7 Tips For a Healthy Work-Life Balance for Lawn Care Franchise Owners
Lawn care franchise owners love the freedom their jobs afford them. They can work their own hours, spend time in nature, and be responsible for themselves.
However, we’re a nation of hard workers. This can mean that maintaining a healthy work-life balance isn’t always easy for the average business owner. If you’re a lawn care franchise owner trying to welcome a little more balance into your life, you might be able to achieve your goals in the following ways:
Set Work and Personal Boundaries
Setting boundaries when you love what you do for a living can be tough. You may not mind dedicating much of your free time to your business. However, setting work and personal boundaries can be important for ensuring you you have plenty of time for yourself, your family, and your friends.
Get into the habit of not checking your work email address or phone after hours. Unless calls and emails are urgent, they can wait until the next business day.
Hire Employees
There may come a time when your client list grows beyond your wildest expectations. You now have more clients than hours in the day! When that time comes, hire employees to share the load. Otherwise, you may find yourself working from dusk till dawn with no free time for yourself and your hobbies.
Hiring employees can be a straightforward process. You can advertise on job seeker platforms and hire someone based on their skills or potential. You may then start delegating work to them to free yourself up for more fun in life!
Rely on Technology
You might already be using top-of-the-line lawn care equipment in your line of work to complete work quickly and to a high standard. However, not every business owner knows that they can also use technology to enjoy more speed and efficiency in their administration tasks.
Software, invoicing tools, and various apps may all reduce your admin burdens and speed up those boring, repetitive tasks. The less time you spend on admin, the more time you can have for your hobbies and family.
Don’t Overcommit
We all want to make our customers happy and ensure their expectations are exceed. However, it should never be the expense of our mental and physical health. Start setting realistic expectations with yourself and your clients about what you can realistically achieve in a day.
Don’t line up more jobs than you can comfortably achieve, especially if your workload means you’re starting early, finishing late, and not taking adequate breaks.
Practice Self-Care
When you spend all day, every day, helping other people with various tasks, it’s easy to not think about the little things you could be doing for yourself to make yourself feel better. Get into the habit of doing one activity for yourself each day.
You might take a walk through your favourite park, enjoy a spa after work, or sit in your local café with a newspaper and hot coffee. It’s the small things that can make all the difference in managing your physical and mental health.
Take Regular Breaks
The lawn care industry can get busy. Spring and summer are growth seasons, and it can be all hands on deck to make sure homeowners can enjoy picture-perfect properties.
Despite their desire to achieve that bowling green-like lawn, you should ensure your busy schedule leaves plenty of free time for your breaks. Depending on how many hours you work in a day, aim for a lunch break and at least two other shorter breaks during the day. If you’re working on a hot day, take additional breaks when required and drink plenty of water.
Prioritise the Most Important Jobs
When you have a full schedule and limited time, it’s only natural to feel overwhelmed. You don’t always know how to achieve everything without working yourself to the bone or leaving no spare time for yourself.
That’s why prioritising the most important jobs can be crucial. Some customer jobs are more urgent than others, such as an end-of-tenancy mow with a deadline versus a weekly mow where the homeowner is flexible with mowing days. Prioritise your most important jobs to ensure you still make time for your personal life at the end of a busy day.
Start New Habits Today
You might be dedicated to providing a high-quality lawn care service, but that doesn’t mean you should prioritise lawn mowing and other yard tasks over your own mental and physical health. Now’s the time to create a healthy work-life balance so you can enjoy your career for years to come.
If you’re struggling with a healthy work-life balance, take note of these tips above. Putting yourself first may be the start of some healthy habits that set you up for business and personal success.