Finding Balance

Writers often find themselves either feeling strung-out over lack of work or drowning and not having the time they'd like for other things - the stereotypical feast or famine situation. Someone on a discussion board asked if it was possible to find a balance between work and live, and I think it is, although running your own business generally requires more hours than punching a clock.

Part of the answer is to realize that there will be an ebb and flow. There are times I'm flat out with work and can't do anything else. Then there are times I goof off, hang out with my family, cook dinner, work on personal projects, and generally enjoy myself. The question is where things are on the average, and not having what I want at every minute, which is unrealistic.

But if you find that you feel overwhelmed too often, you might want to consider a few ways of analyzing your situation a bit more:

1. Be harshly honest with yourself. Generally when you find yourself in a situation over and over again, there is something you like about it. Now, there may be stretches where one thing tips into another and upsets what you'd really like for months, or even a year or more. But if you've been in the business for a number of years and still find that you end up in the same situation, you have to realize that you're probably trying to solve a problem doing more of the same, and you have to ask why you're so attached to what you have always done.



2. Really look at the trade-offs. What is it that you get from the business? Do you really need the amount of work/money you're bringing in? If you do need it, then maybe you have to reevaluate the balance you might reach. Or it may be that you're driving yourself to meet a requirement that actually isn't there.



3. If you're working too long and too hard, then you should reconsider the statement that you love the mix of clients. Sounds like it's time to do a profitability analysis - not just revenue, but dollars per hour - on your clients to see how they really stack up. If there is any way to quantify a PIA factor, then do that as well. Maybe, without thinking about it too much, give a ranking from 1 to 10 of each in terms of how much of a pain it is. Then you could find the average PIA number and see how far each deviates from that average, or maybe divide profitability by the PIA number. It might be that you need to get some different clients that are less demanding, or that pay so much more for the demands that you can afford to do less work overall.