Being an entrepreneur and running your own business is amazing…but it’s also a lot of work. A lot. While it’s true that for most entrepreneurs, having your own business is your version of living the dream, the reality is it requires a great deal of time, energy, and dedication to start and grow your business. Sometimes, the pursuit of your business dreams can come at the expense of your personal wellbeing: burning the candle at both ends to get things done, neglecting relationships, not making enough time for leisure, or letting the lines between yourself and your business become blurred. You wear multiple hats (bookkeeper, marketer, salesperson, etc.) and work way more than 40 hours a week to make your dream a reality. Suddenly, that accounting class you had to take in college is coming in handy. And now you’ve become an expert at Canva. While it is sometimes necessary to go all in for short periods of time, prioritizing work at the expense of balance in your life isn’t sustainable in the long term. If you aren’t at your best, your business can’t be at its best. This is where self-care becomes essential as a business owner. When you have key self-care practices in place, you can build a sustainable approach to growing your business and making your entrepreneurial dreams come true. Here are five ideas for prioritizing self-care as a business owner:
Yes, being able to choose your own schedule is definitely a perk of being a business owner. However, if you aren’t careful, your “flexible” schedule can turn into working all hours of the day (and night!). Setting office hours for yourself is a helpful way to bring structure into your day and can help facilitate greater work/life balance. This doesn’t mean that you have to have a rigid schedule for yourself. Instead, this looks like creating a set of parameters that delineate work time from personal time which prevent the inevitable, “Let me just answer a few emails while I am watching TV” approach to leisure. Consider when you work best and how often you need a break. For example, I know that my brain is taxed by the evening so I rarely plan to work after dinner and capitalize on the mid-morning and mid-afternoon hours for my most creative work. I also know that I can only see about three psychotherapy clients in a row before I need a break and have blocked out my calendar accordingly.
No matter what field you are in, being creative is an essential aspect of self-care and an asset to your business. Research shows that creativity enhances our sense of well-being which can, in turn, boost our creativity. Making time for creative work, whether that is journaling, crafting, playing an instrument, or a host of other options for being creative, you are not only making space for new ideas that could potentially benefit your business, but you are also increasing your sense of well-being. And when you are in a healthy mental state, you make better decisions for your business.
Entrepreneurs are passionate about their businesses and understandably so. Many of us have invested countless hours and our savings to build a business that offers a product that we feel strongly about. It can be easy to allow your identity to get wrapped up in your business and, if you run a service-based business, it can be challenging to not take it personally when a prospective client opts out of working with you. Having a balanced perspective about your business is key. When you recognize that your business isn’t for everyone and that is okay, it becomes a lot easier not to take it personally. Don’t forget, you want to find those clients who are a great fit for your business, not just anyone for the sake of having a certain number of clients.
Repeat after me: the success of your business does not define your self-worth. Businesses have many ups and downs in their life cycle for a variety of reasons. The economy and other world events can affect our businesses in ways we never anticipated. (I’m looking at you, 2020.) While it’s important to take pride in the work that you do, you don’t want to confuse how well your business is or isn’t doing with your worth as a person. A healthy detachment is key to surviving the natural cycles of ups and downs as a business owner.
This may seem obvious but it’s on this list because it’s easy to forget that doing it all yourself as an entrepreneur isn’t always the best or only way. Yes, sometimes getting your business off the ground means taking on many different roles to keep costs low; it comes with the territory. However, if something is outside your area of expertise and is actually increasing your stress levels, you may want to consider hiring or outsourcing that particular job role. Keeping costs low is always on the mind of a business owner but the benefits of outsourcing might quite literally outweigh the actual cost. This might look like hiring an accountant or bookkeeper to lessen the burden of managing your finances. It could look like hiring a virtual assistant to help manage your schedule which could free you up to spend more time doing what you do best. Assess what tasks you are doing right now that are actually preventing you from operating in your area of expertise and consider outsourcing.
