Tips on How to Become a Part-time CEO

With a little bit of effort in the right direction, any committed business owner can spend a lot less time worrying about their company.

Business owners frequently bemoan their 80-hour working weeks. Strangely enough, they also enjoy boasting about their demanding schedules and never-ending workdays. It has become ingrained in the mentality that boasting about how long you work is necessary to run a successful business.

Most proprietors of small businesses work more than 50 hours per week. The majority of people, with the exception of the adamant workaholic, do not see that as their entrepreneurial dream. Perhaps you’d prefer to manage a business that supports you and your family rather than the other way around. If only there were more hours in the day, you would have the time you seek for yourself.

While there is no quick fix or simple solution, any committed business owner can spend a lot less time thinking about their company with a little bit of effort.

Decipher Your Needs

You must ascertain where your time is spent before you can establish how many hours you work.

Don’t schedule a 20-hour work week if you have just signed the lease for your first company office. Starting a business is similar to having a child; the rest will happen in a year or two. Nobody launches their own company with the express purpose of having more free time. Fortunately, you can guarantee that shorter hours are ahead of you if you set the correct foundations.

What keeps you at the office, completing order forms? Adding items to your own shelves? Unread emails that never end?

Recommended Reading: The 4 Ds of Time Management

The work can’t all be done in an eight-hour day, but it feels too vital to be ignored. At this time, the majority of CEOs cling to their positions and stay later than expected—often until seven. It doesn’t have to be that way if you alter your strategy.

Start by ceasing to consider the big picture and dealing with each issue separately. You become more effective and are more willing to be forgiving of yourself when your priorities are more apparent.

You also gain momentum as the endorphins coming from a completed task list give you a little burst of adrenaline.

If you get a bunch done and the list isn’t complete, that’s OK. At the end of the day, you know most of those emails can wait until tomorrow.

Develop a Dream Team

A solid support network is essential to a successful business. The objective of a part-time CEO is to gradually surround oneself with a constant team that can step up when their number is called. Yours may need seasonal personnel and outsourcing agencies to start.

No boss ever dismisses the value of a strong team. Unfortunately, too many business owners deliberately choose to work with yes men and people with specialised knowledge. In essence, the typical dream team maintains the boss’s sense of superiority. Ego-driven management guarantees that you will continue to put in that 50 weeks of work while whining about how you need additional help.

You need to do more than just hire a helper to accomplish the tedious tasks you dislike. Hire individuals with high aspirations and high drive. Give them space while they learn the ropes and give them room to develop into their roles by taking a step back. By using this strategy, you avoid having to look for the applicant with the highest pay demands. You can widen the pool to include candidates who may have limited credentials but exhibit greater promise.

Both hiring and keeping good staff isn’t easy. Because of this, new recruits should never be a temporary cure for a minor issue; rather, they should add value over the long term. To substitute yourself for at least a few hours every week, train a team instead of giving in to the impulse to do everything alone.

Company Culture

There is always a tonne of work to be done. You get to decide how and when things get done because you’re the one in command. You’ll be happy, your staff will be happier, and everyone will be able to accomplish more in less time if your company has a strong, values-based culture.

It matters what you value. It affects how you manage your business and how customers view it. If you exclusively focus on the bottom line, your employees will adopt that mentality, and even if you meet your quarterly goals, they will dread going to work every day. People typically do better when they don’t feel overworked.

You can work hard and have free time. If you do that and allow your team to do the same, chances are everyone will be more productive. You won’t have to waste time nagging others to complete tasks or redoing shoddy assignments. Having a joyful, successful team by your side will make taking a three-day weekend seem less significant.

Your Life, Your Time

Maybe you and your work are happily married. Maybe sleeping on the office couch is your idea of a good time. That might be the case now, but it’s not a sustainable way of living. Our bodies and minds aren’t made for endless workdays.

Accepting that you don’t have to do it all will always be the hardest part. Not just the minor things, but also the significant things. Allow your employees to assist you, develop their dependence on you, and begin to open their eyes to the possibilities that lie outside of the four walls of the office.

If this all reads and feels relatable, then hopefully these pointers will help you to find that balance, whilst still steering a successful ship. If you are indeed a CEO who is actively seeking a part-time leadership role, did you know, these roles actually exist? Search the latest Part-time CEO roles hiring today.