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Every part of life has a potential to become stressful, and running your own business comes with it’s own proportion of stresses too. However, the way that it is managed can have different scenarios when it comes to the smooth running of your business and your mental health.
As a business owner, there will be the things that keep you up at night and your brain will continually want to be on the go. So how do you manage the stress and the constant flow of interruptions? The sooner you can learn and discover ways to manage stress levels as a business owner, the better your health and business will be for it.
5 ways to manage stress as a small business owner:
1 Listen to your body
When you need to take a break, take one. If you’re thirsty, hungry or tired, step away from your desk and take a break from the norm. A rest can give your body a chance to refresh and breath. Your body knows when it’s tired, it loses concentration and you’re more likely to make mistakes. The time you can give your body to rest, can out way the time you could be spending rectifying errors - it’s worth taking the time to rest.If you’re stuck in front of a computer screen for a long period of time, start with taking your eyes away from the screen for a few minutes and fixing them on something other than the screen. It’s also good to keep them lubricated to stop from dry eyes which can make you feel more tired and will help you concentrate better.
Take a walk. Even if it’s just 10 minutes around the block, or to the shop to get a snack. The change of being away from the screen, or the office can help you regain focus and give you a little inspiration you when you get back to it.
2 Recognise what’s going well
This often gets missed upon the mountain of things that cause you stress. It’s a lot easier to focus on the negative than to recognise the achievements and positive outcomes. When you can identify the factors that are creating results and have a positive effect on your business, you feel more in control of what is happening, among the busyness of running a business. Leaning on the good things can also keep your mind active and help you to stay vigilant, our minds automatically focus on negatives and pushing past that to create a positive mindset helps us take actions to break the cycle.3 Prioritse your time
It’s extremely easy to get snowed under trying to get everything done within your business and not taking time to focus on the important things first. Without a schedule, it can be easy to merge tasks into one another and to forget to prioritise what is most important.Delegated ‘me time’ is also essential to avoid burnout which can result from too much stress, not knowing when to stop. Learn to separate business from pleasure and take time to do the things that you enjoy doing. Spend time outside of the business, meet up with friends or family in order to give your mind and body a chance of recharging and recognising the difference between work and play. Often these are the times that your body has a chance to reaffirm what it is doing and re-alights your passions.
It is easy as a small business owner to try to manage everything in one go, fighting with a never-ending pile of paperwork and struggling with a path that can be hard to move away from. Priority can help with focus and breaking the patterns of stress that build up over time.
4 Know when to let go
There has to come a point when you stop and let go. If the clock is ticking, when you’ve missed the kids sports day, when your eyes can’t cope any more, when you’ve looked at the same pile of numbers a hundred times. Stop! Try not to overthink tasks. Set yourself a deadline. Do what you can to achieve it. Hand it over.If you’re a perfectionist, this can be a hard step to stick to but an important one for stress levels. The more you try and do everything, especially within a short space of time, the harder it can be to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing when to let go is a good exercise to practise in order to manage stress levels and to prioritise, delegate or finalise tasks.
5 Choose work tools that help you
To be effective, you need tools that are going to help rather than hinder. Apps, software, online tools etc. are supposed to make your life easier and less stressful, if they have the opposite effect, they are not the right tools for you! It can take a few trial and errors to find the tools that work for your business but when you find the ones that do help, your life will be better for it.What tasks do you need tools for? What apps will make your business run smoother? What software will create a healthier work pattern for you? Test out various options and ask other business owners - you can even use your social media network groups for this type of advice - and discover new ways of managing your business workload, so you can in turn, manage your stress levels.
Outsourcing can be a great way to manage stress, if it’s not something you’re passionate about, outsource. 2020 Accountancy work with small business owners, freelancers and contractors to help ease the workload when it comes to accounting. Bookkeeping and finance are not everyone’s cup of tea and certainly can be a contributor to stress if not managed well. If you’re under pressure and are finding the accounting part of your business difficult, we’d love to step in and help. Accounting is what we enjoy! You focus on what you love to do, while we do the same. Trust 2020 Accountancy to provide leading services tailored to your exact requirements to help grow your business and maximise take-home pay in the most compliant manner. Get in touch today for an initial chat.
