Stressed About Entrepreneurship? Watch This

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As I look back at my time as a business owner, it was some of the best time in my life, but there were moments of unbelievable stress. And here’s the thing. Unless you’ve gone through the same stress in entrepreneurship, it’s really hard to grasp. Of course, your family and friends care, but they don’t really understand. And your staff…..

If you’re watching this video, the chances are that you too are stressed about entrepreneurship. You might be juggling many balls, work, home, customers, staff. And right now, you might be considering chucking it all in and getting a job somewhere. I know this feeling because I’ve felt the same urge more than once. 

However, I can tell you that this moment will pass and days, weeks or months from now, you’ll look back and be glad you stuck at it. But I appreciate that will alone may not be enough, so in this video, I’m going to cover my top five tips for dealing with stress and burnout as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Tip number one is to realise that some stress is ok. We all strive to reduce stress in our lives. But it’s impossible to remove it entirely. And if I’m honest, I'd argue that some stress is manageable and can be a positive force. Let me explain.

If you weren’t stressed about meeting deadlines or completing projects, you might lack the motivation needed to grow your business. You may be missing opportunities or overlooking potential issues. On the other hand, I’ll admit that high levels of stress risk burnout, decision-making fatigue and this can have a negative impact. 

Our goal then is to ensure a healthy level of stress is maintained where and when possible. This is called eustress and if you’ve never heard of the term before, this helps to keep you alert, motivated, and ready to tackle the challenges that life will inevitably through at you. I’m talking about the kind of stress that makes you prepare thoroughly for a pitch meeting or motivates you to perfect your project before shipping it to clients. It’s the optimal middle ground between low stress and high.

Ask yourself this. Can you turn stress into a valuable asset on your entrepreneurial journey? Right this second, that might seem overwhelming. But when you get through this moment and are in a position to review things in a period of calm, how can you ensure you don’t let stress destabilise you or your business and instead use it as a tool for growth and performance?

And if we can, how would that benefit your business? 

So let’s talk about how we can focus on maintaining a level of eustress with tip number two.

I jokingly say that business would be great if it wasn’t for staff and customers. But I can feel you nodding in agreement. We’ve all had that one shouty client who is more bully than business. Or we feel like the end of the world is upon us when a client says no to the continuation of service. Or what’s gonna happen when your best employee leaves?

These are real-world scenarios. I’ve faced them and each time stress levels rose. But here’s the thing. We got new clients, we got rid of others and we hired team members that further strengthened our business. Rarely will an individual event destroy your business even if it does feel like that in the moment.

But if we pan out over the next 10 years, will any of this truly matter? And if we plan for many of the challenges we face in business, can they be overcome?

Your focus as an entrepreneur is often reactive to the needs of the business, but it’s also to think long-term and to make plans to achieve your goals. Some of this will be entirely focused on ambitions, but often we overlook the “what happens when?”. Yet this is exactly what you must do. If you create a plan in moments of calm, then when you need to act upon it, the majority of elements are already considered.

Back in 2015, our first hire, a designer, said she was leaving our business. She was a great member of our team and contributed positively through her work and leaving the studio was a significant loss. One we were incredibly worried about. But this person leaving also gave us an opportunity. Opportunity to hire more experienced designers and to eventually start a new business function. As a result, our new hires brought systems and experience we never even considered. In turn, we became a much stronger business.

My point is that you need to look for the opportunity in the challenges you face. When you’re stressed it’s hard to see past the immediate response, but by taking a step back you can see a much broader and clearer picture.

And this leads me to tip number 3. As an entrepreneur, one minute you've your marketing hat on, the next it’s HR and then you’re back into business development, operations and account management mode. Your list of tasks is never-ending and can often feel overwhelming. If we break these down further, there’s an unlimited amount of reactive and proactive tasks you could be doing at any moment. Many entrepreneurs are paralysed by this decision fatigue.

One of the first things I work on with my clients is understanding their priorities. What do they want to achieve from their business? Once we know this, we can begin prioritising tasks and activities that help them move towards their goal.

Think about your tasks in terms of immediate, medium or long term. Immediate tasks keep the lights on, clients happy and your business moving forward. These should command your greatest focus at all times. Medium and long-term tasks help to build your revenue, create efficiencies and scale your business. While you should dedicate time to these tasks each week, it should never be to the detriment of your existing clients. Paying work always comes first.

And I appreciate that there’s only so much you can do, so many hours in the day and that overloading you with work will in fact add to the stress levels. But here’s the thing. Turning the unknown into known and then planning these out goes a long way to removing stress.

Instead of you sitting down at your desk trying to figure out what to do, what if you had a list of prioritised tasks you could work through when you have dedicated some time to doing so? It’d be a lot easier to motivate yourself and you’d do it without a lot of the stress involved.

And yet, getting started is well….only the start. A lot of your energy right now is likely focused on completing your tasks. You’re focused on the end goal or output. But the distance between here and there might be significant. It might take some time and some of the variables outside your control. Instead of focusing on the outputs, you need to focus on those elements you can control, your input. One step forward is better than none and being able to see and celebrate your progress, no matter how small is key to achieving your goals and meeting your priorities. Instead of thinking about all of the tasks you need to complete, think about the next and do it.

The next tip is one I struggled with. It’s balance. If you look up workaholic in the dictionary, there’d probably be a picture of me. Like many entrepreneurs, I dedicated my time to my business. Evenings, weekends. I even wrote blog content on Christmas morning. I had no children back then. I was relentless in my pursuit of business success and I’d argue that to be successful, you have to be. There were no boundaries between work and personal time and this can lead to burnout.

I was asked recently if I’d do things differently the second time round and the answer is probably not. I achieved success because of the dedication and I can’t fault that. 

Today my goals are very different. I now define success as a byproduct of helping other business owners. I balance my time working much better and I enjoy the journey a lot more.

But I do want you to consider how you consider your work/life balance. Both in the short term and the long term. How can you mitigate the stresses in your daily life? Do you need to stop and take lunch breaks for example or take time out of your day to think without interruption?

I also want you to think about your long-term options to find balance. I have some clients who take extended holidays or work remotely to get out of the office. It could be as simple as dedicating specific family time each week. When was the last time you had a date night with your partner?

You may enjoy work as I did. But as a whole, work consumes the energy you have and you need to find balance to recharge and re-energise away from it.

My final tip is to find a network of people like you. Entrepreneurship is often lonely. We feel like we’re on a unique path and our challenges are unique. I promise they’re not. There is a commonality in business and the challenges we face. Staff and customers mostly…. But this commonality is shared amongst your peers and other business owners.

Today I count dozens of business owners as my network, confidantes and friends. Each of us is at different stages of our journey, but many of those stressful factors are shared. By having a trusted network of peers I can ask questions, answer others and generally share in the collective experience of those around me.

Jim Rohn said that you’re the average of the 5 people you spend your time with and I totally agree. The people I am closest with today are those with shared values and similar goals. Their insights and experiences are golden.

I recommend building your network of people you like and trust. People who understand your business and want to help you achieve your goals. And not to make this a shameless plus, but this is part of the service I offer in my Move at Pace programmes and business coaching service. It’s also a huge part of the community I’m building of business owners who want to network and get answers to the most pressing questions they have. If you haven’t already, head over to courses.moveatpace.com you’ll be able to join the community.

Remember, while entrepreneurship is often lonely, you don’t have to go alone. If you’re going to take action, move at pace and be sure to like, subscribe, and comment down below for what you want me to talk about next time.