How To Fight Small Business Owner Burnout
Burnout saps your energy, kills your passion, and frays your working relationships. When you’re a Small Business Owner it’s even worse, the entire business depends on you being at the top of your game.
So what can you do when you’ve worked yourself to the bone and you still need to go on? Here are some strategies for keeping Small Business Owner burnout at bay, or even recovering if it’s already set in.
Get As Much Rest As You Can
It sounds obvious, yes, but it needs to be said. If you’re not getting enough rest, you’re going to burn out no matter how much passion you have for your business.
The most important form of rest is sleep, everyone needs to be able to function at their peak. Do your best to put aside screens and work late at night and get a proper night’s sleep.
Outside of sleeping it’s also important to allow your brain to relax and focus on other things, things you enjoy. Take a walk, do a hobby, spend some time with family and friends. Whatever you do, make sure you’re focused entirely on the current moment, don’t allow thoughts about what work you should be doing to creep in, you won’t get any rest doing that.
The most effective treatment of all for burnout is to take a break completely, book a quiet holiday, and leave working on the business behind. This often isn’t an option when you own the business, but if possible there’s not better treatment.
Delegate Tasks
Now, let’s focus on how we can reduce the amount of stress you’re suffering at work.
As the owner of a small business, you’re obviously very important to the running of the business. You’re the big cheese, and naturally you want to get involved and make sure all aspects of your business are running smoothly.
It sounds counterintuitive, but the crucial role you play in the business is exactly why you shouldn’t be trying to manage every last detail. Your time is extremely valuable, you set the path that everyone else in the business follows.
You won’t have time for high level decision making if you’re stuck deep in the details of lower level tasks, and your team won’t develop the skills they need to fully support you.
Delegate the tasks you don’t need to be doing, it will save you plenty of time and stress and go a long way to keeping burnout at bay.
Refocus On Your Goals
A common symptom of burnout (or fast approaching burnout) is a sense of being lost, of not knowing why you get up every day or what you’re working towards. If you’ve lost touch with your goals, it’s time to fix that.
What are you aiming to achieve with your business? What does success look like to you? Identify this, and use it to set yourself a focused, realistic goal.
With your main goal in hand, break it down into a series of smaller goals, stepping stones that will get you to where you want to be. Think of it like following a recipe. You don’t just bake a cake all in one action, you do a series of small actions that add up to the end result.
Write down your recipe for success as a Small Business Owner, and use that to remind yourself why you’re doing this.
Burnout is a killer, but it’s not unavoidable, and you can recover from it. A few sensible precautions put in place can keep it bay indefinitely, and allow you to continue enjoying the rewards of all the hard work you’re putting into your business.
