How to Balance Business and Family Life 

Having a growing business is thrilling. It brings you to great heights that you could never imagine. From moving to a larger facility, hiring new staff members, and increasing production capacity — you are gradually witnessing the fruit of your labour come to life. Indeed, it’s tempting to preoccupy yourself with a business once you’ve poured your heart and soul into it. However, what should you do if your family grows just as fast as your company? 

In this episode, Simon Ratcliffe shares how he and his wife balance their family life while being business partners. He also talks about manifestation and how we, as entrepreneurs, can work towards our business goals. Finally, he discusses the importance of learning the growth mindset.  

If you’re a budding entrepreneur looking for ways to balance work and personal life, this episode is for you! 

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

  1. Discover how to balance business and family life
  2. Unravel the power of manifestation
  3. Learn Simon’s secret to success

Resources 

Episode Highlights 

[03:14] Who Is Simon? 

  • Simon belongs to a family of dairy farmers. 
  • He runs a veterinary business with his wife, Camilla. 

[04:27] Simon’s First Proudest Moment 

  • Simon considers his wedding day as his first proudest moment. 
  • It’s a constant challenge to juggle the roles of being a husband, a father, and an entrepreneur. 
  • His wife advises him to look after his health and family relationships because he gets engrossed with his business.

[07:12] Running the Business with His Wife 

  • Camilla was a successful Biology teacher before joining Simon’s veterinary practice. 
  • Running a business means experiencing many frustrating moments. But the couple learned to grow along the way. 
  • Currently, they are thinking of changing their business’ managing structure. 

[08:25] Simon, The Veterinarian 

  • Since he was young, Simon wanted to be a veterinarian. 
  • His love for animals stemmed from growing up on a dairy farm surrounded by animals. 
  • It took a while for Simon to realise that he wanted to set up his own business. 

[09:35] Simon, The Entrepreneur 

  • Practising a profession and running a business requires different sets of skills. 
  • In 2021, his business grew by 20% despite the pandemic. 
  • There were winners and losers in the veterinary profession when COVID-19 struck. 
  • Hiring staff members and facility renovations were positive challenges for Simon and Camilla during the pandemic.

[10:43] Separating Business and Family

  • Simon’s family often had their spouses as business partners. 
  • His family is still trying to compartmentalise both business and family matters. 
  • There’s no magic formula to balancing your role as a spouse and business partner. Couples can learn along the way. 

[12:42] Simon’s Second Proudest Moment

  • His second proudest moment is buying his own Land Rover Defender.  
  • In retrospect, Simon believes asking his sister to include the Defender in his business’ logo manifested his dream of buying the car. 
  • Ever since he became environmentally conscious, Simon felt bad about buying the car. However, he couldn’t let it go. 

[17:20] On Growing the Business

  • There are limiting factors in expanding a business.
  • Simon wants to maintain a profitable practice while keeping his staff happy. 
  • There should be an endpoint to how many clients a company can take.  
  • Assessing your core values and business goals is essential to understanding your limits as a growing entrepreneur.

   [21:44] Simon’s Third Proudest Moment

  • Simon’s third proudest moment is finding the growth mindset. 
  • Listen to the whole episode to hear Simon’s stories of working as an untrained farmer! 
  • Having a growth mindset shows that you can learn and improve from your mistakes.
  • Doctors must balance maintaining a growth mindset and refraining from committing mistakes when dealing with patients. 

[26:01] The Growth Mindset 

  • It’s normal to fail when starting. Things get better through practice. 
  • Everyone is capable of learning. 
  • The consequences of our mistakes are usually trivial. They appear more severe than they really are because of the stories we make ourselves believe. 
  • No one is born with a growth mindset. Everyone must find their own way.

[31:10] The Secret to Success 

  • Hard work is necessary to build a successful business. 
  • There will always be a few bumps and challenges along the road.  
  • It’s a challenge to balance maintaining a happy family life and a flourishing business. 
  • Working efficiently gives you more time to focus on things that matter. 

[33:02] Benefits of Efficient Work

  • Less time for work.
  • More time to spend with family.
  • Provides other avenues to explore.

5 Powerful Quotes

[16:00] ‘It’s interesting to have goals and ambitions and quite tangible things that are doable. And then it’s interesting that you can achieve them if they’re there, and you want them enough.’ 

 

[19:00] ‘There are so many businesses who grow and grow and grow. But then, actually, its directors aren’t in any better of a position. It’s just they’ve got a bigger empire. That’s adding value to more and more people, but not necessarily to them and their lifestyle.’

[22:17] ‘The whole point about the growth mindset is you learn from your mistakes and mistakes are okay. And that’s how life goes.’

[26:15] ‘It’s that sticky middle part where we’re rubbish at it, where we feel people are looking at us, we’re being humiliated, we look stupid, or whatever the story is, that prevents us from being open to learning anything and knowing that we can.’ 

[27:54] ‘But what I see with most people around fixed and growth mindset is, the mistakes that they view as being threatening to their well-being are often so tiny. But they appear to be so huge, and so damaging based on those stories that we tell ourselves.’

About Simon

Simon Ratcliffe is a veterinarian and business owner of Kelperland Vet Centre. His company has provided exceptional care to animals for more than 50 years. 

His main clinical interest is surgery, especially orthopaedics. Simon is also recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) as an “Advanced Practitioner in General Small Animal Surgery”. Because of his great work for the community, he has been nominated multiple times for the Petplan Vet of the Year awards from 2015 to 2020. 

Outside of work, he is a loving husband to Camilla and a doting father to Elena and Theo. He is also a sportsman who enjoys swimming, surfing, cricket, and golf.

You can know more about Kelperland by visiting their website.     

Enjoy this Podcast?

It’s tough to balance a growing business and a family life, but Simon Ratcliffe shares with us how he did it. If you enjoyed today’s episode of The Mindset Mentor Meets, hit subscribe and share it with your friends! Everyone can find success by looking at their origins and building new connections.

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To meeting inspiration,

Angela