Small business owners know a thing or two about stress. Starting a business is inherently stressful, and in a world where half of all businesses are failing within five years, growing that business is even harder. You’re tasked with finding customers, retaining them, maintaining a positive cashflow, managing a team, and much more.
Stress can easily start to feel like a natural part of the job. And while eliminating stress is easier said than done, there are certainly ways that you can manage your stress and keep yourself and your company on the right track. Here are a few ways you can achieve this:
Meditation
It goes without saying that meditation is a powerful tool for business owners. Many successful entrepreneurs and athletes have been vocal about the various ways that meditation has helped improve their personal and business lives. Meditation allows you to enter a deep state of relation and eliminate the stressful thoughts that crowd your mind and keep you on edge throughout the day.
You may not realize it, but when you stress, your body is trying to decide whether it wants to fight or flee. This back-and-forth physiological decision-making creates tension in the body, and this tension becomes manifested as physical pain. There are several meditation apps you can take advantage of as a beginner. Just 15-20 minutes of regular meditation per day is all you need to get started.
Get An Extra Layer of Protection
In a digitally-centered world, where much of the interaction between consumer and business takes place behind a screen, it’s no wonder that more and more businesses are becoming concerned with their ability to protect their customers. After all, if you look at the most recent cybercrime statistics, you’ll discover that malware is being created at an accelerating rate, creating a spike in identity thefts, credit card fraud, and other types of malicious activity. To protect your customers and business, invest in an extra layer of security, such as an identity verification tool that offers two-factor authentication. When you know your business is safe from external digital threats, you’ll rest easier.
Create an Exercise Regimen
You might think you don’t have time to incorporate exercise in your schedule, but when you make time for it and prioritize it, it’ll happen. Exercise has long been associated with stress relief, and there’s science to back up those claims. Exercise reduces stress by releasing endorphins (which act as your body’s natural painkillers). Endorphins are often referred to as the body’s “feel good” neurotransmitters released in the brain; as more endorphins are released, you’re able to benefit from an improved state of well-being, and even a euphoria after a runner’s high. Exercising also helps give you an energy boost, strengthen your immune system, and improve your ability to sleep at night—all areas that help improve stress.
Start Delegating Your Task List
This might seem like an obvious tip as a business owner, but it’s not uncommon for business owners to try to take on too many responsibilities, especially when it comes to spearheading the success of a company. However, if you attempt to take on too much of the workload because you only trust in yourself to make it happen, you can easily create burnout within yourself and inadvertently create a toxic work culture centered around micromanagement.
Start analyzing all the tasks that you take care of each day, noting how long each task takes. Even when it takes just a few minutes each day, these minutes add up each week. You can also delegate tasks that require more creative thinking and problem-solving, and really test your employee’s ability to think on their feet. Your team will likely be willing to show you that they’ve got the skills you’re looking for and prove their abilities. Doing so also creates trust among your staff, which is important for the longevity of the business.
Start OrganizingIf you don’t already have a project management or task management platform, it’s time to look into different options. Many of these cloud-based tools make it easy to collaborate from anywhere, any time. Take advantage of these programs to help organize your daily business goals and tasks. Organization can certainly help de-stress you because it de-clutters the rolling to-do list that’s streaming through your mind at any given point in time. Furthermore, organization can extend to multiple areas of your life, trickling from your business life to your home life to your social life.