***How to Own a Business and Still Have a Life

Life-changing ideas from Trump University's Entrepreneur's Success Code Many entrepreneurs nearly kill themselves running their businesses. They work such long hours that they experience no joy or true abundance in their lives. When they finally get fed up, their solution is often to limit the size or scope of the business. True, that reduces the demands that their business places on their lives. But their organizations are still out of control, only smaller. That is hardly a recipe for success. The solution is management, and that is a problem for many entrepreneurs. After all, we start companies because we hate that word. We don't want to manage people. We want to do what we love, but that becomes harder as our companies grow. We are pulled in hundreds of different directions. Yet there are ways to get back in control of your company and your life.nnIdentify the tasks you will give awaynnFirst, keep a list of every single thing you do every day, every week and every month. Then circle all the things that you don't love doing. Those are the activities that you should get other people to do. You probably hesitate because you believe that you, and you alone, know how to handle those tasks. But you have to get the courage to give them away.nnSecond, make a list of the excuses you have for why you can't get back to doing what you love. Your excuse might be, "I can't do what I love because I am too busy making sales calls to potential customers" or, "I am too busy keeping the books." If you write down all those excuses, you will have another list of functions to delegate away. Give those tasks away by delegating, hiring, outsourcing or whatever it takes. But first, optimize those tasks by following the advice that follows.nnPut systems in placennFirst, walk around your organization and make a list of everything that everyone is doing. Write down shipping, receiving, calling, marketing, and everything else that you see.nnSecond, put a system in place to handle every one of those tasks. A system is simply a list of tasks that are entailed in each job. For instance, your receptionist: greets people when they arrive; answers the phone in a way that communicates the energy of your company; connects visitors with the people they have come to see, and so on. That list of tasks becomes your system for that position. Then when the time comes to replace someone, you can hire the best person to oversee that system, which is already in place. And there should be a system in place for every function in your company - the ones that you plan to delegate away and all the others. This level of organization (dare I use the word management?) allows your organization to become what it was destined to be, without killing you or robbing the joy that led you to become an entrepreneur in the first place.nnJeff Burrows, professor of entrepreneurship at Trump University, specializes in helping entrepreneurs build their businesses without sacrificing their personal lives or their dreams. This post has been adapted from his self-instructional course, The Entrepreneur's Success Code. To master the art of starting your own company, be sure to enroll in The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program at Trump University. Classes forming now.