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Avoiding Burnout as a Small Business Owner

20 June 2024

Over 50% of small business owners reported feeling signs of burnout last year.

But what exactly is burnout? What are the signs and symptoms to look out for and how can you avoid burnout or treat symptoms you might already be experiencing?

Find out in this month’s Approved Business blog post.

What is Burnout?
Burnout is a term commonly used to describe feelings of exhaustion; physically, mentally and emotionally. Particularly when our occupation causes these feelings.

What are the Signs and Symptoms of Burnout?
Signs and symptoms of burnout often include:
  • Feelings of hopelessness and that you can’t cope.
  • Tiredness is often combined with insomnia or other sleep issues.
  • Digestion issues and problems with appetite (over or undereating).
  • Mood swings and feeling angry and irritable.
  • Turning to alcohol and/or drugs/other substances.
  • Lowered immune system; get colds etc more often.
  • Stop caring (or caring as much) about anything, particularly your business.
  • Loneliness; feeling like no one understands.
  • Pessimism; always seeing the glass half empty.
  • Feeling like a failure, full of self-doubt and self-criticism.
  • No longer enjoying or even wanting to participate in activities you used to enjoy.
Important Note: If you are experiencing feelings that are overwhelming or are causing you to consider harming yourself and/or others please reach out to your GP, other health services or The Samaritans without delay.

How Can You Avoid and Heal From Burnout?
Firstly, it’s important to stress that burnout is not a sign of failure or weakness.

It is a normal reaction to intense and/or prolonged elevated stress levels.

Some tips that can help you to reduce your stress levels include the following.

Exercise
Ensuring you exercise every day helps to alleviate stress. It reduces the amount of the stress hormones; cortisol and adrenaline and increases the amount of the ‘feel good’ endorphin hormones.

Although it seems counterintuitive exercise actually helps increase your energy levels and improve your sleep.

Whatever your fitness level there is some form of exercise you can do – it doesn’t have to be hitting the gym or running. Start at a comfortable level and with a regimen that’s going to be easy to stick to even if that’s a 10-minute walk and aim to increase it gradually.

Mindfulness and Meditation
No longer only associated with hippies and the woo-woo crowd, practising mindfulness and meditation is a tool that helps quieten the mind, improve sleep and reduce stress and anxiety.

Successful business owners including William Ford of The Ford Motor Company, Arianna Huffington and billionaires like Bill Gates and Richard Branson all practice meditation and mindfulness as a way of helping them deal with the stresses and strains of running their businesses.

Find a method that works for you – there are plenty of mindfulness apps available and guided mediations on Spotify or Audible.

Delegate and Outsource
One of the biggest yet often unspoken challenges for business owners and entrepreneurs is delegation and outsourcing. This comes down to a few different factors.

You might find it hard to let go of control – feeling that it is faster and that the job will done better if you just do it yourself.

This might be down to a lack of trust in others, finding it hard to hand over tasks to someone else who might not care as much as you do, who isn’t as invested and who doesn’t know the business as well as you.

Sometimes this lack of trust in others comes from not having (or making the time) to get to know your team, to build trust both ways. This is a vicious circle. You can break that circle by making time to get to know the team and help them to know you – this will mean they will feel more respected and more valued and will therefore be more invested and more motivated to do a great job.

It can also be a fear that by delegating and outsourcing you will lose your authority or power. Maybe a ‘what if they do it better than me?’ question holding you back.

But by recognising this for what it is…ego and putting that aside you can remember that them doing it better than you is a good thing.

Remember that the main aim is for your business to succeed without your personal and family life suffering and leading to burnout.

It can be helpful to make a list of all the tasks you do on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. If you are thinking ‘I don’t have time’ remember that this exercise will save you time – lots of time both in the longer and shorter term.

You can then divide these tasks up into categories; those that can be delegated to one of the many time-saving AI tools, those that are not your area of expertise; such as marketing, managing social media or website design and those time-sucking jobs like identifying leads that can even be eliminated by working with us at Approved Business.

Conclusion
It’s important to remember that your business can’t grow or even continue if you are beginning to feel the signs of burnout if you insist on doing it all yourself.

Try to keep in mind that fresh eyes, fresh talent and a different perspective will add to your business rather than diminish it. It’s also important to recognise that people specialise and excel in different areas.

Keeping yourself well physically, mentally and emotionally is the biggest key of all to the success of your business and this means – taking time to exercise, switch off and not carry the whole weight of your business yourself.

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