by Entrepreneurship Expert Roger Pierce, BizLaunch.ca, October 2007
Owner burnout is a common cause of small business failure. With long hours, lots of stress and a seemingly endless to-do list, many small business owners risk mental and physical exhaustion.
As a business owner, you likely balance diverse responsibilities such as production, marketing, sales, bookkeeping, and running to the bank now and then. You likely feel the clock is constantly ticking away against you.
While those multiple tasks are important to your business, so are you. Try these suggestions to keep your most valuable business asset - you - operating in peak condition.
Know your priorities. It's so easy to fill up your small business day with a flurry of important tasks, phone calls, emails, and errands. These things that "must be done" can make you feel productive, but, in reality, they may be distractions preventing you from truly advancing your business.
Best-selling author Stephen Covey got it right in his famous book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, when he devised a system to keep achievers achieving. Covey suggests identifying your biggest priorities ("rocks") and simply scheduling them in first. Those "rocks" may include things like attending your son's soccer matches, drafting that proposal for a prospective account, or training a staff member to manage your invoicing system. By putting the "rocks" in place first, Covey says all of those smaller, less important tasks (he calls them "pebbles" and "sand") receive appropriate priority weighting.
Take out that Business Plan to identify what's truly important for you to accomplish during the next three months. Break down those projects into weekly "rocks" and schedule them into your week. The smaller tasks will then fit in where they should.
Separate personal time. North American culture can encourage people to become "workaholics," as if the amount of hours we work is some sort of badge of honour.
Bringing work home every night and every weekend is a sure path to burnout. It can also lead to isolation from your friends, your family ("Mommy's working now"), and your spouse. Much like sleep, entrepreneurs often view their personal time as some reserve fund they can draw upon when too much work piles up.
Setting firm working hours will force you to prioritize your time, delegate nonessential tasks, and help you to keep your workload reasonable.
Just say 'no'. To remain true to your biggest priorities (those "rocks") and your personal time, it's important to practice saying the word "no." Unfortunately, many polite Canadians don't say that word often enough. Small business owners love to get involved in exciting new projects, be it a local fundraiser, coaching Little League or even starting a second business. Such commitments can distract you from your true business mission. Spreading yourself too thin often means you're not doing your main job well.
Revisit your priorities and learn to say "no" to people requesting your time. Turn down additional projects, distracting initiatives, or time-consuming requests that do not advance your business mission.
Delegate. A true entrepreneur simply orchestrates the work of others-managing and leading the efforts of their team.
The expression "think like a CEO" involves attaching a big dollar figure to your time. If you were the head of a large corporation, you'd be expected to spend your time developing new markets, creating strategies, implementing cost-saving measures, and leading your people. Such activities would warrant your large CEO salary.
The same thinking applies to your small business. Ask, "What do I do now that I could pay someone else to do for less?" To identify such tasks, try writing or re-writing your own job description as the head of your growing company. Then, delegate routine functions such as cold calling, bookkeeping, or paperwork if you decide your time is best spent elsewhere.
Sharpen the saw. There's the analogy of Bob the lumberjack who worked all day trying to saw through a large tree trunk. Noticing Bob's lack of progress, another lumberjack suggested the work might be easier if Bob stopped for awhile to sharpen his saw. Bob grunted and replied, "I don't have time to stop and sharpen my saw?I'm too busy trying to cut down this tree." The moral of the story: combine long working hours with a seemingly endless to-do list and you've got a recipe for entrepreneur burnout.
Many entrepreneurs get caught up in their own self-importance, talking themselves out of any significant time away from the business. Believe it or not, your business will survive a week or more without you. It will certainly survive for a few hours while you "sharpen your saw" by going to the gym or sitting down to read a book.
At the beginning of each year, schedule - in stone - your vacation time over the next 12 months. Space it out so you've got a few breaks scheduled every few months. It doesn't have to be a three-week European vacation - consider a few self-made long weekends or a week relaxing at home.
As your break time approaches, don't find excuses to put it off using the "something-came-up" excuse. Make a formal commitment to your planned retreat by issuing iron-clad promises to your family or by buying non-refundable airline tickets.
The amount of personal time an entrepreneur enjoys away from his or her business is perhaps the truest measure of success. If you're out playing golf three times a week or taking a two-month vacation with your family, it's a good sign that you've created a business that runs well without you. Make it your long-term goal to actually work fewer hours each year. You'll be amazed just how much you can get done when being away from your enterprise becomes your top priority.
Source - //smallbusiness411.org/cgi-bin/library/jump.cgi?ID=12858
Owner burnout is a common cause of small business failure. With long hours, lots of stress and a seemingly endless to-do list, many small business owners risk mental and physical exhaustion.
As a business owner, you likely balance diverse responsibilities such as production, marketing, sales, bookkeeping, and running to the bank now and then. You likely feel the clock is constantly ticking away against you.
While those multiple tasks are important to your business, so are you. Try these suggestions to keep your most valuable business asset - you - operating in peak condition.
Know your priorities. It's so easy to fill up your small business day with a flurry of important tasks, phone calls, emails, and errands. These things that "must be done" can make you feel productive, but, in reality, they may be distractions preventing you from truly advancing your business.
Best-selling author Stephen Covey got it right in his famous book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, when he devised a system to keep achievers achieving. Covey suggests identifying your biggest priorities ("rocks") and simply scheduling them in first. Those "rocks" may include things like attending your son's soccer matches, drafting that proposal for a prospective account, or training a staff member to manage your invoicing system. By putting the "rocks" in place first, Covey says all of those smaller, less important tasks (he calls them "pebbles" and "sand") receive appropriate priority weighting.
Take out that Business Plan to identify what's truly important for you to accomplish during the next three months. Break down those projects into weekly "rocks" and schedule them into your week. The smaller tasks will then fit in where they should.
Separate personal time. North American culture can encourage people to become "workaholics," as if the amount of hours we work is some sort of badge of honour.
Bringing work home every night and every weekend is a sure path to burnout. It can also lead to isolation from your friends, your family ("Mommy's working now"), and your spouse. Much like sleep, entrepreneurs often view their personal time as some reserve fund they can draw upon when too much work piles up.
Setting firm working hours will force you to prioritize your time, delegate nonessential tasks, and help you to keep your workload reasonable.
Just say 'no'. To remain true to your biggest priorities (those "rocks") and your personal time, it's important to practice saying the word "no." Unfortunately, many polite Canadians don't say that word often enough. Small business owners love to get involved in exciting new projects, be it a local fundraiser, coaching Little League or even starting a second business. Such commitments can distract you from your true business mission. Spreading yourself too thin often means you're not doing your main job well.
Revisit your priorities and learn to say "no" to people requesting your time. Turn down additional projects, distracting initiatives, or time-consuming requests that do not advance your business mission.
Delegate. A true entrepreneur simply orchestrates the work of others-managing and leading the efforts of their team.
The expression "think like a CEO" involves attaching a big dollar figure to your time. If you were the head of a large corporation, you'd be expected to spend your time developing new markets, creating strategies, implementing cost-saving measures, and leading your people. Such activities would warrant your large CEO salary.
The same thinking applies to your small business. Ask, "What do I do now that I could pay someone else to do for less?" To identify such tasks, try writing or re-writing your own job description as the head of your growing company. Then, delegate routine functions such as cold calling, bookkeeping, or paperwork if you decide your time is best spent elsewhere.
Sharpen the saw. There's the analogy of Bob the lumberjack who worked all day trying to saw through a large tree trunk. Noticing Bob's lack of progress, another lumberjack suggested the work might be easier if Bob stopped for awhile to sharpen his saw. Bob grunted and replied, "I don't have time to stop and sharpen my saw?I'm too busy trying to cut down this tree." The moral of the story: combine long working hours with a seemingly endless to-do list and you've got a recipe for entrepreneur burnout.
Many entrepreneurs get caught up in their own self-importance, talking themselves out of any significant time away from the business. Believe it or not, your business will survive a week or more without you. It will certainly survive for a few hours while you "sharpen your saw" by going to the gym or sitting down to read a book.
At the beginning of each year, schedule - in stone - your vacation time over the next 12 months. Space it out so you've got a few breaks scheduled every few months. It doesn't have to be a three-week European vacation - consider a few self-made long weekends or a week relaxing at home.
As your break time approaches, don't find excuses to put it off using the "something-came-up" excuse. Make a formal commitment to your planned retreat by issuing iron-clad promises to your family or by buying non-refundable airline tickets.
The amount of personal time an entrepreneur enjoys away from his or her business is perhaps the truest measure of success. If you're out playing golf three times a week or taking a two-month vacation with your family, it's a good sign that you've created a business that runs well without you. Make it your long-term goal to actually work fewer hours each year. You'll be amazed just how much you can get done when being away from your enterprise becomes your top priority.
Source - //smallbusiness411.org/cgi-bin/library/jump.cgi?ID=12858
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