Business Owner Burnout and How to Avoid it!

Most business owners that we talk to have experienced “burnout” from time to time… this one’s for you, and we’re here to tell you to stop trying to do it all.

While most advice on this topic will tell you to exercise a number of hours per week + include more veggies and less caffeine in your diet, this guide will help you to avoid burnout, by outlining 3 practical strategies that you can start implementing in bite-size doses, so that you can get ahead of the burnout snowball, because believe it or not - not tackling this issue can lead to negative implications for your health and for your business!

First to understand why people end up being burned out in the first place…

Entrepreneurship is not a career path for the faint of heart. You’re operating, and creating your own business in a constantly changing environment, and it’s hard! Always having to pivot, and juggle - it’s very easy and quite common for business owners to carry a lot of stress for a long period of time, resulting in burnout.

How to recognize the signs of burnout…

• Feeling like there’s just not enough hours in the day

• Feeling like you worked all day, and accomplished very little

• Becoming more forgetful

• Feeling stressed

• Feeling anxious

• Feeling a big weight on your shoulders

• Feeling tired and unrested & having trouble sleeping because of fleeting thoughts

• Feeling worried about finances

Take care of yourself… yeah it’s a generic statement, but in case you’re too busy to really think about this question: ask yourself, what do you do for yourself to help relieve stress? If your answer is nothing, or “I don’t really have time for anything else” then the short answer is you probably need to do something for yourself, and it’s okay if you can’t spare much time - just start with a little.

The professional stressors that can pile up on the shoulders of entrepreneurs can be enormous - not to mention anything going on in one’s personal life. If incorporating daily activity or movement into your life seems like too much or unattainable, just do something small for yourself every day that allows you to disconnect from work, if only for a few minutes. No time to make it to the gym? Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Or it could be a change of scenery: like eating your lunch outdoors instead of in front of your computer, or parking 2 blocks further away from your office, in order to incorporate a little walk in your day. It’s not just your body that needs relief from stress - it’s your mind too, so any chance you get the chance to breathe deeply, and disconnect from technology, you’ll begin to stop running on auto-pilot, and your body and mind will thank you for that.

1. Delegate, Hire, Outsource - whatever that means for your individual situation. Recognize and focus on your strengths, and hire for things that don’t come as easily for you, or that you can’t seem to keep on top of (ahem… like bookkeeping). Even if it’s not yet in your budget to hire marketing staff for example - look at sites like FIVERR or UpWork to outsource a variety of pros, who generally work on a “per job,” contractual basis.

   Using a cloud-based bookkeeping software like Xero will not only save you time and headaches - but it will totally streamline some of your most daunting processes. Keeping your bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting organized in Xero will also give you financial peace of mind when making important financial decisions during your startup and early growth phases of your business lifecycle - which believe me - is a HUGE stress relief, and an absolute necessity to succeed in your new venture. Packages start at only $17/month with Xero. Of course, as a Xero Silver Partner, Signal Operations is here to help with this side of things, when you are ready for growth! Our packages start at $225/month.

2. Set personal & professional limits…
   On an average day, you’re probably juggling emails, meetings, calls, interruptions, deadlines, all while you’re trying to make things happen and come up with solutions and ideas. It’s really easy to lose focus as an entrepreneur, and be distracted by one of a hundred things that can interrupt your train of thought. We recommend making a bit of a routine for yourself, even if you work all hours of the day. Try turning off your social media notifications, and schedule in 2 times a day to take a look at them and respond and engage with customers online. Likewise for emails. Email can be a huge drain on your time and energy. We recommend setting aside 2 times per day: morning, and then mid-afternoon to check your email inbox and respond.
   
   TIP: did you know that you can set up custom rules to automatically filter emails into folders that don’t actually require your attention? Don’t forget to take a second to “unsubscribe” or block senders of emails that are promotional/spam if you don’t want them in your inbox.

   One of our personal faves: set limits on when you book meetings in your day! At Signal Operations, we don’t normally meet before 10:00am or after 3:00pm, or on Friday’s.

   Here at Signal Operations, we are here to help you with your business finances, and have packages to meet you at whatever stage your business is at! From basic bookkeeping to full-scale accounting, business coaching, and payroll. We’d love to chat with you about how we can help!

   Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation and get ready to start feeling better about your business finances.