Small business burnout: How to recover from it

Imagine a huge bonfire, five meters high. Its fire gives a beautiful shine and warmth to dozens of people around it. Quite a sight, you wish it would last forever.

But unless you feed it properly, it won’t. The fire and the shine are only a consequence of wooden logs burning. When the logs burn out, the fire is out too.

See where we’re going with this? Yes…. you are that pile of wooden logs, if you don’t take care of yourself, you might burn out.

What Causes a Burnout?

It’s no secret that the modern lifestyle pressures us to be perfect. It’s ok to aim for better, but we often forget that burning hard has inevitable consequences.

Perfect victims of this madness are small business owners, particularly the ones just starting up. If you are in that phase, you know what we’re talking about. If not yet, you’ll know, so please continue reading.

A start-up owner is expected be everything and anything simultaneously.

If you over-work, your family suffers. If you under-work, your business is doomed. If you avoid networking, your business won’t grow. If you are omnipresent, you don’t have time to do the actual work, and your kids are asking when you will come home.

If you are too back-officey, your front-office suffers. If you don’t work out, you’ll have this backpain I’m feeling right now. If you work out … when am I freakin’ supposed to work out?!

What Is A Burnout Anyway and How to Recognize It?

In the old days, if you’d say to your boss that you are burned out, you’d either be called a wuss or not-good-enough.

That’s not true, you’re not a wuss, but a human that’s working hard and probably has a boss that deserves a good-bye.

In fact, in 2019 the “burn-out syndrome” was classified by the WHO (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, and is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion,
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job, and
• reduced professional efficacy.

So, if you experience any of the above, especially if its spills over your personal life, don’t start to blame or think less of yourself.

It might be a clear sign that you’re having a business burn out and need to make some moves before you end up like those wooden logs from the introduction.

Maybe we can help, so please continue reading.

How to Prevent and Heal?

You cannot avoid business burnouts in the beginning. Stay strong. You must endure and survive. Please, don’t believe the success stories of “heroes” that work 24/7, look like Achilles, have perfect families, lots of friends and take the world by storm. Just do the math and you’ll see it’s totally fake and impossible (unless you sleep 15 minutes a day, in which case you won’t see the end of this article alive).

Be careful. Prioritize. When a ship is sinking, the captain must save the ship by dropping some of the cargo. Let’s be honest, the only way to properly heal from a burnout is to stop working.

Unfortunately, for the most of us that’s not possible. The only thing that remains is balancing and mitigation along the way:

• if you sacrifice sleep for one day, sleep in the next,
• eat well, drink water,
• use a bike instead of a car,
• take a break, go look at the trees instead of your phone,
• talk to people close to you,
• smile,
• know it will pass.

Like Kenny Rogers said, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.“.

But most importantly: DELEGATE.

Let Us Take Away Some Burden From You

If you are a small business owner and have recognized yourself in this story, you already know that a perfect way to control the burnout is to stop doing things you don’t have to. Delegate it!

Save your time, reduce your stress and delegate it to Uixlabs.  Whether you’re a Startup, an Individual, or looking for a Business Makeover, we will thrive with the things that drain your energy. You’ll be able to focus on what you do the best.

You will get tailor-made, user-oriented support ranging from website diagnostics, ticketing platforms, chatbots, SEO optimization, strategic assistance, UI/UX optimization and many more. All that for a fair price and speedy delivery.

START YOUR PROJECT NOW and let us help you keep the fire going!