me so I can see if they're really maximizing their schedule. Become obsessed with your schedule. Become obsessed with your calendar. Schedule your day, your week, your month in advance, allocating time for both work and professional activities. This will allow you to maintain control over time and not let it control you. Number five Focus on self care. Make time for regular exercise, healthy meals and sufficient sleep. As restaurant owners, we are horrible at taking time to recharge ourselves. The hospitality industry is one where we give and give to others, but who gives to you? Self care is not selfish, it's smart and the best way to do it is make it a purge. Hey, take it from a guy who didn't always take care of himself and ended up dying twice from a cardiac arrest. My morning self care routine is now a standard that I do every day and I think of it as investing in my future by taking a little care of my mind and body. Today, self care is vital for maintaining your physical and mental well being long term, which in turn is going to improve your performance as a restaurant owner. Step number six is build a support network. Surround yourself with like minded individuals who can provide advice, encouragement and maybe even a little friendship along the way. This network could include family, friends, mentors or even fellow restaurant owners. I'm not afraid to tell you that for a long time I thought that the life of a restaurant owner was to be a lonely one. Then I met my first business coach and he introduced me to his network of very successful business owners and something magical happened. It made me raise my standards. Now you might think you have it all figured out. You don't. You might think no one can teach you anything. You're wrong. You might think that being a restaurant owner is like being on a deserted island. Only if you want to be like that. About 10 years ago I was invited to join a mastermind group of other business owners by Bruce Irving, who was the founder of Smart Pizza Marketing. I have to say, at first I was really skeptical and wasn't quite sure. But I'm really glad I embraced my apprehension and jumped in because it really changed my business forever. Since then I have gone all in on the power of a mastermind group and I offer my own program called Restaurant Masterminds that is for restaurant owners only. Our mastermind group meets twice a week with an educational session on Mondays and a Q and A session on Thursdays. We have restaurant owners from over 23 countries all around the globe in the group and we gather together for a three day live event every fall called the Restaurant Success Summit. It is a kick ass event. You can check out the details for restaurant masterminds@www.restaurantmasterminds.com. and last but not least, number seven. You got to embrace technology. Tech can become your liberator or it can own you. Depends how you set it up. Now I like the simplicity approach. I want software tools and automation to streamline operations to make your life easier. Now there are a lot of options out there when it comes to this topic and I would warn you to make sure it fits into your future lifestyle as a restaurant owner. You want tech that is cloud based and mobile compatible. I have quite a few coaching clients that now run their entire restaurant companies remotely. Also, please follow the KISS principle and keep it simple stupid. You might be a whiz at tech and might be drawn to those tools with a lot of bells and whistles. Just always keep in mind that it's going to be your team that's going to use these tools on a daily basis. So don't invest into a tech stack that's going to require your team to spend more than an hour in the office to maintain. Or they're going to be more focused on the tech and less on the guest and team experience which will slowly kill your restaurant. A smart tech stack is going to allow you to focus on the most important aspects of your business while freeing up time for personal pursuits. Feel free to leave a comment if you want to know the tech stacks that I recommend for independent restaurant owners. Remember, achieving life work balance is an ongoing process and it might require adjustments over time. However, with the right mindset and strategies, you can find the balance that works for you and and enjoy a successful career as a restaurant owner while maintaining a fulfilling personal life. I've done it with thousands of restaurants and it could happen for you if you're willing to make just a few changes. Make sure to hit the like and subscribe button so you don't miss any tools, tips and tricks on how to stop your restaurant from running you in my next video, I'm going to share the framework that changed my restaurant and doubled my restaurant profits. SA.