Addressing Business Owner Burn-out
Feeling burned out as a business owner? Discover practical steps to combat burnout by prioritizing self-care and setting realistic personal goals. Learn how to balance your needs with business targets to enhance both your well-being and business success.
— In This Article —
Preventing Burnout
In a recent post, I wrote about the ways in which we often become the boss we never wanted when we dive into entrepreneurship.
What this type of behavior leads to is full-on burnout. This is truly at epidemic levels now, and it starts with us changing how we work as solopreneurs.
This post addresses one solution to the problem.
As business owners, we are used to setting goals and targets for ourselves. We create to-do lists, daily checklists, monthly goals, annual targets, and more.
The issue is that all of these goals and targets address the needs of the business—likely we have goals around social media reach, traffic, SEO rankings, sales, inventory, margins, and expenses, and more.
These goals are usually pursued aggressively, but without realistic resources to achieve them, you will quickly lead to personal burnout.
What we forget is that a person is running the show here, and that person is YOU. Where are the goals and targets that take care of you as a human being and your personal, very human needs?
It’s like when you are in an airplane, and the flight attendants do their safety review. The part where they say to put on your oxygen mask first and then help children and those around you. If you run out of air, you can’t help or save anyone else.
You need air to make your business succeed. Don’t do it backwards; it simply won’t work.
Overcoming Entrepreneur Burnout: How to Balance Personal Well-Being and Business Goals
I encourage you to consider making a new list of targets and goals—daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual goals—that take care of your needs. These goals will actually support your business and strengthen your company. They will push you to be more efficient with your time, processes, and systems.
These goals will give you the support you need to be mentally and physically healthier and happier.
Combat Business Burnout: Essential Self-Care Strategies for Solopreneurs
Start by making a wishlist of what you want YOUR life to look like:
How many hours would you like to work each week? (Be realistic.)
What day or days of the week will you take off and not open the computer, make, ship, or respond to customers?
What level of paying yourself will make you happy to do this work?
How much sleep do you need each night?
What hobbies do you miss doing?
When was the last time you enjoyed a holiday with your family and friends? Thanksgiving/Christmas, summer breaks?
What acts of self-care have you abandoned or dropped?
Next up, pick just one of these wishes and decide to make them happen!
Need more sleep? Set yourself a bedtime and stick to it.
Miss your hobbies? Put 3 hours a week on the calendar for your hobby time.
Planning for a busy holiday season? Set your shipping deadlines earlier and stick to them.
Set boundaries with how you work with customers.
Track your Self-Care
All of the above are small acts of self-care and need to be documented and respected as top priorities on your to-do list.
I overcame a very bad case of burnout and anxiety that was triggered by the loss of my job and the shock of the pandemi, it took me doing these very tiny steps every day to heal.
I started with a morning journaling practice. 5-10 minutes of writing down my answers to these questions:
I always start by writing my personal support mantra: “I can do hard things” and then listing out the hard things I have on my mind at the moment.
“Where I am going?” writing out what a win would look like in the short-term like the next few days, weeks or months.
“My big goals?” Where I want to be in the next year or 5 years.
“What am I grateful for today” small things I’m grateful for and appreciate.
At the end of the day, I have a checklist where I write down at least 1 self-care thing I did that day, no matter how small. By recognizing that I need to take care of myself I started break the cycle of burnout and anxiety.
Here is an example week of my self-care checklist 🧾, you can see how small and simple these can be and my #1 rule was that work wasn’t allowed to overlap or sneak in. That means no computer, no phone (email, social media interferences) office door closed, and no business podcasts.
✔ Dyed my grey hairs
✔ 20 minute walk
✔ Read a book for 3 hours (no phone nearby)
✔ Binged Bridgerton (no computer or phone)
✔ Took a bath
✔ Baked a cake and listened to music
✔ Painted a watercolor tutorial
It takes time and effort to recover from burnout, but it won’t happen without you starting with boundaries, a self-care routine and a commitment to changing how you work and live.
YOU GOT THIS, I believe in you!
Written by Tina Bar
eCommerce Strategist and Mindset Coach
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