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Get help and focus on what's important to manage stress.
The challenges of owning a business aren’t always about hiring employees or satisfying customers. Sometimes, the struggles are a little more personal. Plenty of business owners sacrifice quality time with family, their hobbies and their social life to build their company.
The stress of missing out and overworking can add up. According to a study conducted by Small Biz Silver Lining, 75 percent of small business owners are concerned about their mental health, while 56 percent have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or a stress-related condition. Learning how to deal with stress may be as important to your long-term business success as learning how to make a profit, and it’s certainly critical to your long-term health and wellness.
Creating work-life balance can be a real challenge, said Rosalie Moscoe, former owner of Health in Harmony, a Toronto-based wellness consulting firm that helps workers deal with stress. The personal struggles faced by small business owners are emotional, physical, mental and financial.
“When you’re in your own business, there are many things to think about that you didn’t have to worry about before: making loan payments, spending your savings, no money coming in and all your money going out,” Moscoe said.
There is little one can do to eliminate the issues that cause stress. You’ll most likely be working more hours as a business owner, and you’ll be overwhelmed and overworked. If you’re just beginning, you may also find starting your own business is lonely, which can also cause stress, Moscoe said.
Stress affects more than just your mental and emotional state. Job pressure facilitates weight gain and can cause other health issues. In addition to physical effects, stress can impact mental health, especially in women. In a study published in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, the research suggested that women are more sensitive to depression and other mental disorders than men.
That’s only a glimpse at what tension can do to a person. The following are some other known dangers of job stress.
Stress management is the process of developing routines and strategies that provide a healthy way to relax and unwind. These can be as simple as taking breaks throughout your workday and getting enough sleep. Here are some other examples of stress management techniques:
These skills allow you to turn a stressful situation into a positive opportunity for growth and betterment. By learning how to handle stressors, you gain more control over your life and reactions. The key to managing stress is keeping a good balance between work and home, even if you work long hours.
Consider the following suggestions, which Moscoe offered as an effective way to combat stress:
Just as important as carving out time for yourself is finding ways to manage your business that result in less stress. Finding employees who can share your responsibilities will go a long way in reducing your stress too. Setting them up for success when you’re not around is even more important.
“The heroic single leader is no longer congruent with the burdening demands of today’s leadership,” said J. Richard Hackman, a former professor of social and organizational psychology at Harvard University, in a study on shared leadership.
“The most important conditions for effective shared team leadership include a team that is a mature and reasonably bounded group,” said Hackman in the statement. “They must know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to identify who to go to for specific tasks. The second condition is being interdependent on one another for some specific shared purpose or goal.”
Moscoe believes it’s important to focus on why you started your business in the first place.
“It’s the hardest job in the world,” she said. “But if you’re in your own business, you’ll feel you have control over how you’re going to do it, and that’s the biggest factor in reducing stress.”
Stress management is good for you and your business. Without leadership modeling proper stress management and work-life balance, your staff may take more sick days and be less productive. Effective stress management produces higher employee morale, fewer sick days, less employee turnover and a positive company culture.
The best way to lead is by example, so managing your own stress in a healthy way and giving your team the tools to do the same is key to developing a workplace culture rooted in wellness. The reward for doing so isn’t just a healthier, happier work environment, but also a more successful business. So, if your workplace is in need of some stress-busting, try implementing the tips in this guide today!
Tejas Vemparala and Sammi Caramela contributed to this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.