Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
1, Hustle culture in the entrepreneurial community is new branding for workaholism. Many don’t put enough toward resting.
2, Consider working half-Mondays and half-Fridays rather than one full day off to extend your weekend more manageably.
3, Tell others about your boundaries and plans so they can help keep you accountable for following through.
4, Keep your work responsibilities reasonable. Limiting your client count can help make sure you have enough work but also enough time for yourself.
As a new entrepreneur with a 22-year runway from corporate life, it was too easy to replicate the back-to-back meetings, weekend email catch-up and long hours considered standard. And while I loved the freedom of being my own boss, the autonomy to craft my own schedule and partner with companies that I chose, I didn’t want to work 70 hours a week anymore — that was part of why I left that life to begin with.
I didn’t want the same grueling schedule that I had when I was a W-2 employee. Yet that is exactly what I created for myself in year one of being out on my own. If I wanted year two to look different, I had to establish some boundaries and organize my schedule in ways that supported all the things I enjoy doing, not just the work part.
And make no mistake — as entrepreneurs we love to work because we love what we do. However, it’s still the thing we do to make money. And what we do to make money is only one aspect of the multi-layered and ever-evolving human being each of us is.
There is more to life than the work bucket and the family bucket. Yet we fill and refill those two buckets like no other bucket exists. And we are so many other things than what we do to make money — even when we love it.
Hustle culture, which persists in the entrepreneurial community, is simply new branding for workaholism. Yet activity and rest go in hand in hand. And if we aren’t putting enough in the rest bucket to balance out the activity bucket, we will burn out. Or worse yet, we may come to resent what we’ve created because it’s become a prison. And the worst prisons are the ones we build ourselves.
My goal for 2023 was to get to a four-day work week with my marketing business. I planned to do that by starting my work week on Mondays at noon and ending them on Friday at noon. This schedule extended my weekend in a way that felt more manageable and realistic than simply not working a whole day during the week.
I spent the first few months of the year violating my boundaries and not honoring my time by taking meetings before noon on Mondays and working on Friday afternoons. When you are on your own, it’s quite easy to get away with things. There was no one holding me accountable to what I said was so important to me. Until I started telling other people about my four-day work week. And when asked how it was going, it was not fun to tell others and remind myself that I wasn’t there. Because that meant I wasn’t prioritizing myself.
In April of this year, I finally got my four-day work week. Here’s how:
A key to achieving this four-day work week was getting honest about my priorities. In my heart, I knew this schedule was more important to me than additional clients or more money. And the extra day I have each week I use to light up the other things that set my soul on fire
As business owners we are so lucky that we get to do what we love. But it’s important to remember that we are full humans with many different loves, passions and interests. And when we fill up the other buckets of our life, that makes what we do in the work bucket that much more fulfilling and impactful. And while a four-day work week may not be your jam, commit to something that fills a new and expanding life bucket. Or simply prioritize the things you know are good for you that will make you a happier human … and may I suggest a nap?
Entrepreneurs know how to challenge the status quo. Let’s not forget that we can also write our own rules.
