Personal Balanced Scorecard 101: Balancing Business and Family

Access your KPIs online;
Measure your success;

Navigation: All Balanced Scorecard Articles > General

Balancing business and family has never been an easy task for married entrepreneurs. Always ensure that you have enough time for your family as much as you do, or even more, for your business and a happy life will be ahead of you. Check additional information about balancing business.

No, it is not a clich� that the hardships of balancing business or a normal 8-5 job and family are such a juggler's job. At some point in your life, no matter how many times you insist that you are busy and never got to watch a lot of films, you basically have a hindsight of what its like. The question though is that, do you act upon it?

I am not here to lecture you on what to do in terms of balancing business and your personal life. It's just it has been too much of an issue to ignore, considering the divorce rate nowadays with a whooping 35% all related to spouses not spending enough time with their family because they were, and probably still are "busy". A business is both stressful and rewarding at the same time but you should never, and I mean never, let it become a thick brick wall between you and what you were before the balanced scorecards and KPIs. Since we are getting there though, why don't you try using your business strategies to manage your own personal life in terms of balancing business and personal life performance?

The two terms I mentioned are both tools used in measuring and balancing business related matters, but do you know that you can also apply them to your personal life? With the use of a Personal Balanced Scorecard (PBSC), you can now measure and balance your personal life performance as if you are measuring and balancing business performance aspects.

The first thing you have to do is to outline your life just like the way you do when you are outlining your business strategies. Make a list (not a mental one so you can review it) of all the things that matters most to you. Now, carefully assess which of those areas do you do poor and list them down, once again. Once you are done, think hard and analyze what is your central focus. Is it to make your son closer to you? Bring back the fire in your married life? Once you have decided, this will then become your main goal.

In measuring and balancing business performance, you have to set what you call "strategies". Same goes for a PBSC. You have to develop tactics, quantifiable measures in order to determine how you are doing in trying to make your personal life at least a little better, like in balancing business performance. These metrics will then reflect into the four key areas of a normal business balanced scorecard, but of course, we have to change the definition for each.

1.Financial

-Are you financially stable? Do you think you provide enough finances to your family and you do not sacrifice all your financial assets to the extent that your family does not eat anymore?

2.Customer Satisfaction

-Are your kids close to you? Do you think they hate you? Do you spend enough time with your wife/husband?

3.Internal Processes

-Do you still cook for your family on Sundays? Do you often forget what your daughter's birthday is?

4.Growth and Development

-Do you think your parental or spousal capabilities sustain at least a part of your family's happiness? Are you willing to run more miles to make them happy? Are you happy?

Keep in mind that balancing a family with work is very much like balancing business. You invest, you make it grow and you reap the benefits in the end - happiness and contentment.

If you are interested in balancing business, check this link to find out more about bsc management review. Also, you can check other articles in General category.

Balanced Scorecard Toolkit includes step-by-step manuals, documents, presentations, check lists designed to help business professionals with successful development and implementation of Balanced Scorecard. Learn more about BSC Toolkit.