The stress of being a first-time solopreneur, micropreneur or entrepreneur can be overwhelming. Prolonged periods of stress could lead to burnout which negatively impacts our mental health. Here are some non-medical mental health tips for new entrepreneurs trying to cope with the unique challenges of launching and scaling a start-up business.
Fighting Start-up Stress
If the mind acts as a steering wheel for our body, then negative thinking is just one way to lose focus and control. Giving it extra gas alone is not enough to get you to your destination. You’ll need a sharp mind that can provide clear directions throughout your journey.
Positive thinking is one way to alleviate some of the stress of running a start-up business. Focus more energy on figuring out solutions and worry less about setbacks. Challenges and setbacks are typical for a first-time CEO.
Having a good track record for delivering on time will give you more wriggle room with clients. After remedying a situation:
1. Regain your client’s confidence by assuring them preventative measures are in place.
2. Educate your team on how they can avoid making the same mistake twice.
3. Offer a customer service gesture for their inconvenience. This small goodwill gesture could make a positive difference if they decide to leave an online review.
Fatigue makes it difficult for our brains to stay alert. Take scheduled breaks to help alleviate stress. You’ll have more success coming up with ideas and solutions after taking time to rest.
Refrain from activities that negatively impact your brain, such as using drugs or consuming too much alcohol. Exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet. Avoid eating unhealthy foods that are high in sugar and salt.
Stress can be remedied immediately with activities like meditation or over time by investing in educational courses that will make your job easier. Other stress-relieving activities include physical recreation, listening to motivational tapes or playing inspirational music. With a bit of creativity, the options are endless.
Set Realistic Goals
Setting realistic goals and achieving them is better than having unrealistic goals that never come to fruition. Understand your team’s range of skillsets and limitations. Knowing what your team is capable of makes it easier to anticipate and navigate through potential setbacks.
There is nothing wrong with setting the bar high for a long-term goal, but your short-term goals need to be accurate and realistic. They are a metric of whether your team is doing an excellent job keeping to schedule and closing projects. Set daily sales targets and increase them slowly over time. Celebrate the small victories that set the foundation for the bigger goals you’ll have to tackle down the road.
Avoid rushed projects destined to fail. Overpromising and underdelivering will only damage your reputation. It doesn’t matter how many gains someone achieves during a project if they can’t come through as promised. When a project fails, it reflects poorly on the person responsible for producing results for the client. Being the best is not only about a person’s ability to effectively complete tasks. It’s also about delivering quality products or services worthy of the client’s praise.
The best way to get a five-star rating is to exceed expectations. Every poor review that needs a response is time wasted, and every great review generates more business. Produce quality work that is equal to or better than the competition. Even if a client sets the bar low and expresses something is good enough for them, their opinion will quickly change when negative feedback starts trickling in from the public.
Work in the client’s best interest and make them look good to their stakeholders. Get things right the first time. Having to use company resources to correct avoidable mistakes is a waste.
Organize and Prioritize
It’s hard to avoid stress when keeping organized is not a top priority. Choose a system that is user-friendly and makes it easy for employees to collaborate as a team. Google Workspace and Trello allow professional teams to organize documents, share tasks, and schedule meetings with ease. Research the tools used by professionals in your specific industry. Industry-standard software is well recognized and can reduce the time and cost of training new hires.
Many older businesses still use Excel and Word to create their invoices. This outdated system makes it difficult to comply with data security standards and complicated to retrieve past documentation. Accounting software like QuickBooks allows businesses to create invoices quickly, generate billing reports, and easily retrieve billing information for clients. Companies can also use an integrated ticket system or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to organize customer details and track the status of client requests.
There are times challenging requests will arise that leave us stumped for hours or stressed for days. Until a solution presents itself, it’s wise to focus on completing tasks that already have an answer. If you keep running into the same roadblocks, it may be time to seek the help of a specialist. Professional consultation is a big timesaver for stressful problems that would take a long time to solve on your own.
Create Daily Routines
A well-planned schedule is a powerful tool. Knowing your daily routine makes it easier to prepare for each day. Life is less stressful when you know what comes next. Use your phone, email or Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa to set hourly alarms and schedule notifications.
Some people feel more productive when they interact with others. Share the same routine with a workout buddy or a personal trainer who motivates you to stay focused. You can also explore new social circles by joining different classes, clubs or committees.
Your daily routine would not be complete without getting a good night’s sleep. If Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, can find time in his busy schedule to get eight hours of rest, you can do the same.
Hire Help
They say good help is hard to find. As a start-up, it can be challenging to compete with larger employers who offer excellent salaries, great benefits and fantastic company discounts through their many partnerships.
If you’re going to be successful in hiring quality help, you’ll need to communicate your company’s vision and highlight its growth potential. Many employees would rather be somebody in a small company than a nobody in a large one.
A start-up can benefit from employees who have recently returned from maternity leave and are looking for a flexible company that allows them to spend more time with their family. Many talented new graduates don’t have enough experience to work for a large employer but are looking for an opportunity to work in their field. Newcomers seeking local employment come with overseas experience, offer diversity, and often pursue further education.
There are also many cost-effective ways to recruit help. Employers can hire temporary interns, co-op students, participate in youth employment rebate initiatives or outsource specific duties and roles to a third-party provider. Have a solid contingency plan for when employees quit, get terminated or are no longer able to perform their duties.
Be Confident
Confidence is something that comes with experience. It prevents our inner doubts from spilling out on the surface and causing undue stress. Entrepreneurs who have difficulty trusting in their abilities will have a hard time convincing others to have faith in them.
Sometimes new entrepreneurs tend to overcompensate. They try to prove their worth to seasoned professionals by sending long emails, scheduling too many meetings, and offering explanations before the client even asks. Avoid sharing every little problem or minor setback that arises. Know your worth and let the proof be your incredible track record of producing excellent results.
Unless a new client can tell you precisely what they want coming through the door, you should always schedule a consultation. Your time is valuable, so it’s important to get compensated. Even if they don’t proceed, you’ve still helped them gain more insight into achieving their goal.
In specific industries like construction, there is a cost associated with providing an estimate. Contractors travel to a potential client’s location, spend time doing measurements, and consult with other trade professionals. Regardless of the contractor’s effort, customers still use their estimates to shop around and accept other offers at a lower price.
Make it standard practice to charge consultation fees for new businesses. You’ll still have the option of waiving it if they choose to go ahead with the project. New clients are essential, but it should be a priority to retain and reward the existing clients who constantly support your business. Offer them added value by giving a free consultation on new projects.
It’s your job to remind customers of all the beneficial products and services available. Free consultations for existing clients are a great way to upsell and earn additional dollars that would have otherwise gone to another company. Retaining existing business reduces the pressure of finding new business. It also gives the flexibility to turn down less attractive offers and negotiating better contracts.
Never hesitate to invest in your personal growth. Enrolling in online courses or workshops, reading industry articles, and listening to leadership audiobooks are several ways to increase your knowledge and feeling of self-worth. You can also hire a public relations expert or join a speech club like Toastmasters to improve your communication skills. Practice makes perfect. Be sure to prepare, practice and refine your elevator pitch.
Never doubt yourself and be confident in your abilities. Focus only on the present and future while forgiving yourself for any silly mistakes in the past.
Dealing with Problematic Clients
A problematic client uses their influence or power to steer a successful project towards failure. It could be knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally. Ultimately when projects fail, they pass the blame to others. If a project is rapidly sinking because the client’s poor decision-making is digging holes, abandon ship before it’s too late!
Clients hire you for your knowledge and skills as a professional. If they could have done it without you, they would. Be confident and show them you’re the right person for the job. Put extra effort into seeing and sticking to your client’s original vision. Instead of changing the client’s vision to make it more convenient, be skilled enough to make it work.
Working with founders of start-up companies transitioning from being 9 to 5 employees has its unique challenges. Being successful as an employee doesn’t automatically translate to being successful as a business owner. Employees and entrepreneurs think, problem solve and make decisions differently.
The excitement of seeing the vision they’ve been waiting for become a reality may cause a client to act prematurely. Unfortunately, seeing the finish line is not the same as reaching it. Even after crossing the project finish line, it still needs to be sustainable. When someone attempts to hijack a project and refuses to listen to direction or advice, you should drop them as a client respectfully. Don’t damage your company’s reputation because of problematic clients who try to force you to make poor decisions.
Get Quality Feedback
Problems are always lurking. The only difference is there are problems you see and problems you don’t. Asking for quality feedback from an expert may help fix the problematic areas of your business even when you’re not aware.
Sales professionals can monitor agent calls, improve a sales pitch, and train teams to produce more sales. IT specialists help improve cybersecurity or save your company money by choosing the hardware required for employees to work from home. Marketing experts strengthen your branding and help your company to differentiate itself from online competitors. Certified accountants provide payroll and other financial strategies for scaling your start-up business.
Asking the right questions to these experts will determine the quality of the feedback you receive. Take time to understand and research what they do, their track record, and the possible solutions they offer. Avoid going in blind and putting complete trust in others. Even when things are complicated to understand, the outcomes and benefits gained should be easily understood and measurable.
Having strong communication skills is a must. We spend so much time trying not to offend others that we’ve become afraid to express our feelings candidly. Getting things off your chest in the presence of a professional therapist is a great way to find clarity without falling victim to cancel culture.
Mental health has had a negative stigma in the past, especially in highly competitive corporate environments. Things have improved drastically, with many professionals and organizations openly advocating and encouraging discussion about topics like chronic depression.
This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your doctor or any other qualified health care professional. If you have questions about your mental health, we recommend seeking the help of a licensed mental health expert. There are also toll-free helplines that provide support and other resources.