Recognize Burnout Before It Happens

You’ve finally made it. Your dream of pursuing your passion and building a business of your own has finally become a reality and it feels AMAZING!

The challenge is….you’re busting your butt. You’ve been working day and night and yeah, things are growing, but when are you going to get a break?

This is a story I hear all too often. As entrepreneurs, we dream for years of the day we will have a successful, thriving business. We long for creative freedom, the ability to change lives and impact the world. We dream of bringing our message or our product to the masses and having a life that we design for ourselves.

After fighting thru periods of self-doubt, overcoming countless obstacles, and building a reputation from the ground up, you finally arrive at the place you have dreamed of. You ARE a business owner! You have made your dream a reality with some hard work, perseverance and good old fashioned grit!

However, as the time passes and your business continues to grow you may find yourself growing frustrated, exhausted and overwhelmed. These are sure signs that you are on your way, or already in the throws of burnout.

Here are FIVE signs to help you
recognize burnout before it’s too late.

1) You’re making more money than ever before, but still feel like you’re barely getting by.

It is all too common that the more money we make, the more expenses we seem to have. Somehow a higher income/profit doesn’t equate to a life with less financial stress. This is a huge problem for business owners and sets them on the road to burnout. Headed on a never ending rat race of working harder, longer and more than ever, constantly striving to get to the place where they can finally feel the rewards of their labor. Oftentimes, this feeling of still “barely getting by” is a result of not having a clear picture of where the money is going and a lack of a strong financial plan. If you feel like you have been growing your business, but somehow you aren’t feeling a financial improvement – it’s time to ask for help.

2) Your business is thriving, you’re making great money, but feel like you can hardly take the time to enjoy it.

When was the last time you took a vacation from your business? If you can’t remember the last time you got away, it’s time to take a step back and see what is happening. No one can thrive long term without some healthy distance from their work and time to rest and recharge their batteries! This is especially true for business owners, who are the creative and energetic center of their business. Without the necessary time to rest and relax, your business with suffer. You will feel strained and less creative than ever. You will become sucked into the day to day stressors of running the business and forget to take the necessary time to be the visionary your business needs to thrive and grow. If you’ve ever felt stuck, knowing you need a break, but telling yourself something like “If I don’t work, I don’t get paid”, it’s time to get a better plan in place. Your business won’t survive and you will never live a life you love, if you don’t have a plan in place to support you taking a break from time to time.

3) Your business and personal expenses are all mixed up together.

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but separation of personal and business expenses is 100% crucial to running a successful business. Oftentimes, a business owner will say they have separation, but this separation is superficial. What I mean by this is this is if you find yourself making random pulls from the business and transferring money into your personal account, there is still co-mingling of money occurring. This lack of structure results in the inability to successfully manage both your business AND your personal life. It can feel extremely stressful to be constantly making random pulls between business and personal and not having a clear structure around when to do so and how much to transfer. This uncertainty makes it difficult to see profit, hard to plan for taxes and becomes a huge stressor and cause of worry in your life.

4) You’re spending hours and hours every week managing the financials.

If you are spending more than a few hours every week paying the bills and managing expenses, you are spending too much time on it. Time that could otherwise be spent on money making activities – like seeing more clients, making more sales, or creating new programs or products for your business. The less organized your business finances are, the less time you have to actually work ON YOUR BUSINESS. If managing expenses feels chaotic, unorganized and like it’s sucking up a huge portion of your time, it’s a sure sign that it is time to ask for help.

5) You worry over the expenses and investments you make in your business.

How do you know “how much” is the right amount and “when” is the right time to invest in your business? If you worry and stress each time you are faced with a financial decision for your business – it is a problem. With a clear financial plan in place, you will be able to plan for months in advance and know exactly “how much” is the right amount to be spending on things like advertising, marketing, hiring a new coach, investing in equipment or an office and more. A lack of clarity and confidence in these financial decisions can be holding your business back in a big way. To run your business like a boss, you need to be able to step into the role of CFO and make clear, well thought out and confident decisions that support your business and your life financially. Are you able to do that now?

If you have found any of these signs to be true for you and your business, this could be a sign that you are headed toward burnout (if not living in it already). These feelings of financial stress and frustration will drive you to work even harder…in an unhealthy way. Always hustling. Always pushing for the next client, the next contract, or the next sale. You keep hustling, with the belief that if you can just move to the next level, you will finally acheive the freedom you had been seeking when you started your business to begin with.

The reality is, that until you commit to mastering your finances and learning how to better plan and manage them, this hamster wheel you’re on may never stop. There is a reason that 8 out of 10 small businesses fail and financial stressors and burnout play a huge part. Your feelings of frustration with your business may lead you to giving up on your dream altogether and I don’t want that for you!

If you are on the road to burnout, reach out for help right now. Teaching you to manage your money with confidence and clarity is what I specialize in. Learning to master your finances can breathe new life back into your business AND into your life! Let’s create a plan that will allow you to grow the healthy and thriving business you have always dreamed of.