How to be aware of entrepreneurial burnout before it is too late
I don’t think it was a coincidence that I started my business when I did. I took the plunge to become an entrepreneur after I had my daughter and there were two factors that made me do it.
Why We Love Entrepreneurship
- It was reading the amazing sales page to become a sleep consultant. It talked about all the elements — be independent, be your own boss, have more flexibility, and obviously, an unlimited ceiling for income. Most people that I work with, started for very similar reasons, they wanted more time or flexibility.
- There is an opportunity to make a lot of passive income, something you cannot do in a corporate job. So, there was that element of freedom as well, getting more time outside of your work to do the things you love.
This is why most of us start the journey of entrepreneurship or at least part of it. But becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business is a very steep learning curve. There is so much to learn: how to handle finances, the whole marketing aspect, the whole back office, and human resources -it’s all new territory. And even though it’s exciting, it’s still costing a lot of energy, and there comes a time when you can’t do it all on your own so you burn out.
How to Avoid a Burnout
This is where outsourcing comes in. Knowing what to outsource and knowing when to let go is the biggest gift you can give yourself as an entrepreneur. In the beginning, obviously, I did everything on my own because I didn’t have the resources and I didn’t know where to look. But now I have a fixed team who do everything that I’m not too good at and even some things that I am good at, simply because I have a limited amount of energy in a day. I also have to say that I always trusted in the process, even when times were tough and I didn’t have a huge bank account.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want everyone to be aware of that pattern in your head of having issues to let go. If you don’t, you will sacrifice everything because doing all the things by yourself is not sustainable in the long run. Yes, you’re doing the work and it’s going to pay out and you will have a successful business, which means you will have lots of clients, which means you are exchanging your time for money. But at some point, you cannot do it all. The thing with us entrepreneurs is that we have new ideas of how to reach more people: writing a book, creating a podcast, doing causes, but if you have a full client roster, you just don’t have the time, you cannot do it all.
If you’re creating the business of your dreams, you should always have time. If you don’t, then something is the matter. Not to mention that this is the best way to burn out. Because you don’t notice it at first. You are building adrenaline, it feels exciting, and you keep going. But it’s not healthy, you are creating a hormone called cortisol, which is a stress hormone, which is great because it’s keeping you awake but it’s not meant to be in your body over a prolonged period of time, because then it becomes catabolic and it starts to destroy your organs and all your systems and to deregulate all your other hormones. So it’s really important to have that balance. We should all have other passions beyond our business. I love my business, don’t get me wrong, but I really love other things too. I love spending time with my daughter, I love horseback riding, I love sleeping, I love traveling, and going to fancy restaurants. All these things inspire me because I just enjoy them. If you spend all your time with your business, at some point you’re going to resent it.
How Do You Do It All
Oftentimes I get questions like: How do you do it all? I have a podcast, I wrote a book this year, I still have clients, I show up on social media, I volunteer as an events director and as a board member, plus I have an eight-year-old daughter, three cats, two dogs, and a partner and I love it all. So, how do I do it? Because I really only do what I enjoy in terms of showing up like this and sharing my message but I’m not the one who’s going to edit my podcast episodes or my YouTube videos. I’m doing a Ph.D. on the side, which is a 20-hour commitment per week. But I do it because I love it and it fires me up and because I can.
I want to help everyone to be able to do that. To have the income, to have everything set up in an efficient way, with technology. So I guess this is not necessarily an educational post as much as my plea to you to really dig deep, dive in and see where you’re at in your business, and where you are heading to. Because you have to have a balance.
If this sounds like something you and your business might need, make sure to take a look at my introductory offer, where you get an hour to an hour and a half with me to go over your business and for me to see exactly what is missing. It’s very affordable at the moment so make sure you use this opportunity.
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