I know an entrepreneur who has started three businesses in the past several years. He was relating some of the joys he has experienced in those enterprises: a sense of freedom from the corporate world, pursuing his dreams and passions, setting his own schedule, controlling his destiny and a large potential for financial rewards. However, he did mention a few downsides: little to no outside accountability, lack of consistent capital, feelings of loneliness, no steady revenue stream, feeling disconnected from others who don't understand his drive to succeed, constant struggles to survive and a severe lack of work-life balance. Sound familiar?

Most entrepreneurs struggle with similar issues, especially work-life balance. There are many reasons they can give for their lack of balance and low satisfaction: "I have too much work to do. I just need a few more hours to finish this project. I need more money. I have bills to pay. My business depends on my hard work. My family needs more income. I am solely responsible for developing, marketing, selling and servicing my product or service." Any or all of these reasons may be true, which might lead entrepreneurs to have difficulty in managing the two sides of entrepreneurship—balance and success.

Many entrepreneurs overlook these vital areas of life in search of professional success, yet these areas are full of potential for sparking the creative, outside-of-the-box thinking that can lead them to discover life-changing products and services, and find a new perspective on business ventures. Promotional Consultant Today shares these five key steps to help you start finding the work-life balance that leads to success:

1. Choose one area of your life in which you are dissatisfied and would like to see some immediate improvement. Take a couple of minutes and write down in detail what balance would look like for you in that area.

2. Now, get out your planner and make a note to yourself one week from today. Designate the area in which you want to improve your level of satisfaction, give yourself a score from one to five (five being the highest) of where you are now and the score you want to achieve in the next week, and then list two things you are going to do to move yourself towards that goal over the next week.

3. Tell someone about your goal and ask that person to hold you accountable—whether it's a friend, a mentor or your coach. It's easy to make "new year, new leaf" promises to yourself, but it's more difficult to follow through with them unless you know that someone is holding you accountable.

4. Set up a time to talk with your accountability partner next week. Did you reach your goal? If not, talk about what kept you from reaching it and what will you do differently in the next week. If you did reach your goal, congratulate yourself. Do something simple to celebrate your achievement.

5. The final step is to repeat step one. Creating life balance is never easy and it's never complete. There will always be room for improvement. The point is that you can make your life more balanced by taking small steps in the right direction. Like most worthwhile things in life, creating life balance is a process, not an event.

Source: Stephen Fairley, M.A., RCC is the president of Today's Leadership Coaching, a premier executive coaching and training firm, and a Registered Corporate Coach (RCC).