Entrepreneurship is not only a tough but challenging act. It’s not easy when you are your own boss. It does not mean that you don’t have to do anything! Having your own business means more hard work. Because you don’t have a fixed-hours job like government officials do. You have to work for longer hours day and night. These things are quite challenging when you have to send your deliveries and place orders in a specific time-frame. Or your orders will be cancelled by your clients!
Therefore, being a business entrepreneur focuses on your priorities. And you have to spend more time and energy on your business. At the same time, you have to supervise and assist your team so that you can get desirable results. Otherwise, you will lose your regular clients and you have to be in a position to make wise decision at a particular time which does not affect your business. Sometimes, especially on weekends, you spend your time on your business. Only then you can deliver your goods along with your team.
On the other hand, you may be stuck up in your office and at the same time, you are getting several phone calls from your clients regarding your delivery to be sent in time. Imagine a critical situation that arises at times. But you have to be a calm, cool and quick decision-maker who not only focuses on his business but thinks more on your future and family as well. That is more important. Therefore, make good decisions and get help from your family members.
Three Sets of Plan for Every Entrepreneur
Ideally, you should establish three sets of plans:
A family plan
Whereby members determine the overall goals of the family and the resources needed to achieve those objectives.
An individual plan
This helps each family member determine his or her own personal goals and how to balance those needs with the family’s and business’s needs.
A business plan
This addresses issues as ownership and management control, family involvement in the business and overall strategic direction of the business.
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Imagine a critical situation that arises at times. But you have to be a calm, cool and quick decision-maker who not only focuses on his business but thinks more on your future and family as well.
The Cost of Being an Entrepreneur
Incidentally, most of us think that getting into business entrepreneurship is quite glamorous. It looks that way from the outside, but it’s not. And the reality is the opposite. You have to sacrifice a lot while working continuously and sometimes relationships get affected. In order to get good profits or results, even your personal health gets affected. Success and profits take their toll: relationships suffer; personal health suffers. And you suffer silently.
Therefore, top executives and business leaders are beginning to use their stature to facilitate discussions about healthy work-life balance so that they can save their time and use their precious time with their family and friends rather than be stuck with petty issues. They live simple lives and spend family time, work systematically and select their team members wisely.
Simple Life, Long Term Success
If you are into business and getting into entrepreneurship, then learn simple methods, maintain healthy life-styles, go to the gym or go for morning exercise, sleep at least eight hours, have healthy food, avoid junk or fast food, don’t skip morning breakfast, and must have good immunity. Besides all these, you should have a close circle of friends and family.
You should spend your leisure time with your family and go for a holiday just to recharge your own batteries. This will enhance your energy and make your body fit.
What makes entrepreneurs effective, then, is their ability to not only build a successful business but manage their time in a way that allows them to maintain a healthy personal life throughout the process. While some entrepreneurs operate from the mentality of “Whatever it takes, whatever the cost, make it happen.” Whatever you sacrifice in the short term with your interpersonal relationships and personal health, you will end up paying for in the long run.
Take the example of Diljeet Singh Dogra, who is having three different companies along with his wife.
Learning from the Life of An Entrepreneur
Talented Diljeet Singh Dogra is a brilliant and successful business entrepreneur and winner of several awards. Dogra was born and brought up in the beautiful city of Jammu. After he finished his schooling, he got admitted in the Delhi University and completed his graduation. After that, he did MBA and MCom from Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU).
He has worked at the Embassy of Afghanistan, but he loves the entertainment industry. Later on, he participated in “Mr Ghaziabad: A talent hunt show” and got a good response.
Having confidence and ability, he started his own co-production company called Voice Infotech. Till now, he has launched several popular singers and done many glamorous shows.
Diljeet is very supportive when it comes to helping poor children in need, or promoting upcoming artists’ albums. He always believes in helping and promoting artists and supporting them professionally.
Now, he runs Shades of Diamond India Private Limited, Jatt & Jatti by Nature, and helps the World Charitable Foundation, among others. Diljeet is Chief Executive Officer, Director and Producer in these companies. Working along with him is his beautiful and talented wife Yashasavi Dogra, who works as a Director. Besides her professional work, she is also a social-activist.
Diljeet and his wife Yashasvi are a happily married couple. They work as a team.
Excerpts from the Interview
Being a business entrepreneur is not easy. One has to spend long, odd hours. How do you manage your family, etc.?
Yes. Of course, it’s so tough to manage both at the same time. But, as family and business are both important, sometimes we have to keep aside our work for our family because family is always everyone’s priority. But we organise get-together parties on weekends, so we can spend time with our family. Even both of us cook food for them!
How many hours do you work?
We work for 13-14 hours daily according to the workload from 10 am to 9-10 pm.
What are the big challenges people in business face?
Competition is a big issue in business, especially in the glamour business. Always keep an eye on the market. Competition is tough in the 21st century! Trends change a lot on a daily basis. So, we have to get updated all the time for our magazine, our clothes range and everything so we can provide better products.
The other challenging task is the Chinese companies. They have totally hijacked the market! They sell a lot of cheap and fake products. Our Indian people run after them! Therefore, keeping them interested in Indian products in the affordable range is a big task itself!
What kind of problems do you face while working as business entrepreneurs?
Shortage of time for completing and finishing my job in time! Time management and giving time for my investors take a lot of my time.
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What makes entrepreneurs effective, then, is their ability to not only build a successful business but manage their time in a way that allows them to maintain a healthy personal life throughout the process.
Do you think being a business couple helps to cope with the work stress?
Yes, you are right. It helps us a lot to cope with work stress as we stay all the time together whether we are at home or work. So, whenever I am feeling down or stressed, my partner takes all the responsibilities of work. So, it helps us a lot. As a business couple, you can definitely trust and depend on your business partner blindly.
What is your experience in delegating tasks?
There’s nothing a person can do individually as you see if you wanna clap then you have to use both your hands. It’s teamwork. We have different teams for different jobs as we do different businesses.
What comes first: Family or Business?
Achieving a healthy and sustainable work-life balance is no easy task. Ask any serial founders, and they’ll tell you that peace of mind, health, and happiness are vital components of building a successful business. How exactly are you supposed to structure your lifestyle so that you are properly allocating resources to both your personal and work lives? Does your business or your family come first?
The blunt reality is that often the more your business succeeds, the more attention it demands. Do the math. That means less family time, which can quickly turn detrimental to building relationships with your children and other loved ones.
Jim and his Co-founder, Brian Scrone, built Family Board Meetings to prove that you can be a busy entrepreneur, and still have plenty of time to nurture your relationships with those closest to you-your family.
Quality time is a lot to ask for when you’re building a business. The constant buzz of our cell phones easily distracts us from focusing on what really matters.
So, what exactly does an entrepreneur experience at these retreats? Scrone says: “Through our quantitative and qualitative research over the last five years, we have identified that the most successful parents either have some kind of involvement in their child’s education, or keep consistent rhythms to keep the lines of communication.”
There truly is no substitute for quality time. And for some entrepreneurs, these are skills that require practice and learning. In the same way you don’t stroll into your first business and do everything perfectly, being a parent or an effective spouse is no easier a job.
These skills take time to learn. What’s important is that ambitious entrepreneurs always remember the value of investing in their interpersonal relationships.
