As business owners, we face many obstacles to get our business off the ground and reach our goals. Some of these challenges we expect, such as, getting our accounts in order, hiring the right staff, and dealing with customer and supplier issues. Much of this we can deal with ourselves.
While building a business has many challenges, when you overcome them, the rewards are great. While it’s important to take care of your business, it’s just as essential to take care of yourself.
A hidden challenge many of us face, without realising, is business burnout.
Avoiding business owner burnout will make you more productive, inspired and driven to reach your goals and improve your business’s bottom line.
If you are working continually in a tired fashion and feeling the effects of business burnout, working those 16-hour days will do your business more harm than good.
But What is Business Burnout?
The WHO describes burnout as:
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
- reduced professional efficacy.”
This phenomenon occurs across the globe and affects individuals from the CEO down to the newest employee.
If you are managing an SME or you are working for yourself, you have the added pressure of wearing every business hat at the same time, while aiming to develop your business dreams and goals.
This simply adds to the chances of entrepreneurs and sole traders developing workplace burnout.
“Work smarter not harder.”
8 productive business hours are far more beneficial to you and your business than 16 stress-filled hours of low production.
You may not realise you have reached burnout as you are caught in a cycle of work and stress that you cannot get out of.
Why is burnout affecting so many?
Not only have business owners had to deal with the big C for the past number of years, affecting every business drastically- But many are affected by the hustle culture:
- Don’t stop the grind.
- Wake up at 4 am and work until 10 pm
- If you are not working, your business is failing.
There is constant messaging of productivity, apps, methods to get work done faster, how to juggle family, friends and business etc…
This is simply not sustainable for many. While a very select few individuals may operate like this, many cannot, and most do not want to.
This kind of messaging only feeds into the stress we already feel as business owners, increasing the likelihood of burnout!
How Will You Know if You Have Reached Burnout?
Physical issues we can usually determine pretty quickly, unfortunately, burnout mostly affects the mind.
We may not see it coming-but perhaps someone else has noticed a few indicators.
Listen to those around you and your body. If you have a combination of the following or your family and colleagues have started to notice changes, then maybe, you have reached burnout:
- You’ve lost sight of your goals
- Working excess hours
- You are making mistakes
- You feel fatigued all the time
- You’re having mood swings
- Your physical and mental well-being are impacted
While these are just a few signs of business burnout, you can easily see how one impacts the other.
When this happens, you may not see a way out of the vicious cycle of tiredness, stress, mistakes and a lack of goals.
But there are a few things you can do to avoid burnout and reset your batteries:
6 Steps to avoid business burnout
- Set Working Hours:
One of the major culprits of business burnout is the always switched-on mentality. You may have set yourself work hours in the office, but when you check emails at home, answer calls late at night or dip in for a bit of work on the weekend, you are not giving your body or mind time to relax.
It’s important to be strict with your working hours.
Set the days of the week and the hours that you are happy working with. The hours in which you are most productive.
Once you have reached this time. You should have some downtime.
Turn off notifications and leave your laptop in the office.
Enjoy your downtime with friends and family. You will be surprised how much better you will feel when you truly give your mind time to relax.
Allowing yourself a work-life balance is probably why you ventured into entrepreneurship in the first place, so you must give yourself this time.
Then work is no longer a chore and remains a passion and driving force.
- Become More Organised:
If you are going to work every day with no set plan and are taking on tasks as they come, you will never get to the bottom of your list.
This is doubly stressful if you have allowed your office to become unorganised also. This could be a manifestation of the disorganisation in your mind.
To reset your tasks, plans and office in order:
- Clean up your desk.
- Organise tasks according to importance.
- Set daily goals.
- Delegate tasks you know others can handle.
- Once your reach certain milestones and complete tasks, allow yourself some rewarding time.
If you are organised properly, you will have time between tasks to focus on the accomplishments.
- Exercise:
Probably the world’s greatest stress reliever. Give your body and mind attention by taking small breaks and working out throughout the day.
You don’t have to overexert yourself, perhaps exercise simply isn’t your thing.
If not, just go for a walk outside the office and use the time to brainstorm.
With exercise, your body and mind can relax, and you can focus on other activities outside of work.
If you are feeling burnout your body will start to suffer also. Do your best to avoid this happening.
- Learn to Say “No”
Turning down work may not be what you envisioned in your new role. But there are projects and individuals for whom it is better to say no.
If you are already feeling overwhelmed, adding more work is the last thing that you should do.
It’s important to be able to say no when it is not suitable.
This will give you more freedom and power to choose the projects that align with your business and make your job easier.
Before you say no, spend some time thinking of the pros and cons of saying no.
If it doesn’t align with your business or you simply do not have the time, it’s okay to reject offers and work.
This additional time will benefit your business far more.
- Figure out the pain points of your business:
If you are feeling burnout from your business, it is often due to a combination of factors. A number of these issues will be key contributors.
It’s important to identify these pain points so you can effectively tackle them by changing your habits.
Delegating or eliminating these stress points will greatly reduce the impact they have on you.
If you are amid workplace burnout, it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact issues.
You can always employ the skills of a business coach to help you find the areas that most affect you.
- Remind yourself why you started:
If you have lost focus and forgotten why you got into business for yourself, it’s important to remember why you are here.
Losing focus on why you started can greatly impact your desire to continue.
If this occurs take some time to reflect on your decisions, accomplishments and why you got into the business.
Was it to make a profit? gain freedom from the workplace? create a brand for yourself?
What goals have your reached and what is left on your to-do list?
When you can see the bigger picture it’s much easier to get back into the swing of things and tackle those goals once more.
Conclusion:
Being organised and smart with your time and acknowledging your accomplishments are key to avoiding business burnout.
By using some extra hours in the week to take care of yourself you will better be able to take care of your business.
Knowing how to delegate, notice the major pain points of your business and realign your goals is not always easy.
For this reason, 4growth.ie is here to assist you where and when you need it.
We help SME owners surpass their bottom line and achieve goals they never knew they had.
