No matter what kind of business you're trying to run, these tips can help you be successful without sacrificing your health and happiness.
If you're getting ready to launch a new business, you're likely feeling a mixture of excitement and stress. While starting a new enterprise can be rewarding, it comes with a lot of hard work and challenges. Unfortunately, burnout is a common problem among entrepreneurs, as they have a hard time separating their work from their personal lives.
So, to help you avoid the mountain of stress that comes from launching a new business, we've compiled a list of the top eight tips to reduce your stress load. No matter what kind of business you're trying to run, these tips can help you be successful without sacrificing your health and happiness.
Set Aside Non-Working Hours
Launching a business is just the first step - running it is something else entirely. All too often, new business owners throw themselves into the launch process, neglecting their personal lives in favor of building a stronger foundation. However, if you're always "on the clock," it's impossible to feel relaxed because you'll be stressing about one thing or another.
Instead, it's much better to set aside non-working hours and enforce them as much as possible. While emergencies may arise, you should avoid working within this time frame. Tasks can wait until tomorrow, or you can pass them off to someone else to handle. Overall, if you don't schedule personal time, it's easy to let it slip away.
Create an Action Plan
A big reason why entrepreneurs get stressed about the launch of a new business is that there are so many details to manage at once. If you don't have a comprehensive action plan, it's easy to jump from one task to the next without a cohesive strategy acting as a stable foundation. When coming up with an action plan, it's imperative to set deadlines and time frames so you can quickly tell if you're on schedule or not. Without these due dates, it's easy to assume that everything has to be done "right now," leading to more stress and burnout.
Your action plan can also include other people besides yourself. For example, if you have a business partner or a manager, you can figure out who will be in charge of which task, ensuring that no one has a massive and insurmountable workload.
Don't Be Afraid to Delegate
In many cases, entrepreneurs prefer to do everything themselves because they're the only ones they can trust. However, it's impossible to take care of each task individually, which is why you need to delegate responsibilities whenever possible. Even if you don't have the resources to hire full-time employees, you can utilize virtual assistants or temporary workers for specific projects.
Delegation is a cornerstone of any management style, and you should never be afraid to lean on the people who are working to make your dream a reality. As long as everyone gets to share in the rewards of a successful business, delegation is a valuable tool at your disposal.
Outsource Professional Services
When starting a new business, there will be a ton of elements you know nothing about. For example, unless you have accounting experience, it'll likely be pretty hard to handle the books yourself without some extensive trial and error or training. Similarly, when it comes to legal matters for your business, it makes sense to outsource the details to a professional, such as a registered agent.
If you're unfamiliar with a registered agent, it's an entity or individual who is authorized to receive correspondence on behalf of your business. While all business entity types can use one, a registered agent is a requirement for businesses like LLCs and corporations. Anyone can be a registered agent, but it makes sense to work with an experienced professional you can trust. Using a registered agent helps ensure you don't miss any legal correspondence and that you stay on top of regulatory duties, such as filing paperwork and paying fees. Having someone else in charge of these details could save you from major headaches later.
The bottom line is that hiring professional services for some purposes, especially financial and legal, will cost more upfront, but you'll get the peace of mind of knowing that your business is in good hands. While it might be cheaper to hire a temp or use an hourly employee, they might wind up doing more harm than good, especially if they're inexperienced in the field. Overall, you have to look at these services as an investment in your company's success - so paying more now will lead to a stronger foundation and more efficient growth in the future.
Find Some Form of Stress Relief
No matter how much you delegate responsibilities, the stress of your business's success or failure rests on your shoulders. So, you'll have to manage stress somehow both during and after your company launches. Now is the time to figure out what hobbies or activities you can do that will help mitigate or relieve that stress as positively as possible.
For example, maybe setting aside some time for meditation every day can help, or perhaps you need to be able to play games or do other fun activities during your downtime. No matter what it is, make sure that your form of stress relief is constructive, not destructive. The activity should help nourish and refresh your spirit, not be a crutch or coping mechanism.
Know (and Enforce) Your Limits
You know your limits better than anyone else, so it's up to you to enforce those limits whenever possible. Examples of these limits can include:
- Knowledge - Even if you don't know what you don't know, you should be able to recognize when your experience or expertise won't cut it. There's no shame in not knowing something and asking someone else to take over or teach you the basics of it.
- Time - As we mentioned, you should set aside non-working hours every day so you don't get burnt out. If you're starting to work more than you'd like, you need to find a way to have others take over various tasks so you don't have to alter your schedule too much.
- Energy - Even if your job isn't physically taxing, it can be mentally or emotionally exhausting. If you're not replenishing your energy levels with sleep and healthy eating, it's time to make a change. Coffee and energy drinks can only do so much, so they should be used as sparingly as possible.
Take Failure in Stride
Failure is a natural part of life, whether you're launching a new business or not. So, instead of running away from failure or avoiding it as much as possible, you need to learn how to embrace and overcome it. That doesn't mean you should try to fail at new endeavors - only that you shouldn't let setbacks derail your progress.
For example, if your sales aren't where they need to be right away, you can adjust your strategy and maybe invest more in marketing and advertising. If the problem is your product or service, you can retool your offerings and see how you can make them more appealing to your target customers.
Remember - failure doesn't define you, only your response to it.
Focus on Your Strengths
Being a new business owner means wearing a lot of different hats. However, you're not likely good at everything, which is why it's important to delegate different tasks to those around you. However, you can also be strategic about which items you delegate and which ones you handle yourself.
For example, if you love interacting with customers and running the store, maybe you should delegate more back-end responsibilities like inventory management and accounting. Similarly, if you're best at building products or repairing broken equipment, you can hire other people to handle day-to-day operations and customer interactions.
Overall, don't assume that, because you're the owner, you have to fill a specific role. There are plenty of positions available within the business, so leverage your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. This way, you can stay motivated and passionate about your new enterprise while maintaining an efficient work strategy.
