Being an entrepreneur is stressful. You have a business to run, which means you have potential customers to reach, sales to make, bills to pay, employees to hire, taxes to deal with, and more. There’s a lot that goes into a business, but if you neglect your social life, you’ll also find your personal relationships failing and your mental health deteriorating. There’s a lot to worry about, but there are resources you can turn to and steps you can take to alleviate your stress and have a rewarding entrepreneurial experience. Here are a few tips for maintaining your peace of mind:
Keep a healthy work-life balance
As they say, work to live, don’t live to work. Even if you truly love your job, the most important part of your life are the people in it. Your spouse, kids, parents, friends, and other relationships all require attention. Without them, running a business will feel hollow, and the road will be lonely.
You might be tempted to prioritize work because your friends and family will always be there, but your business is more demanding. This is not the case; every relationship needs cultivating. So how do you manage your time well? To do so properly, you need to set boundaries. Refusing to rest will detriment your health and stretch your mind too thin. Maybe you can limit how many hours your work each day, or decide not to take on new projects until you know you have room for them. When you balance work and family time (which includes friends), you can rest assured each day that your relationships will be intact.
Remember that crises are temporary
Every business deals with problems from time to time. Instead of getting overwhelmed and losing focus, remember that whatever issue you are facing will pass. Founder and cEO of Jugnoo, Samar Singla, says:
“I always try to focus on the good things and however bad the situation, I know that worse things can happen than this. Looking at the past, you realize the kind of challenges you have already overcome and it gives you the strength to believe that this too shall pass. No crisis is permanent and all problems have a solution. And of course, for me, the most peaceful moment of hte day comes when I go back home and spend time with my daughter. She makes me forget everything else.”
If you are struggling to make ends meet or find something going wrong, you’ll get through it. Approach the situation logically. Having a strong emotional support system is also imperative; people who can help you relax are invaluable and will help you overcome whatever obstacle is in your way.
Work with a mentor
Your support system should also include a business mentor. He or she can be a relative friend, business relationship, life coach, or someone else with experience. Your family members will help keep you sane, but a mentor will be able to advise you on the fine details of actually running a business. When you have someone helping you tackle problems they have overcome themselves, you can feel safe knowing that you are not in this alone and do not have to start from square one.
If no one is immediately coming to mind whom you would like to mentor you, there are experienced people out there waiting for you to find them (you can do so online through resources like MicroMentor or SCORE Mentoring). Sometimes it helps if your mentor is not an existing relationship because you are looking for someone to objectively tell you when you are failing and how to fix it. You need a confidant and a teacher, so while you should be friends on some level, you do not want coddling.
Upgrade your cyber security
If you want peace of mind, then make sure that you update your technology regularly. You have enough on your plate already, so why worry about cyber attacks that can steal you and your customers’ information and hold it for ransom? Consumers are already worried about the same thing, so you want to be able to assure them that purchasing from you will not result in trouble. When your systems are secure, you can sleep easy at night knowing that your data is safe, and you can spend your time focusing on other elements of your business.
Being an entrepreneur entails a significant number of tasks you may feel stressed about. A thriving business has a calm leader, though, so it is crucial for you to reduce your stress as much as possible. How do you maintain your peace of mind?
