For many small business owner, there are often times when we feel overwhelmed and that sense of pressure building up. It can occur for many reasons. It may be that we have too much on our plate and limited time. There may be a specific frustration or challenge. It might be that you’re overworked and need to recharge your batteries. As a small business owner, we need to be aware of that overwhelm, what can create it, and ideally anticipate that situation by putting things in place so it is less likely to occur. As an experienced business coach, I’m more of a fan of proactive prevention rather than looking for a reactive cure.
Here are 15 Ways on How to Manage Stress and That Sense of Things Building Up That Creates That Sense of Overwhelm.
I’ve split these ideas into two groups – preventative and as it occurs – in the moment.
Preventative
- A healthy business goes a long way to relieving potential stress and distress. When systems are running well, money is flowing, the finances and marketing are all on point, we are less likely to be feeling stressed, overwhelmed or a sense of pressure building up. Now I know it’s easy for me to say that, but it is absolutely and definitely possible for a business owner to get their business on track and working well. As an expert business coach, I’ve worked with heaps of businesses in many industries and helped them to do just that.
- Alongside a healthy business, it’s important to have a healthy business owner and do all the things you know you should, like nutrition, exercise, sleep etc. I’ve seen the correlation between the two and they do tend to walk hand in hand. It’s very interesting that I often see that the business is rarely working well when the owner is unhealthy. This somewhat creates a snowball effect. You don’t feel well, you don’t perform well and then things are now slipping in the business.
- Take regular breaks. Not only do you need regular breaks during your day, including stopping to eat a healthy lunch (without your phone glued to your ear or hand), but you also need to be taking regular holidays. Now, I know some business owners say they either don’t have the time and/or money. The thing is, after you have a holiday and you take a break, your batteries are recharged and you’re able to perform so much better. I’ve seen this time and time again. There are a couple of tricks to scheduling holidays and breaks. The first is to decide on the times. Personally, I think it’s better to have a mini break every month rather than to hang out for a full month off at the end of the year or annually. But whatever your schedule, hold out for once a year. Firstly, block it out in your diary. Secondly, book something in. And thirdly, pay a deposit. Having something to look forward to is great, and by paying a deposit you’re more committed to not cancelling.
- When you’re on a break, actually be away from work. Too often, business owners go on holidays or say I’m off this weekend and I’m not working, but they are working. It might be that they’re on email checking messages, checking social media, scanning emails or worse, taking phone calls. That’s not a true break, you’re just working from a different location. If you absolutely have to do skeleton hours, as I call them, then set a time while you’re away, perhaps 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM that you’ll do a quick scan of messages and emails and then you put the phone down. Don’t even think about taking your laptop on holiday – have a true break!
- Set up boundaries and be disciplined with your boundaries. This means that you don’t take calls at 10:00 at night, don’t do client quotes on a Sunday morning and don’t be available 24/7. Boundaries might be in respect of timelines; for example, a job may need a week to be done but the client is pressuring you to do it in half the time. Whilst it might be possible for you to work 18-hour days and get the job done in half the time, is that something you should be doing? Busting a gasket to meet someone else’s timeline isn’t a great idea.
- Learn to say no! When someone asks something of you that you cannot do, isn’t ideal for your business, is an unreasonable expectation or is purely a waste of your time (ie a telemarketer), then simply say “Sorry, no, I can’t help you.” If it’s a telemarketer, you might need to be a little more firm, as they are skilled at not taking ‘no’ as an answer. You don’t have to be nasty or rude, but do be firm.
- Improve how you do things. This may be streamlining systems, getting assistance from other people and utilising technology to improve and make more efficient on how you do things. There are so many ways to improve a business, from apps and processes right through to AI and virtual assistants.
- Delegate tasks if you’re able. Too often, business owners think that they can do something best and no one else can do it as well as them. The truth is, if you train someone well and spend a little bit of time getting them up to speed, they can do it as well, if not better than someone else. More often, properly taught, a team member can likely do the task as well as you, if not better. Outsourcing tasks is also another great idea. If money and figures are not your thing, then get a quality bookkeeper. If you’re just not great at social media or marketing, then outsource these. In other words, surround yourself with great people who can help you and utilise their services as much, or as little, as you need.
- Implement a default diary. By this I mean do things in blocks. For example, it might be that if you’re doing your own bookkeeping, you do that on a Wednesday morning and do all your receiving and invoicing at that time. It might be that you have client visits and meetings on certain days or you do quoting on certain days. In other words, set tasks so you do them in blocks as often whilst you’re in that mode. It’s more time efficient to do similar tasks all at once.
- Lower the bar just a little and don’t be a perfectionist. When we’re perfectionists, things take so much longer and we are creating stress for ourselves by trying to maintain that perfectionism. I’m not saying that we should become business owners who do things haphazardly and in a mediocre manner, but we don’t need to be perfect every single time. See my article on Perfectionism.
When You Start to Feel That Sense of Overwhelm or Pressure Building
- When you’re starting to feel the pressure building up, now is the time to start taking some preventative measures. If the overwhelm is because you’ve got a million thoughts in your head, then get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper or onto a list or onto your computer. Take a little bit of time to do a brain dump so that you’ve got space in your head to think clearly. If there is a specific problem, work to remedy that problem.
- Focus on one thing at a time! Rather than trying to do a million things at once, focus on one thing at a time and just do it, and then move on to the next thing. A great idea is to prioritise your tasks and tackle the task which is most important or will most likely make you money and help your business grow. Now you might be working from a list but don’t have a list that is so long that it creates overwhelm in its own right. Keep To Do lists short and only have on them the things that you really must and definitely want to do.
- Ditch things that don’t matter. A little bit like my point of saying ‘no’. If there are things that are on your To Do List that are not productive, or aren’t going to generate sales, or are low priority, then let them go and ditch them. With my business coaching clients, I always give them homework, but that’s after we’ve discussed the value of the task and both agree it’s wanted and needed.
- If you’re feeling overwhelmed in the moment, there are a few things that you can do. One is to breathe slowly and deeply and basically take some full deep breaths and take a moment. Get up and walk away and have a mini break of 5- 10 minutes. Go outside and have a breath of fresh air, or play with your dog. Uplifting and energised music can often help also. Don’t harp on an issue, but acknowledge it and then set it aside. I’m not talking about burying your head in the sand, but also not hyper-focusing on an issue to the point that it’s getting you down and distressed – which won’t help you or that situation.
- Talk to someone when you share a problem or talk it out with someone; you not only feel better but you can get another person’s perspective. Now whilst I’m not a counsellor, I am a business coach. I am often having conversations with clients which is often around how they’re feeling or what their frustrations are. I might give them tips on the business, but also other things like motivation, perfectionism, time management or overcoming minor levels of overwhelm. Just be selective with who you speak to – potentially a client or employee or even a friend may not be the ideal person, as they will have their own vested interest in the situation. A coach should have your best interest at heart.
It’s interesting that of my 15 points, two-thirds of them were preventative and only one-third were managing it in the moment. The big message here is that as business owners, we can and should be working on our well-being as business owners and as businesses. If you’d like to learn more, book in a sample coaching session.
