Work-Life Balance in the Wave of Technology

Whoever imagined having a work-life balance must admit that it hardly exists in any successful business today and at best, does not mean an equal balance. Some smart and successful business owners will warn you to spend more time planning or becoming more efficient and not to please everyone.

Yes, and it is also true that no marketing means no business and that business success has nothing to do with your competitors and everything to do with you. These words of wisdom are a valuable lesson on how to give your wellbeing a boost along with your business and should not be dismissed.

But today, the reality is that you couldn't have it all, so the question is how can you make your life easier and can technology improve your work-life balance?

Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion recently said, “We need to adapt technology to our lives and adapt our lives to new technology.” He went on to say, “The creation of artificial intelligence is an important step in understanding the ways in which machines are changing our lives and redefining what it means to be human.”

Technology has created numerous tools to help us work smarter, to remember our priorities, and create a liveable balance between working in a business and managing and enjoying everything else in life. There has never been an easier time to produce good work, and technology is available to help you create and protect that balance. The Tax Shop Franchisebelieves that in these busy times any person should embrace technology and choose take-home value that fits a better lifestyle.

Let’s look at a few digital tools that are available for you to use in your business. Wouldn’t it be convenient to log in online anytime, anywhere on your Mac, PC, tablet or phone and get a real-time view of your cashflow and see up-to-date financials. With several accounting software packages, you can now keep your cash flow healthy by sending online invoices with online payment options and connect to your bank account to automatically import and categorise transactions, each business day.

The greatest thing is that you save hours of processing time each month, by taking care of the mundane and repetitive aspects of running a small business. Be on the lookout for time-tracking apps that will allow you to make a true evaluation of how you spend your time and help you generate goals for how you want to spend your time differently.

Technology has also produced tools that one can use to be more in control of how time is spent and enable you to keep your work and personal to-do lists and calendars all in one place. It is known that an investment in a good customer relationship management (CRM) tool will not only streamline your business process but also make your staff more productive. In a nutshell, it uses data of customers that helps to improve business relationships with customers, focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.

Make it a rule to protect yourself and your business data against cybercrime. Today's sophisticated off-the-shelf and open-source software options are efficient enough to protect businesses (and even individuals) from cybercrime attacks by malicious individuals hoping to steal data, money or both.

Password management, email encryption software and firewalls that come with your security software to name a few, will not only give you peace of mind but save you lots of time and hardship. Embrace security as part of your business culture and remove the stress of falling prey to cybercrime.

Remember, technology helps to develop operational efficiencies and often speed up business decisions. The objective with using technology is to provide superior value to customers and even enhance it, without having to re-design or re-work the conventional. If your life swings in and out of balance, use technology to make life uncomplicated and more manageable but remember, a word of caution, we do not eat smart apps and we do not pay our bills with “likes” posted on Facebook.

The Tax Shop Franchise encourages you to develop in-demand skills, and kickstart your digital business transformation today, as that will free you up to work smarter and quicker.

For more information about The Tax Shop Franchise, click here.