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5 Ways to Rekindle the Passion for Your Business
Posted by Jane Porter | September 11, 2012
URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224379

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Four years into runningBlue Orchid Design, her wedding and event planning company, Liene Stevens was getting sick of the very business she had built. She was working around the clock. When she took breaks, it was scheduledtime with friends or family, never alone time. At night before bed, she would read business books. "This was the job I created for myself and loved, but I was finding the work was joyless," she says."If I burned out, the business was going to go with me."
Stevens first hired someone to handle the sales side of her New York City-based business, a daily task that had been sapping much of hercreative energy. She then began working with a business coach to help her refocus and eventually decided to transition from event planning to consulting for wedding industry clients--a shift that allowed herto do what she loved most. "I wanted to figure out a way to grow my business and be happy," she says.
Related: Six Signs You Need a Break From the Startup Grind
If you're starting to feel joylessat your job, as Stevens was, here are five ways to help you rekindle your passion:
1) Schedule personal time to recharge. Stevens started taking time for herself--learning to cook, exercisingregularly and reading fiction instead of business books before bedtime. She began using an answering service that sent business calls to voicemail rather than directly to her cell phone after 6 p.m., whichenabled her to unplug from her work responsibilities. Too often, business owners don't allow time for themselves, not just to unwind, but also to have fun, says Mark Sanborn, a Denver, Colo.-basedleadership development advisor and author of The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary (Currency, 2004). He recommends asking yourself, "What have...