The entrepreneurial journey is never boring: that, at least, is inarguable. There’s no version of the story that doesn’t produce an emotional rollercoaster. Even a spotless set of successful steps will fray the nerves of the prodigy responsible. There’s simply too much on the line for anything else to be true. Money, pride, ambition, prospect. It’s a high-stakes game and high stakes come with entrepreneur burnout and stress too.
Some people welcome this stress. They feed off it, parlaying any negative energy into positive momentum. Those rare individuals can barrel through reams of rejections and still feel good about the future. Of course, they’re also prone to catastrophic failure, having difficulty coming up with sensible responses to glaring red flags. Your startup also needs representation on digital platforms so you can easily take help from online mobile app development company and focus on other tasks.
Most, though, struggle with it. The stress can become too much to bear, leading them to reach the point of burnout before they can achieve the overarching goals that prompted them to become entrepreneurs in the first place. But it doesn’t need to go that way, as there are various viable tactics for preventing and mitigating entrepreneurial stress. Here are five to consider:
Have A Practical Backup Option
What if your business plan doesn’t work? No one is guaranteed success, and no matter how confident you may feel, some part of you will be anxious about the prospect of failure. Fail, and you don’t just lose all the time, energy, and money you invested in the business. You also lose your sense of direction. What do you do after that? Where do you go?
This is why you need a practical backup option: a strategy you can pivot to in the event that your primary entrepreneurial endeavor falls flat. You could set out a different business idea, partner with someone, or even opt for a career change. Just make sure it’s realistic.
Place A Firm Limit On Working Hours
If you’ve read tales of entrepreneurial origins, you’re surely familiar with the trope of the unrelenting and indefatigable innovator. The victory, they say, goes to the startup founder who works 22-hour days for months to get their company off the ground. As they do this, their rivals make the rookie mistake of actually sleeping and are karmically punished for their laziness.
This is a terrible lesson for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it neglects to factor in all the people who toil away for exhausting periods only to crash and burn due to their creativity running dry. Secondly, it gives a false impression that business is all or nothing. Either you work at 100%, or you don’t work at all. This just isn’t true. It’s usually possible to slow down, relax, extend deadlines, and continue to make progress. Spacing out your day with tools (like Engross, a Pomodoro timer) will also help through enhancing focus.
So set a limit on your working hours, and stop once you hit it. Whatever more you have to do, it can wait until the next day. Take your free time and do something else. Enjoy your hobbies. Read a book. Play a game. Watch a TV show. Do some cooking. The choice is yours.
Focus On Getting The Right Nutrition
Something that often falls by the wayside for entrepreneurs is dietary control. Long working hours lead to delivering food, which isn’t usually very healthy and tends to leave people less energetic. Accordingly, one of the smartest things you can do for your career is starting to focus on getting the right nutrition on a regular basis.
Ticking the core boxes is simple enough: consume more vegetables, prepare them in ways that won’t sap all the nutrients (steaming instead of microwaving, etc.), and get a decent amount of sunshine. And if you have specific dietary preferences that make it tough to get certain nutrients, you should look into supplements (P-5-P capsules from Seeking Health, for instance, make it easier for vegans and vegetarians to get enough B6). You’ll feel so much better.
Vent To Friends And Family Members
Do you bottle up your feelings and frustrations? Many entrepreneurs do. They see themselves as solo operators, taking full responsibility for their destinies and not wanting to get other people involved. This is partly because they want to get all the credit but also because they don’t want to feel that they need to explain their actions to anyone else.
But bottling things up just allows them to fester. You don’t need to divulge every last detail of what you’re up to, but you should take every opportunity to vent to people you trust about all the minor and major frustrations you’re dealing with. Maybe a negotiation with a prospective supplier has fallen through, for instance. If so, express your irritation. It won’t get rid of it entirely, but it will give you some measure of catharsis so you can clear your head.
Don’t Be Afraid To Outsource And Delegate
One common reason for entrepreneur burnout is the determination to handle everything personally. This goes beyond responsibility into the realm of agency. Someone with this determination will work themselves to exhaustion trying to do it all: create the company logo, write the website copy, develop the operational processes, configure all the technological tools, order the equipment, etc. The list goes on.
But that’s a ridiculous way to operate. You most likely didn’t stitch your clothing or cobble your shoes, right? You left those tasks to people trained to do them, knowing you needed to focus on what you do best. And just because you’re the founder of a business, that doesn’t mean you’re the best person to work on every single task.
The online world is packed with talented and low-cost freelancers who’d be more than happy to help you out with many of those tasks, though using an online marketplace has its pros and cons (this Upwork review from Time Doctor goes through some of them). Alternatively, you could hire part-time or full-time employees to assist you. There’s even the prospect of getting a friend to help out. However you proceed, finding ways to lighten your workload will also lighten the burden on your mind.
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