Camille, a 35-year-old middle manager at a large corporation, is faced with a major dilemma. To date, her job has survived the prevailing economic challenges, but she is aware that at any time her position could be in jeopardy. She wants to boost her income in order to put aside more money for future eventualities including redundancy.

Camille has applied for a promotion in her company, which she thinks she will probably attain based on her performance reviews. However, she is concerned that the new senior management job entails working longer hours and being on call practically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Although she wants to earn more, Camille is already having difficulty balancing her work and personal life. She feels guilty that she doesn’t spend more quality time with her husband and two children, but she is torn by her desire to increase her earnings and secure her employment. She wishes she could find a way to make more money but increase her leisure time.

Working Harder, Not Smarter

Camille’s story is typical of many ambitious professionals in today’s workforce. Driven by the desire to move up the corporate ladder, or motivated by fear of losing their positions in a tenuous job market, they are working harder than ever to be successful. Although the end result might be more pay, the problem is that they have less time to actually enjoy the fruits of their labour.

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The situation is not very different for many self-employed persons. A survey by Fortune Small Business revealed that the average small business is open 11 hours per day, six days per week. Recently, the owner of a small wholesale shop which opened every day explained to me that he had to be at work at all times, because he was afraid that the staff would steal from him if he left.

Many high-earning professionals such as doctors and lawyers also complain of long work hours with little leisure time. Although they have the ability to make a lot of money from their jobs, most are constrained by the need to work harder in order to earn more. Unfortunately, if they stop working for an extended period, their income sources will decrease as well.

Educator and author of Overcoming Time Poverty, Bill Quain reveals that many people are playing a work game that robs them of quality time. Quain explains that most employees trade their time for dollars on a job; if they need more money then they have to ‘sell’ more of their time. “Soon, they spend so much time working for money they have too little time for everything else.”

Changing Your Work Game

Quain asserts that achieving balance between the job and personal life is impossible in the normal work game. Persons who trade time for dollars have to reduce work, and by extension their earnings, in order to gain more personal time. If they reduce their income, then they may be unable to pay their bills; they are then forced to go right back to working hard and having less free time.

Given this problem, how can it be possible to be rich in both time and money? Quain’s solution is learning how to play a new work game which involves trading your time for equity instead of just receiving dollars for your time. Equity is ownership of assets that can create the income you need to pay for your lifestyle.

The reality is that most people trade their time for dollars, and then use their money to purchase liabilities that don’t earn money. The first step in creating a time-rich life is to concentrate on spending your money to create assets that will produce an income, instead of on things that cost you money. These assets include real estate, investment accounts and personal businesses.

Quain notes that having a personal business in addition to your regular job is the best way to create the extra income needed to invest in other assets. Therefore, instead of trading time for dollars by working more in your current job, use those overtime hours to develop a personal business that you own.

Choosing A Personal Business

Although Quain admits that you have to spend more time initially to develop your own business, your efforts will produce equity which will reward you with much more leisure time in the future. He advises that you should choose a business that allows you “the freedom to do as much or as little as you like, without penalty”.

Quain divides personal businesses into two options which he calls: You’re on Your Own (YOYO) and Plenty of Partners Producing Enormous Rewards (POPPER). A YOYO business is related to a hobby or skill that can generate income, such as baking, tutoring or selling items on eBay. POPPER enterprises involve people distributing existing products through direct sales or network marketing businesses.

Having a personal business can provide you with the means to eventually gain the extra time and lifestyle you desire, if you use your earnings to invest in assets that will continue to supply an income in the future.

Copyright © 2010 Cherryl Hanson Simpson. No reproduction without written consent.

Originally published in The Daily Observer, May 6, 2010