The Stress of running a business

The stress of running a business or more precisely, your business can be overwhelming.

Can you feel it? Sweaty hands. High blood pressure. Cannot sleep at night. Mood swings. Pill popping. Convincing yourself it is a normal reaction to starting your own business. Well, it is not.

busy.jpgIt does not have to be like this. You only need to take control and do what you love.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

If this is what you feel or expect this reaction, well, I’m here to say your'e going about it all wrong. You are getting way too ahead of yourself.

Settle down. Get yourself a coffee, beer or a glass of wine, relax and read on. 

Where to start?

First, get your trusty notepad and start writing.

I want you to write in longhand and in as much detail as you can.

The subject: 

What is your natural ability?

Don’t have a natural ability?

Garbage. Everyone has a natural ability. If you can’t think of it, I want you to call up 5 of your dearest and closest people in your life and ask, “What do you think I’m good at?”.

When you have a few ideas, write them down and now sit back and visualize doing the thing your loved ones think you are good at. Think about creating business ideas around your natural ability. Are you getting it?

When you are comfortable with the best fit. Highlight it.

notebook-and-coffee.jpgRelax over a coffee and dare to dream and evaluate your business ideas in relation to your natural ability.

Now we are in business. You will never have the stress running a business when you love what you do. You will love the work. You will spend an extraordinary amount of time doing the work and you will never feel tired.

If you don’t get this right, I’m afraid you are going to have a hard time with all the stress of running a business. To save your health and well-being, I suggest you give away the idea of starting your own business and go get a job.

Still here? So where do we go from here?

Let’s turn it around.

Pause and think about it. 

Breathe, and work thru’ what I’m about to tell you.

I want you to settle on a business idea congruent with your natural ability.

what-are-your-business-ideas.jpgThis is the start of a beautiful future. This will become your action guide.

Now the fun starts.

Try thinking up a name. A name to which you will be proud to call your own and a name to take you through the passage of time. Yes, time. Not next month, next year, but years from now, when it still is as valid as it is today.

This is your brand. This is what you stand for.

You love the business you love the work and you are building a successful entity to pass on to the next generation or sell as part of your retirement plan. Then again, if it is earning consistent revenue with consistent growth, why retire? Stay as long as you like. After all, you love what you do. What could be better than this? You sing in the shower. You sing on your commute. The world is your oyster. Gone is the stress of running a business.

Are you getting it? Are you seeing the picture? Can you see where I’m coming from?

Ok. get up. Go for a walk. Think about the future. How exciting it can be!

 Reducing 'the stress of running a business' is in the planning 

Now the planning takes place. This is where it would be a good idea to engage a mentor. A mentor has no pecuniary interest in your business. A mentor is and should be honest and sometimes brutal and have vast experience in running a business.

Business planThe blueprint of the business plan will take on a life of its own when you continually move toward your goals.

Sit down and map out the blueprint of the building blocks of your future business. Start nothing till you have this firmly established, documented and visualized. Take as long as it takes. Do not rush this. Beware of overthinking it or paralysis by analysis. Take it one step at a time. This is the best part of starting a business.

Then and only then will you see clearly what steps you need to take. Again, don’t rush it. After all, you are going to be in this business for the rest of your working life. Why? Because you love it.

The timeline

A timeline will be your bible. The timeline will guide you in what priorities you create according to the blueprint. This blueprint will be your manual your master plan for your future. Guard it with your life.

Already have a business?

If you already have a business and suffering from the stress of running a business. Suffering from business burnout, then you should stop right now and start again. Start exactly as I have outlined above. If you don’t, business burnout will destroy you and all in the immediate vicinity.

There is no future to continue in a business with the stress of running a business and business burnout. No future whatsoever. I have seen this many times. Some can be rescued others perish never to recover. Sad but true. Never be one of these business owners.

Let’s get positive.

You will never be in a position of business burnout or suffer from the stress of running a business if you follow your manual step-by-step. It is your action guide. This, in consultation with your mentor, should steer you away from most failures.

Daryl PrattYes, it is me MENTORaUS. With over 35 years of business experience in good times and bad. I have the knowledge and experience to guide you to a business future you only can dream of. Trust me.

Will you have failures? Sure you will and you will welcome them because you see them for what they are. Just a bump in the road to tell you maybe to change direction at the earliest opportunity.

So we have covered the most important part of conquering the stress of running a business and starting your business by doing the thing you love. Your natural ability.

Goal-setting

The next thing is to do the goal-setting exercise, time management, and outsourcing where possible to reduce expenses. 

Remember, a good business a well-managed business has truckloads of revenue, few expenses and massive profit. Do you like it?

Sure you do and it is all possible because you started from the right end.

A story of staff morale

I had a colleague years ago who had a number of staff working for him. His stress was the office wasn’t running smoothly or efficiently. The staff didn’t seem happy doing their job and he‘d had several resignations over the last couple of years. I put him in touch with another friend who specialized in staff retention and well-being.

After a couple of interviews and personal questionnaires for the staff, he made some recommendations. The most noteworthy was two of the staff were doing a job they both hated and were contemplating resigning. After a short discussion with the business owner, they implemented the consultant's recommendation. They swapped the roles of the two staff in particular and the rest is history. 

The staff morale lifted, the production increased and both employees were happy to come to work. You see all the consultant did was drill down and ask the question I’ve been addressing on this page. Find out your natural ability and do what you love to do.

The business fraternity is probably littered with similar stories of such incidents like this. I was a close observer and saw firsthand what an amazing difference this made.  Says something doesn’t it?

Experience isn’t the best teacher, it’s the only teacher.

There are many other elements I have not covered here, but you will find everything on this website you will ever need. I renovate the site constantly in the endeavour to keep you up to date with issues that arise from time to time. It all comes from my experience of running and operating my business for over 35 years. As my slogan says:

Experience isn’t the best teacher, it’s the only teacher.

I believed this 30 years ago and I believe it now with all my heart.

Summary

Start from the right end. Never put the cart before the horse. Love what you do. Build a business from it. Go you good thing.

What to do next

Maybe read this next…Natural ability.

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Thanks and may your future business grow beyond your dreams.

cliff climberConfidence is gained from experience

Experience isn't the best teacher, experience is the only teacher.