As entrepreneurs, there’s a lot on your shoulders. Keeping a business thriving is a difficult job. You’re battling competition, industry changes and rising costs. You might have tons of employees relying on your business to succeed and for you to make the right decisions that will propel it forward.
It’s only natural that with the pressure of keeping a business afloat, stress could become a factor in an entrepreneur’s life. It’s important not to try and ignore it and deal with it head on so that it doesn’t end up affecting your business in the long run.
Get enough sleep
Some business owners see sacrificing sleep for work as a sign of dedication and passion. While some people only need a little sleep, that doesn’t necessarily mean we can all skip a couple of hours a
night and not expect to see the effects.
Making key business decisions when sleep deprived is never a good idea. Try to work out just how much sleep you need at night in order to perform at your best and make sure you always aim for that amount. Listen to relaxing sounds, like whitenoise or sea sounds.
Exercise
Stress can leave you feeling run down, so maintaining good physical health is important to limit the effects of stress on the body, as well as reduce the stress itself.
Make an effort to fit regular exercise into your routine. Exercise can be a good outlet for stress as it can help relieve tension and help you sleep better.
Try to find an exercise or a sport that you enjoy so that exercise becomes less of a chore and more of a fun activity that you look forward to.
Get a fresh pair of eyes
If you’ve hit a problem in your business that’s causing stress, it’s always good to reach out to someone else for help.
Try to find someone who can give you advice or look at a problem with a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes you can be working on one thing so long you forget the simple things and end up going round the world to work on something that could easily be solved with a fresh approach.
Make time to relax
Try breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, whatever works for you. You might think you need to keep busy but you might benefit from setting aside some time each day just to do something relaxing or something you enjoy.
Create systems
Get organised with your business tasks and create systems and good habits to take control of all of your responsibilities so that they don’t all seem as overwhelming. Try using apps to stay productive and organised.
Know when to step back
You might be busy but that doesn’t mean you should stay on call 24/7. You need rest in order to better handle your business when you need to.
If you’re still answering emails at 11pm, then you need to learn to cut back and make a clear distinction between working hours and personal time.
The same goes for being able to say no. Sometimes you need to realise your own limitations. You’ve only got so much time and energy in the day and you can’t be expected to do everything all at once.
Do you struggle with stress when running your business? What do you do to manage it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.