Your Business Won’t Feel Balanced Until You Protect Your Time

We unpack why balance in business is not a 50-50 split and how the right boundaries make your week feel calmer and more controlled. We share real examples from work and life, plus practical ways to protect your time without letting clients down.
• letting go of the 50-50 myth and defining your own balance
• noticing how a lack of boundaries creates seven-day working patterns
• using time blocking to protect weekends and focus time
• setting clear response expectations for emails and messages
• building systems that create boundaries and reduce pressure
• using AI style support tools to offer help without being always on
• replacing urgency with a queue and a clear delivery date
• asking where you need balance and what boundary to set next
I would love to hear as well. My DMs are always open. The information is in the show notes.

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello everyone, it's Victoria here, and welcome back to another episode of A Business Built with Strategy. So this week's app, we are going to be talking about balance and boundaries in your business. Two big topics, right? And yet, actually, they're very intertwined. So I'm really looking forward to jumping in and talking to you about that. So I'm actually recording this on the sofa still. Oh my goodness, I have literally been on this sofa for two weeks and it is starting to drive me a little crazy, I've got to be honest. Um, I'm still recovering from my cataract top, and well, let's just say I'm an incredibly impatient patient. I really am. Um, I've never really been in a position where I've been forced to rest, where actually I physically can't see things. You know, I I can't I can't go on my laptop, which is a massive thing for me, because even if I turn the backlight down, it's too bright. I can't, I'm not well, I'm not supposed to bend down. So I've brought myself one of those grabbers. I've been going around picking up things. Um yeah, so it's oh yeah, it's it's been an experience. But you know what? I I try to take the good out of everything. Well the first good thing is that I can see. So, you know, that's that's one of the you know, that well, that's the major thing, isn't it? You know, health is wealth, as they say at the end of the day. Um, but it also has because you know I've been forced to rest, and as I say, never really been in that situation, it has made me re-evaluate a lot. I've had a lot of thinking time, a lot of Netflix time as well. I can't watch any more Netflix. Um I've watched I've watched that and watched it and watched it again. But um, yeah, it's made me re-evaluate and it's made me look at things in a very, very different way. And I have never craved um exercise so much in my life, and I'm really craving it. So that's that's got to be positive, hasn't it? It really has. So, balance and boundaries. Now, years ago when I first started my business, I you know, I was single mum, had uh my son who's now 21 and he was just tiny, and I did think at the time, how on earth am I going to do this? Because I knew that school holidays would come up, and one of them was you know, the six-week holiday, and also you know, my son started off in private school where their summer holidays are around 10 10 weeks, and I mean, you know, you're getting on for three months, aren't you? And I craved like a lot of people that perfect 50-50 split. That's what I craved, and of course, I didn't get that, and then I felt I went, I did go through a thing of like I thought I thought to myself, well, I must be doing this wrong because you know I must be able to get balance, I must be able to get that 50-50 split from somewhere, but I didn't, and then very fast realized that actually balance is different for everyone, and you know, it really, really was. Once I'd realised that, I I started to get a little bit more balance. I did still find it a lot more difficult, and I think it what it was is I wasn't putting boundaries in place, and now I know because I've been in business years, you know, I'm 46 years old, I've been round the block. You get to realise that actually boundaries can work together with balance and they can protect them. So, for example, um, I used to work literally seven days a week, you know. I I just used to work, work, work, work, work. And my dad, who, you know, a lot of you know, passed away on my birthday actually last year, he used to say to me, You need a break. You can't just work, work, work. It's not it doesn't work like that, you know, you've got to have a break. And that was coming from him, who was, you know, a really successful entrepreneur. And so balance for me, I have to be, you know, really honest, it wasn't it wasn't a 50-50 split, but it wasn't my own perfect balance for quite a while. And then once I did probably unconsciously start to put boundaries in place, it started to, you know, work a little bit more for me. And I then started to maybe have the weekends or time block. Now that was fantastic for balance. I remember the entrepreneur Carrie Green from the Female Entrepreneur Association saying on a live call one day, I was um, well, I am in her um in her uh members' club, and she said, time blocking. It I know it seems simple, yes, it is simple, but it is massive, you know. They weren't her exact words, but that's pretty much what she said. And she said that she tries to time block everything because obviously that would create balance. Now, this call that we were on, oh god, it was years ago, really. Um, it wasn't specifically about balance, but it was about time blocking. But if you time block, you create balance for yourself, and there's lots of other things that you can do to create balance in your home life and your business. Is it going to be 50%? I'm probably gonna bet on that it isn't going to be that, but it will be your own perfect balance for you, okay? Now, you know that I've spoken about the word perfect on here, I do not believe in it, but I do think we have our own idea of perfect, you know. I think that what because what's perfect for me might not be perfect for you. And when you start to put boundaries in place, they protect that balance. So, for example, if you want every weekend free, you know, to spend with family, to spend with your children, your partner, your your friends, well maybe you just want every weekend just to spend on your own to have a little bit of, you know, me time. Could be anything, couldn't it? If you have put a boundary in place in your business that says, no, we we do not work weekends, but come five o'clock or whatever time on a Friday, maybe you don't work on a Friday, but it could be a Thursday, then all of your emails, anything coming through, etc., will then be answered on the Monday. Or maybe you have something in place, you know, maybe you have a system in place. Um, you know, you get a lot of these um AI forums now that are set up on people's businesses where actually half the time you don't need to speak to a real person because the you know the AI can help you. I was on um the Female Entrepreneur Association the other day and I was stuck on something and I thought I'm gonna have to speak to a real person because I would have years ago, I would have had to go through to their customer service or who's whoever was in charge of whatever I needed help with. Actually, um, it was Carrie AI and it popped up, and I I got help from that straight away. It was brilliant, it was absolutely fantastic. So, you know, if you put these boundaries in place, they will slowly create balance. Now, I'm gonna touch on it very, very slightly here because we can do another ep on this. But systems, okay, in your business, they will create balance and they create boundaries. Now that that's probably about another 25 eps in itself. But if you have systems in your business, they will create that balance via those boundaries that those systems allow you to create. And so there are so many different ways of going around to get that balance that we all crave so much. And, you know, with boundaries, I I started to put personal boundaries into my life. Probably, I I guess you know, we all have them, don't we? Probably unconsciously. Um, you know, if we say no to someone, that's a boundary. We're setting a boundary, we're saying no, can't do that right now. But I consciously decided to put them, bring them into my life even more when I got into my 40s and I'm 46 now. And I very, very, very fast learned that the people who didn't like the boundaries or the people who wanted to break them. I was like, oh, that's interesting. And isn't it crazy that it took me to get to my 40s to actually realise that? I didn't know why. I gosh, I I don't know why, but it did. And so far, but and don't get me wrong, I mean I'm not putting boundaries up every week, but I put boundaries where I I feel that I need them in my personal life, and obviously I'm coming back with a brand new business and a brand new brand, but again, I will put boundaries in place because you have to, it's a sign of respect. But when I did start putting personal boundaries in place, I found that my life improved immensely. I was like, oh wow, this is this is this is good. This is this is really good. And I'll give you an example. Obviously, since my dad passed away, I've been under a lot of pressure, you know, doing the estate, and there's been a lot of responsibility there, and it is all on my shoulders. And there's a lot of people asking me for things. In fact, I think at the moment, I think they're all queuing up. And at the time last year, you know, obviously it all happened very suddenly, and I just was like, oh my goodness. And so I could be working. I think one day I was um, I was, oh, that was it. I yeah, I know what I was doing. I was actually working on um, I did my strategy course, which I passed, which I spoke to you about in my last deck, and it was Lisa Johnson's course, fantastic course, absolutely brilliant. Anyway, I was doing that and I was really, you know, I was in the flow, and then someone called me for something, and I was like, oh, right, yep, I'll get onto that right now. And they're like, right, okay, great. And then I came away. So I answered the phone, I came away from what I was doing. I didn't even give it a second thought, which was crazy. Came away from what I was doing, and then I started doing what this person needed for them, and then I think I had to email it off or something like that. And then I just sat there and I thought, what the hell am I actually doing? Because I've literally I've just dropped everything. So I very quickly that day started to put boundaries in place, and now when anyone like comes through to me in regards, say to um everything that I'm doing in regards to my dad at the moment, I now say, Yes, I can do that if I can, or if it needs doing, but you will be in the queue and I will have it done by so-and-so date. I cannot tell you how powerful that made me feel. Oh my goodness, mate, it made me feel in control, it provided balance, it provided a massive boundary that really needed to be set, and I felt good. Whereas before I would just literally drop everything like a lead balloon and be like, yeah, what can I do? You know, etc. etc. But I what I did is I cancelled out that matter of urgency and it worked, it actually worked. So, what I'm gonna leave you with is have a think after this app and think too, and you've probably you know, you've probably been listening, thinking, right, well, where can I put a boundary in place? Or where do I need balance? How how can I get that balance? Because as I said earlier on in the app, it isn't just sometimes you putting a boundary in place, it could be that you need a system. So, you know, if you have promised your clients, for example, that they have 24-7 support, maybe they're doing say, say, I don't know, they've bought a course from you and they've got 24-7 live support, then you that I mean, that's pretty much impossible, isn't it? So then you would need to implement a system where they get that 24-7 support, which then creates balance for you. And there you go. You know, all of a sudden it's taken that, gosh, how am I gonna do this? Oh no, I'm gonna be working all the time. It just takes it away. Uh so ask yourself this week where can I, where can I, where do I need balance? Where can I set a boundary? And I would love to hear as well. My DMs are always open. The information is in the show notes. I hope you've enjoyed this week's app, and I will be back next week. So have a fantastic week, whatever you're doing.