How to ditch burnout in your business
Have you experienced burnout in your business?
Maybe you’re burnt out right now.
If you are experiencing burnout, here are some things you might be feeling:
Busy all the time, but without results
Exhaustion
Overwhelmed
Like you can’t get ahead in your business no matter what you do
Like there are things you want to do in your business but never seem to get to
Like you spend all of your time putting out fires
Does this sound like you?
Check out this video to identify the potential cause of your burnout and create a plan to ditch it for good!
Listen to the audio:
Burnout and your business
Have you experienced burnout as a business owner? Burnout can be so sneaky when you are self-employed, creeping up on you and making it difficult if not impossible for you to keep up with your business and manage it day to day.
If this continues for an extended period of time, it can affect your physical and mental health, your clients, your business growth, and your revenue.
But is this temporary burnout or ongoing burnout?
What type of business burnout do I have?
Think about the feeling of busyness and exhaustion and being overwhelmed that you are experiencing. Is that something that is tied to a particular season or a particular thing that you're doing in your business or is that something that you are experiencing long term?
Because these are two very different things.
You may be in a period where you are launching something, working on creating something, like a new program or a new course, or you may be in an industry where there is a busy season and an off season. You may feel overwhelmed and exhausted when that busy time, creation period, or launch period is happening, but then you have down time after.
Or are you experiencing these burnout symptoms long term no matter what is going on in your business? That's a red flag. You should not be experiencing these things no matter what. If you are, please don’t be hard on yourself! But there are some things that you may want to consider doing about it.
How to identify why you are burnt out
If you are feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and overworked, then one or more of these things might be happening.
First of all, you may have too many clients, projects, or other things on your plate right now. I know it can be hard to admit when you have bitten off more than you can chew, but it is so easy to say yes to too many things and then get overwhelmed! If this is you, then you may have to consider letting some of these things go or put some of them on the back burner for now.
You may also be missing some foundational systems in your business. These are things that could help you do projects or daily tasks more efficiently and save you time and energy. Maybe you don't actually have a consistent process figured out for how you manage your clients. Maybe there's other systems or automation you could be using.
The other thing that you may want to consider if you are just completely overwhelmed all the time is that it may be time to bring in some help. (More on this below).
Be honest about your burnout
How do you figure out how you should proceed at this point?
I know this sounds counterintuitive, but you may want to consider taking some time away. I know that you are probably thinking, "Are you crazy, lady? I absolutely can't do that!" But hear me out.
Now, I don't mean you need to pack everything up and take a month-long vacation - although if you are in a position where you're able to do that, why the heck not? But at least a day, a few days, or a week away from work. If at all possible, completely unplug from work tasks and notifications.
The goal is to take some time, clear your head, and get in tune with yourself. If you are experiencing overwhelm and burnout all the time in your business, it’s really important at this point to be honest with yourself. This is not a situation that is going to change unless you take action.
This is different from a busy season with a definite end date. An ongoing burnout situation is something that you have to deal with or it's not going to go away, and it's probably going to get worse.
Come up with a plan
The next thing to do is to come up with a plan. Think about those three things I mentioned before - creating systems, letting some things go, or bringing in help. Do you need to do one or a combination of those things? Where would you like to start? What makes the most sense?
It’s important to come up with a solid plan before you start doing anything, or you could just make yourself more overwhelmed.
I would also encourage you to keep it simple. I find that many times when we're experiencing burnout, one of the things that has happened is that we have not kept our business simple. I’m guilty of this, and I know that clients and other business owners I’ve talked to are as well.
We have tried to do too many things all at once and there's often things that we didn't even need to do. If you can bring your business back to basics, it can help you feel less overwhelmed.
Ask yourself things like:
What is my main offer to bring in revenue?
How am I getting this offer out to people? How am I marketing it?
What are the things I have to do on a daily and weekly basis to keep my business running?
If you keep it simple you can streamline from there. You can always add in other things later, but if you can just get down to the things that you really need to be doing right now, that's going to take some of the pressure off.
Find support
Once you have a plan, or as part of putting your plan into action, you may want to think about getting some sort of help. This could be somebody to help you figure out how to simplify your business. Someone to help you come up with a plan for reducing your burnout. This could even be someone to help you with your work-life balance and shifting away from overworking yourself in your business.
This could be help within your business. Maybe someone to help you with setting up systems, automation, or processes. Getting a solid foundation in place. Maybe it's time to expand your team and hand off some of your client work or some of your projects to someone else. This really is a point where it may not make sense for you to keep doing everything alone.
I hope that you found this helpful. If you are struggling with burnout, know that you're not alone. Pretty much everyone I know who has ever been in business has been there. If you are experiencing burnout right now and are looking for support to manage it, let me know down in the comments or feel free to reach out.
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