Are you driving yourself towards business burnout? If you identify with anything we mention in this article, then the answer is probably yes, even if you haven’t identified with any of these common signs of exhaustion… yet!
You are driving yourself towards burnout if…
You are taking on more work than you can reasonably handle. In an effort to grow your business and see success, you may be taking on more clients than you have time for. The upshot of this is more work for you. While more clients mean higher profits, in theory, the reality is that you are in danger of losing clients because the quality of your work may be diminished if you’re rushing to meet deadlines.
You are afraid to delegate. No matter how proficient you are, you can’t do everything. While you may be a bit of a control freak, afraid of handing over aspects of your work to others, you should still take the time to find those people who can manage some of your duties, as you will only burn yourself out if you don’t. Delegate to your staff, outsource your work to other firms, and give yourself a break!
You are reliant on manual processes. It’s the 21st-century grandad, so get with the times. You can streamline a lot of the work you have to do through automated processes, rather than relying on any outdated and time-consuming methods. Whether it’s managing your accounts through a downloadable app (we recommend QuickBooks) or taking advantage of the customer management tools highlighted on this site, you will save yourself a lot of time during the day if you use the software tools and apps available to you.
You aren’t scheduling in downtime. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! Jack will also become stressed, tired, and burned out, if he doesn’t make time for a little bit of r&r in his life. And so it is with you. There is more to life than work, so give yourself more breaks during the day, stop working overtime, and book in some vacation time. We know you have a lot of work on your plate, but if you don’t take the time to relax and destress, you will never get any of that work done effectively when you are too ill to deal with it.
You don’t know how to say ‘no.’ Stop saying ‘yes’ to everything! As we said previously, you don’t have to take on every client that calls on your business. You don’t have to travel to every industry event that is advertised in the trade journals. You don’t have to attend meetings that are ultimately going to be a waste of time. Start saying ‘no,’ to others, and to yourself. Pick and choose the events and meetings that are worth going to. Accept clients only when you have time for them. And say ‘no’ to anything that is going to eat up your time unnecessarily. While you may be afraid to lose business from clients, and while you may be afraid to miss out on networking opportunities, you will lose out more when you finally hit burnout because you have taken on too much!
So, are you driving yourself towards burnout? If so, start making the relevant changes in your life today, for your sake, as well as that of your business.
