Business owners: don't forget work-life balance

It doesn’t matter whether you love your work or hate it, a good work-life balance is often difficult for many in the entertainment business to achieve. 

Many dismiss the entire concept. If that's you, if you don't think it's important, ask yourself these questions: 

• Have you caught yourself moving around lethargically and sounding a little too much like Droopy the Dog lately? 
• Do you spend your days frantically running around your business resetting rooms, repairing props or fixing broken equipment?
• Are you constantly dealing with difficult customers and staff emergencies and it just never stops? 
• Have your family and loved ones given up on ever seeing you again after you missed the last 1,465 events?

If you answered yes to one or more of these, you’re probably overworked and it probably feels like you have no choice in the matter. If you don’t do the work, your entertainment business won’t survive… right? 

Well, it can be hard to accept, but the real truth is that your business won’t survive unless you achieve a healthy work-life balance, because you won’t do your best work when you’re burnt out.

You Won't Do Your Best Work If You're Burnt Out — So Achieve That Balance

Work-life balance has different meanings for different people. We all have our own personalities and preferences. Some people need a lot of downtime to relax, while others like being busy. Some thrive on networking, while others appreciate more time on their own. One thing’s almost alway true of everyone, though: you can’t work all the time.

But whatever work-life balance means to you, running your own entertainment business is a special kind of challenge — and it’s really easy to have it consume all of your time. The mind of a business owner is always full of innovative ideas and big plans, while balancing the practicalities of making it through the next month and fixing all the things going wrong right now.

But you do need time to switch off — so you've got to arrange your work to allow that. We've got three tips here to help entertainment business owners looking to claw some time back.

STOP MULTITASKING. IT DOESN'T WORK!

Multitasking has become such a regular part of the life of business owners in the attraction industry that many believe they do it well.

The thing is, people generally aren’t effective or efficient when multitasking, because you’re not actually multitasking. You’re just switching between all these tasks minute-by-minute. In doing so you’re not only less efficient and productive, but you’re more likely to make mistakes and forget things.

When you stop multitasking, the quality of your work will soar. Your customer and staff interactions will become much richer and more valuable, and you'll be making way fewer errors.

So, instead of trying to pay the bills, respond to that email, make that phone call, set up the new gaming room at the same time you're trying to ensure your customers are happy, try time blocking. 

• Allocate Your Time: Divide your entire day into blocks of time and allocate a specific task or group of tasks to each block. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task, or group of tasks, and only those specific tasks. 
• There is time for everything: If the email can wait, you can deal with it during your email time. And don’t try to work on the new room during peak business hours — set the time aside while you’re closed.

Your business will do better — and you’ll feel less stressed.

LEARN TO TAKE A BREAK 

So now that you’ve hopefully got the multitasking urge toned down and a more effective schedule, the next thing to do is learn to take a break. Easier said than done of course. It’s not hard to fall into the trap of thinking your business will suddenly go bankrupt if you take a day off or don't complete your daily to-do tasks.

But again, what’s the alternative? When you don’t get a break, you’ll get tired, you’ll lose focus, and you won’t be working effectively.

• Prioritize: Remember that you don't have to do everything all at once.  Prioritize your tasks in terms of what’s absolutely critical you get done, and what can wait a little. 
• Every Bit Counts: Even if it’s just a five-minute walk? Take the time to get out, get your mind off things, and come back at least a little more refreshed.

Often, taking a break is exactly what you need — and you'll find the time it took to take the break plus tackling the task fresh is way shorter than trying to power through it.

LOOK FOR HELP

You’ve got your tasks organized and you’re taking regular breaks. But the daily operations of running a business can still be overwhelming. 

This is where delegation comes in.

• Outsource: Look at your to-do list — personal and business — and see what you can hand off to someone else. Messy house? Consider a cleaning service. Can’t handle social media? Hire a freelancer or a local student intern to take it off your plate. 
• Trust the help: If you have employees? Don’t underestimate them. You might be surprised what a good staff member can bring to the table with a little encouragement and training.

Don't assume you are omniscient as an entrepreneur. A good team will bring fresh ideas to a stale problem every time.

One More Tactic For Work-Life Balance

If you have trouble getting those tasks in order, if you genuinely can’t take the breaks you need, and if you’re not yet able to hire a great team? The one thing left is considering what you’re operating.

Entertainment attractions take a lot of work to install and maintain — and a lot can go wrong. If you run an escape room, even if you buy a pre-made one, you’ve still got to ship in all the parts and put it all together. Customers will interact with the props in ways you cannot hope to predict, and broken props can immediately turn a fully-booked weekend into a stream of disappointed customers who won’t be back.

But here’s another way to do it. With VR escape rooms,  you use a single, empty room for multiple experiences There’s no room resets, there’s no repairs, and transitioning between groups only requires sanitizing the equipment and helping people get it on. 

Whether you're all-in on VR-only or you want to run just one VR room alongside your physical ones, you can get more done with less effort and time. Give us a shout if you'd like to learn more right now — or check out this page for some more information.