People sometimes say, “How lucky you are to have your own business! You can take off anytime you want!”

Actually, it’s the opposite that’s usually true: it’s far too easy to take off too little time, and not create a clear-cut line between work and non-work; it’s especially true for those of us who work out of our home offices.

Drawing the line between work and play, or work and family, or work and just plain non-work, is essential for our health, our happiness, and ultimately our businesses.

Most entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do, and they’re happy to work on their businesses morning, noon, and night, but there comes a point where it’s just too much! If you have to start turning down social invitations or missing out on family activities because you have work to do, you’ll probably start resenting your business for taking over your life. Never forget that everyone needs a personal life, even successful entrepreneurs!

Don’t Do It Yourself! The worst habit an entrepreneur can have that will lead to them hating their business is feeling compelled to do it all themselves. With resources like virtual assistants and crowd sourcing there is no reason to “go it alone”. Determine your top 3 revenue producing activities and YOU focus on them; delegate the rest. By doing so, you free your time and energy to focus on your strengths which directly translate to profitability.

Falling out of love with yourself, your business: NO ROMANCE, No Wooing…being an entrepreneur yes, sounds much like a relationship! Creating your own loving environment, love affair [being daring], and yes, even role playing, can salvage not only your sanity and health, but from losing yourself: your creative, consistent, passionate self that you were from day 1. Try new locations to work from, travel to workshops, attend events in your industry, YOU’RE the BOSS! FUN+recreate your love=RETURN

Becoming an entrepreneur means that you\’re usually working very long hours – often stretching into evenings and week-ends. If you don\’t build time into your calendar for relaxation, exercise, family time and vacations, the powerful passion you have for your business can deteriorate through burn-out.

It is very easy, as an entrepreneur, to focus on how to make money and how to make more of it. While making money is important, we need to not loose focus of WHY we are in business in the first place. Are you self employed so that you can make your own schedule so that you can spend more time with your family? If so, then you need to make sure you make time for family instead of constantly focusing on doing more and loosing your free time as a result. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

As a business coach, I work with entrepreneurs to help them start, build & exit their business. It amazes me – NO blows me away – how often a brilliant entrepreneur wants to complicate his/her business by complicating his/her life. Some examples:” Business is so good I think I’ll buy the building!” Why? Are you in X business or real estate? Or “I need help, my sister/brother just lost her/his job why not hire her/him?” Again, why? Smart entrepreneurs often complicate business for no good reason!

The worst habit any entrepreneur can have is to try to do everything yourself. If you lead a speaking and training business likelihood is you”re passionate about your business. You may not be as good at marketing, sales, social media and generating the kind of publicity required to be a huge success. I highly recommend you hire marketing, sales and social media experts to assist you in positioning your business to succeed. Focus on your passion and leave the rest to your team, its a winner.

Wanting everyone to like you in business does not mean you have to please everyone. Saying YES to everyone can have you piled up to your head in new projects and promises. This will have you so overwhelmed that you will begin disliking being in business. Learn to say NO and do not be afraid of people disliking you. Create systems and manage your time. Stay focused on your goals and projects. Only say YES to proposals for partnerships that fall in line with your current goal focus.

Entrepreneurs who burden too many tasks personally find themselves exhausted, and are likely to burn out quickly. Success therefore means hiring well and delegating effectively. When you feel like there is a highly competent team supporting you in all initiatives, anything and everything becomes possible.

Many entrepreneurs do not plan on how they will take a vacation/time off and keep the business continuing to make money or think it will not be a problem just to take a vacation when they want to. The first few years of a business can be tough and require so much time to make it profitable. This planning never occurred to be able to take time off and still be making money without problems of you not being on site or available. This causes much burnout that can lead to hating your business.

Procrastination is the entrepreneur\’s nightmare. Because although it might *seem* like things are ok, it will come back to haunt you. The more you procrastinate on small and big decisions, the bigger the monster you will have to face eventually.

And all of those SOMEday things piled up will make you hate your business all the more.

Second guessing one’s decisions is by far the one worst habit that leads an entrepreneur to not only hate their business but will create an undercurrent of inner tension and misery within one’s self. Second guessing limits our creativity and joy as business owners and keeps us feeling stuck. Instead, we can develop a keen sense of observation to be able to make any necessary changes as things move forward. Dropping our second guessing can only lead to better decisions as well as a happier life.

Many entrepreneurs fail to create procedures in their business and end up doing too many tasks themselves. They end up burned out and frustrated.

Whether it is a physical trip to a different time zone or just an afternoon playing hooky, you have to get away and not feel shackled to it. Let the business work for you rather than you work for the business.

Life and all it’s suckiness, or greatness, is dependent on what you “feed,” meaning where you invest your thoughts, time, money and energy. You can “feed” (dwell upon) your regrets and be miserable, or you can “feed” your successes, your serendipitous moments and your happiness and watch them grow. Where your thoughts, heart and energy are is where your happiness lies. Dwell upon the good things that happen, not the bad.

One of the worst habits an entrepreneur makes is thinking they are superman or superwoman. They think they can do it all, they do not need help or a community to support them. This leads to rapid burnout when you realize you cannot do everything. Once you realize you can release tasks, hire a support team and then plug into a mastermind you relieve the stress of the “gotta do it all” and you can fall back in love with your business!

The absolute worst habit entrepreneurs have is avoiding looking at the money, the cash flow or lack of. In order to be successful you must get comfortable talking about, looking at and managing your money. Even if the money is not flowing like you want YOU MUST look at it, track it and be open to talking about it DAILY. Do you track your revenue? Are your tasks revenue generating (and no re-doing your website is not a revenue generating activity!) Time to embrace your money talk!

The one worst habit that I see entrepreneurs have that makes them hate their own business is not keeping up with their clerical duties. Filing and data entry is part of the necessary day to day operations that some business owner’s don\’t keep track of and worst leave it for months at a time. This bad habit can leave you unorganized.

Burning out may be an adrenaline rush while weight lifting, but burning out while entrepreneuring is never fun. One of the worst habits is taking on too much and thinking you are a superhero. You can’t do it all. And if you try, you will most likely burn out . Surround yourself with high energy, trust-worthy individuals that compliment you. Delegate. Delegate. Delegate. Focus on being the quarterback and surround yourself with an all pro team. Let others run with the ball.

Entrepreneurs and innovators I have worked with have a set of strengths that add value to their business. However, even the most successful entrepreneurs have weaknesses. I\’ve seen too many businesses fail because the entrepreneurs/founders try to perform all tasks as the business grows. But, to succeed, they must stay true to their strengths and delegate other tasks to people who are better able to successfully perform those tasks.

Abandon strongly held beliefs and opinions — they prevent you from connecting to the people and opportunities that are actually in front of you. Opinions are the habit of defining yourself and your business and they encourage you to try getting buy-in (or argument) from others. Give yourself the freedom to be curious so that you ask questions that stimulate vs. manipulate. Your genuine interest in learning about others will attract success and it’ll be a hoot, too!

With bills to pay to solutions to deliver, many entrepreneurs who started their businesses on intangible goals become chained to those everyday necessary tangible goals of reality. Subconsciously they lose their passion and begin to dislike always working to increase sales, to market their businesses or to make customers happy. They believe there is no time to again dream, to think about those intangible goals because the chains of reality have become far too strong.

“Any business is good business” is a sure way to hate what you are doing, no matter what it is. In times of plenty, it is easier to turn down clients. But in tougher times, people tend to take on any client that rings the phone or walks through the door. bad move. Much better to tighten the belt.

No entrepreneur likes to be considered “small” and is often dreaming “big”; but in reality, when you start carving out your own market share, things can move slower than you anticipated. And that’s ok! This point in your businesses’ young history isn’t a point to get discouraged at. While the lofty goals emerging entrepreneurs set for themselves may appear farther off then expected at times, your resources shouldn’t be stretched to “speed up the process.” For entrepreneurs, patience is a virtue.

Being stuck when you are a entrepreneur can make you miserable. You need to be taking action every day as imperfect action is better than no action. Go back to your why, your focus and take action now! Also surround yourself with positive associates that will motivate you and keep you on track. The TPE community is a good place to start!

The worst thing that entrepreneurs do to make themselves hate their business, in my opinion, is trying to do too much on their own. Sooner or later we all have to work on delegating some of our responsibilities out. Obviously we can’t do this with the most important things (the finance side), but the little things have to go, otherwise we’ll bury ourselves in work and stress and end up hating the business we love.

Who hasn’t had a day when email ruled your time, rather than your goals? Or unexpected issues or management challenges took over? We get disappointed and can lose our inspiration if we are only reacting to events, rather than leading. Great entrepreneurs want to execute on their idea, their vision, and change the world!

Many small business owners forget how important the details are in running a successful business. If the owner take his or her eye of the details, the business will be quietly derailed. By the time the owner realizes the business is derailed, trying to catch up makes it feel like they are drowning! Remember, work the details daily and prevent the quiet train from hitting you from behind!

I learned a long time ago, and only recently has this misery come home to roost again, that whenever I have flim-flammed on what to charge a client (telling myself, “Oh, maybe that’s too high”),whatever the justification, it is almost like an animal being able to smell fear. It seems any time I have even had a THOUGHT about lowering a price, the client has picked up on that and has then attempted not to pay or haggled with me over the price. Makes for total misery in completing a project!

Far too many fall into the habit of listening to those who would predict your failure. It’s an easy trap to fall into. But the naysayers are more often projecting *their* own fears and failures onto you. Negativity is a habit, just as success is. Don’t stick your head in a hole, but rather choose counsel wisely.

I’ve been caught up in the trap of trying to do it all in my business. It’s a cycle of believing that you not only are the best at everything in the business, but that getting and retaining clients requires YOU/ME to be at the center of every contact, email, phone call, and piece of work that comes out of your company.

Lethargy. An entrepreneur who is habitually lazy will look at their business as a chore. He or she needs to learn how to get pumped and energized about their business and see it day in and day out as fun and exciting.

A lot of first-time entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves to save money, but that only leads to exhaustion and frustration. Before long, they dread showing up at the workplace! It’s important to delegate, to avoid premature burn-out.

When you start a new business your personal excitement level is sky high! After a few years of doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again, that enthusiasm may begin to wane. If you haven’t delegated some of your more odious daily tasks, you’ll soon be hating life – and you’ll be questioning why you started your business in the first place. In order to avoid this boredom, be sure to focus your attention on the tasks you really enjoy – delegate the rest.

Most people who begin businesses are passionate about them. So passionate that they do not take time away from their business. They check emails on their phone until late at night and begin again first thing in the morning Before going to their office. We all need breaks. One habit that everyone should create is allowing yourself time away from your business – even if it is only the evening hours. Everyone needs time to refresh/defrag our internal hard drives.

Want to DESPISE your business? Keep thinking that you have to do EVERYTHING in your business from cleaning the restrooms to record keeping. Yep, keep all that stuff, especially the tedious stuff you hate doing, on your plate and you are sure to hate your business fast. Refuse to hire help, refuse to pay a cleaning service, refuse to hire a tax professional, refuse to find a web developer. Refuse to get help and you will end up needing help—in the ER! Stop doing it all NOW!

In particular during the economic downturn, when companies were downsizing and cutting expenses, most business owners made concessions to customers and clients in order to have their work. And with the economy rebounding, asking for what we deserve is a challenge — especially when those same customers have been able to get ‘bang for their buck’ on smaller budgets.

Some one said, and I agree, that the way you do one thing is how you do everything. The worse thing I can imagine a business owner doing that will make them hate their businness is being a procrastinator. It will affect every aspect of their business.

Entrepreneurs, by default, are visionaries. This is good. The downside happens when we mistakenly believe, that we can do everything ourselves.

Do what you love to do and find someone to handel everything else. Bakers open bakeries to bake, not to do booking. Developers need to develop, not make sales calls.

Stop trying to do everything yourself.