Stress Management Guide For Small Business Owners

If you’re a small business owner and if you have stopped by this article searching for ways to cope with your everyday stress, I am grateful that I could be of help.

Running a small business isn’t easy but you’re already doing so great! Have you ever figured out how far you’ve already come?  The way, challenges, and struggles you’ve already overcome were not easy but you still proved that you’re the right fit for your business. One thing I want to tell you is that if you are working towards making your business grow, stress will always come in handy!

While some stress can be good for your business, bad stress can impact your mental health and physical health badly! You must learn how to deal with it. In this blog, I have created this small stress management guide to combat your everyday stress of running a small business.

You can also bookmark this guide, to open it on your desktop or mobile phone to deal with stress anytime and anywhere.

Now, let’s get started.

Causes of Stress in Small Business Owners

While running a small business is not easy, stress is the most common mental health issue experienced by small business owners. Below are the 10 most common causes of stress in small business owners:

1. Managing and dealing with staff is not easy.
2. You have to become a one-man army sometimes.
3. Multi-tasking impacts your mental health badly.
4. You have to take ownership of failures as well.
5. It’s hard to keep up with compliance every time.
6. Clients are sometimes too demanding and keeping them happy becomes stressful.
7. You have to micromanage expenses as well.
8. You might be prone to developing imposter syndrome.
9. Filing taxes requires extra skills.
10. Time pressure is a great deal with limited and inexperienced staff.

Effective Strategies for Dealing with Everyday Stress

1. Do not hesitate in asking for support or help.

Whenever you feel stressed, do not hesitate in asking for support or help from your mentors. Additionally, if you’re financially devastated, ask for help from your partner. If your business is in a struggling phase, ask for support from your ex-managers or mentors. If you’re having issues in decision-making, you can try taking help from successful people.

2. Recognize what’s going well.

It is really important to identify what’s going well so that you can recognize what’s not going well and how you can improve it. On the basis of good points, you can easily develop strategies to run your business. Herein, the idea is to play off your strengths first.

3. Identify your stressors.

After working on your strengths, it is really important to know your stressors so that you can learn how to deal with them. Focusing on growing your business needs an intense mindset but it actually constricts your perspective which in turn results in stress. Therefore, identify what’s causing your stress and work on it.

4. Follow a strict routine.

Following a strict or solid routine is important because sometimes it’s better to follow a structure and go according to planning. This will help in avoiding additional stressors and you will be able to recognize what’s important right now. It will also help in developing your confidence and self-efficacy.

5. Prioritize everything (family as well).

It’s important to focus on business, but it’s more important to focus on yourself and your family. Self-care might look cliché but do you know self-care keeps your mental state healthy and keeps you fresh to do wonder every day.

6. Learn to say “No.”

When running a business, you must learn to say yes to each and every opportunity. But if it is taking a toll on your focus, goals, and mental health, ask if it’s really important to do? If it’s tough, learn to say no and move on by valuing your time and mental health.

7. Outsource tasks when in a dilemma.

You can also outsource tasks so that you can learn how to grow your company. For example, you can outsource your marketing services or provide administrative tasks to a service-providing company. Don’t fill too much on your plate.

8. Choose your staff wisely.

Staff members are supposed to make your job easier, not harder. Therefore, while employing, make sure you’re hiring the right people and they must be fit per their roles. If they are causing stress to you, acknowledge them and start the process again. The idea is to feel light and to reach a success point.

9. Digital detox whenever stressed.

Whenever you feel stressed, unplug yourself from all digital devices, you can try:

• Focusing on your family
• Read books
• Listen to motivational podcasts
• Have some “me-time”

I hope this blog helps you with overcoming stress as small business owners. Comment down and do share your experiences after reading this blog. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!