Running a business is exciting, rewarding, and full of possibilities… but it’s also absolutely, one hundred percent exhausting! You’ve just got so much to do and not a lot of time to do it in, and that’s going to make it feel like you’re running on fumes, which is never ideal. 

The problem is that burnout is a real issue that can easily happen to anyone, especially someone who’s trying to do too much, and if you push yourself too hard, your business (and your health) is going to suffer. Luckily, there are some great things you can do that can turn it all around and you’ll be able to run, and even scale, your business successfully without sacrificing your sanity. So with that in mind, keep reading to find out more. 

Photo by RDNE Stock project

Stop Trying To Do Everything Yourself

When you start your business, it’s natural to wear all the hats – you’re the CEO, marketer, customer service rep, bookkeeper, social media manager… the list goes on. But as your business grows, this one-person-show approach to it all becomes massively unsustainable to the point where it can cause you real problems and be a detriment to your business. 

You’ve really got two options to fix the issue: delegate or automate. So that means you might decide to hire people who can take tasks off your plate, and that can be a great way to help yourself as well as boost your business and make sure it’s growing in the right direction.

Of course, it might not be possible to hire full-time employees for a variety of reasons, and if that’s the case for you but you still need some help, what about using freelancers or virtual assistants? That could be the perfect compromise until you’re ready to expand how you want to (or you might decide it’s better to stick to that idea and not hire anyone at all). 

Something else you can do is to automate as many repetitive tasks as you can, and you can use scheduling tools to do it – you can get general ones or ones that link directly to social media, your accounts, and even chatbots for customer service, for example. 

Plus, don’t forget you can outsource specialised work. For example, if you’re spending hours trying to figure out SEO, working with an experienced SEO agency can free up your time and give you better results, so it’s well worth looking into. 

Whatever you decide, the sooner you realise you don’t have to do everything, the sooner you can focus on what actually grows your business. 

Focus On High-Impact Activities 

Although it might not seem like it when you’re trying to work everything out, not all tasks are the same as the others, and not all are as important as the others either. So if you’re spending hours every day responding to emails, tweaking your website, or getting lost in admin work, you’re just not going to be able to focus on the things that bring in money – and those are important. 

So you need to ask yourself what are those things? What activities bring in the most clients or sales? You should be able to see that roughly twenty percent of what you do are the things that bring in eighty percent of your results and revenue, so it’s clear that that’s the twenty percent you have to get a handle on over and above everything else.

Also, while you’re asking yourself questions, are there tasks you could stop doing without negatively impacting your business but giving you a lot more time to work with? Probably. You just need to dig deep and look at everything you’re doing objectively to find them. 

If you’re able to prioritise these high-impact activities, as they’re known, you’ll have a much more successful business as a result. 

Set Boundaries

If your phone never stops buzzing or, worse, actually making noise, your inbox is so full you’ve no idea how many emails you have to deal with, and you’re working late into the night every night, you’re basically on the fast track to burnout – it’s time to stop heading down that road before you go too far. 

The first thing to do to help yourself if you’re in this kind of situation is to come up with some non-negotiable work hours and once you’ve set those clear work hours, stick to them (yes, emergencies will come up, and yes, that tends to mean you’ll have to work longer or later or over a weekend, but that should be the exception, not the rule).

Make sure you don’t check your emails late at night (that can be a hard habit to break, but it’s worth it) and also make sure you let other people know what your boundaries are – including your clients. Let them know when you’re available and when you’re not and don’t bend the rules, or you’ll never find a moment’s peace. 

Most business owners burn out because they never switch off, but remember your health, relationships, and mental well-being matter just as much as your business, so you’ve got to stop at some point. 

Grow Sustainably 

Ambition is a wonderful thing, and it’s something you can use to great effect as the years go by and you need to come up with new and exciting ways to move forward. But if you try to scale too fast, you’re going to crash, and you won’t be able to see your ambitions come to life like you wanted – and perhaps it’ll never happen if you lose all your motivation, get sick, or your business fails because you pushed for too much too soon. 

If you think that doesn’t sound like you and you’re fine, it’s wise to take an objective look at how you’re doing things and what your business is doing because there are some signs to look out for that can show you you’re scaling too fast. The biggest is that you’re constantly overwhelmed with the work you’ve got to do – it’s too much for you to keep up with, and you can’t please your customers because you’ve got to rush or you’ve got to forget about deadlines. Plus, if you don’t have time to focus on strategy anymore because you’re always in fire-fighting mode, that’s telling you something and you should listen. 

If you do find you’re in this situation, there are some things you can do that will help, like streamlining your processes before you take on any more clients, and building a strong team before you overload your business. Plus, don’t be afraid to say no to opportunities if they’re not going to work for you – saying yes to everything, even if it could be bad for you and your business, is a trap a lot of business owners (and people in general) fall into, and stopping that habit can make a massively positive difference. 

Do Your Marketing Properly 

If you’re spending too much time trying to market your business but you’re not seeing good results (or any results, come to that!), it’s time to rethink your strategy and do some different things that take less time and energy but that actually give you the results you need. 

For example, start exploring the various smart marketing tools you can find like email automation, scheduling apps, AI-powered chatbots, and so on. A lot of the time, these things can do your work for you – or at least take on the less personalised stuff. Plus, did you know you can repurpose content? A single blog post can be turned into various social media posts, emails, newsletters, and even videos – it’s still good content, but it saves a lot of time all around.

And you can speak to your SEO agency about making sure it’s still working for you in terms of search engine results. Of course, we’ve mentioned hiring that specialist agency, and that could be the best solution of all. 

Know When To Step Back

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to step away for a bit, and if you’re constantly stressed, stuck, or overwhelmed, taking a short break can reset your mind and give you some excellent and fresh perspectives which could even be what take your business to the next level. 

That’s why it’s so important to schedule some time off, even if it feels like you can’t afford to because of the business – when you get back to work, you’ll have more energy and ideas, and that’s going to be much better than slowly dragging yourself onwards. Plus, get support – we’ve mentioned a variety of ways it can be done above, and there are others too – investigate things that could make a difference and even experiment a little if you’re not sure.

There’s going to be something that works for you, and once you find it, you’ll be able to step back with less guilt and more confidence, and that’s when you’ll have the chance to grow your business without burning out.