Being an entrepreneur and being continually stressed out go hand-in-hand, right? Not necessarily, even though it does seem to be the norm. We have come up with how entrepreneurs can deal with stress because if you’re always stressed out, you aren’t likely enjoying the process nor are you going to be able to keep up the pace.
Stress kills. Not to be overly dramatic, but it does. It’s important that entrepreneurs — and anyone, in fact — keep stress in check. We know it’s not as easy as just saying, “I want to have less stress in my life.” You do have to take stock and take steps.
How Entrepreneurs Can Deal With Stress
Here are some tips that may help you realize you don’t need to be as stressed out as you are and steps to help alleviate stress:
Take stock of what’s going right. It’s easy to make note of what’s going wrong. After all, it’s the disasters that keep you awake at night, not the wins, right? Write down all of your wins, look at it regularly. this may alleviate the stress and the feeling that the sky is falling.
Operate from an organized place. Write down the tasks you need to accomplish. You may want to do a brain dump of everything you need to get done. Put a timeline to it then break those tasks down. Also, once you get the to-dos out of your head they may seem more manageable. Listing tasks and to-dos also helps assure nothing falls through the cracks.
Get away from it all. You need to take a break. sometimes just getting some breathing room for a few minutes, an hour or even a day will help you return to the business refreshed and renewed. Taking a break is beneficial especially if you feel you’re spinning your wheels and if you are overwhelmed.
Breathe. It may sound simplistic, but pay attention to your body. Are you taking full, deep breaths or are you taking quick, shallow breaths? You need to breathe deeply to help alleviate stress. Notice, too where are your shoulders? Are they up around your ears? Focus on dropping your shoulders and relaxing your body as you breathe.
Take care of you. If you get ill, and if you’re a solopreneur, your business may not survive. If you aren’t healthy your business will suffer because your energy is flagging. Do what you need to do to be a healthy entrepreneur.
We are not saying that running a business isn’t a stressful endeavor; we know it is. What we are saying, though is that you need to realize you have stress and take steps to address it.
If you’re like most of us, you grabbed your online name for social media sites, added a bio, set it then forgot it, right? When did you set up your bios? Has it been more than a few years? Have you changed since then? Have the goods and services you offer changed? Have you earned new certifications? Are your online bios current? If you’re not sure, check them out today.
Add to that, when did you last update your professional photograph? Did you set up your accounts with a selfie you’d taken? If that’s still the case or if you still have the “egg” for your profile pic, now is the time to get some professional headshots taken. This is an investment in yourself that just might pay off.
Are Your Online Bios Current?
Add to your to-do list this week: check and update online professional bios. Check all of the sites in which you have a presence. Make certain that all of the bios have the same information. You don’t necessarily need to have them all be the same word-for-word, but you don’t want to leave off a vital piece of information.
Here are the reasons to update your bios today!
Readers want the most important information and they want it quickly. Put, what you believe is the most important information, at the beginning of your bios. Use keywords and short, punchy text.
Look at your bios with a critical eye. If a potential client saw that, what would his or her first impression be? Remember, this could be the first impression someone has of you — make it stellar.
Don’t be coy or use clever titles on your profiles. You want to let a potential client know exactly what you do, you don’t want them to guess whether you’re a fit for a project they have.
Once you’ve updated your online profiles. Ask a trusted client or two to give it a look over and see if they feel it accurately represents you and the services and goods you provide.
Even your clients and potential clients are too busy enjoying the summer to think about business — or your goods or services. What can you do? Some entrepreneurs find that summer is the best time to regroup, revamp and rework some business goals and reset priorities.
How To Stay Motivated This Summer
Even if you want to kick back this summer, don’t let all of your business momentum slide. Here are a few things you can do to stay motivated and keep your business viable and moving forward:
Look at your goals. You’re midway through the year. Are you on track to meet the goals you set? Do you want to, or need to, revamp the goals? Are they still relevant? Have you made changes in the business that should be reflected in your goals? Take a few hours to look over your business plan and your goals and update them if necessary.
Don’t completely stop marketing. Just because “everyone is on vacation” doesn’t mean you need to stop marketing. In fact, not everyone is on vacation. Stay in front of your ideal clients and continue your marketing efforts. Once summer is over, you don’t want to be scrambling to make up for lost ground.
Routines matter. Just because it’s summer and business is slower doesn’t mean you want to get out of the habits you’ve established. Go to the office. Write down your daily to-dos. Keep on track with your goals. Call on clients — whether in person or on the phone. In fact, this may be the best time to reach out to clients and do a check in — they may be slower too and this is an ideal time for you to both talk without feeling rushed.
I know in Arizona with our triple digit temperatures it’s hard to consider leaving the house. If that’s the case with you and you don’t want to leave your air conditioned office, use these summer months to continue marketing because the holidays will be here before you know it and you need to be ready!
The mantra in business has long been, “the customer is always right.” Is that still true? Is the customer always right? Maybe, but again maybe not. Today, a customer is more likely to complain, cause a fuss or demand changes and make unreasonable demands. A disgruntled customer is also more likely to jump online and leave a bad review.
In light of this, why isn’t the customer always right?
Is The Customer Always Right?
Here are some reasons you may want to give your employees, and yourself, more support and not give in to the customer and his or her demands.
It diminishes your employee’s power and autonomy. If you have hired and trained your people and contractors well, you need to trust that they followed your policies and procedures and that the customer just might not be as right as he or she thinks they are. You will have unhappy employees who feel you don’t value them — and just may leave.
It gives a customer the upper hand and may make an angry customer even more abrasive. This may mean the squeaky wheel is getting the grease and bad customers may receive better treatment (simply to shut them down) than does a good customer simply because the bad customer is angrier and louder.
Maybe you don’t want that customer. How will your business suffer if you tell that bad customer, “we appreciate your business, but we don’t want to do business with you any longer?” Will you have to close the doors because of this one customer? Will you get more customers if you kick the bad one to the curb? You just might.
If you’re still operating under the adage that the customer is always right, you may want to rethink that. You need to talk with your employees and see what the situation is with the customer who is always unhappy. How can you support your employee — the lifeblood of good customer service?
Have you ever bid a bad customer adieu? Did your business suffer?
Why is a community crucial to your success? A community feels connected to you and you to them. A community is there for you in good times and bad. your community — whether they are your clients or those with whom you interact regularly, colleagues or friends — helps your business in many ways.
To have a sustainable business you need to grow and nurture your community. It’s not enough to hand out a business card and leave a meeting; you want to truly connect with a potential client or colleague. Invite them out for coffee, ask them questions about themselves… truly connect.
How To Grow Your Business Community
What does it take to build a business community? Here are three ways to get started:
Engage with people. Don’t attend a networking meeting and hand out business cards and run. Stop, engage with people. Comment on something they’d said at the meeting, comment on something they’re wearing or have with them. Let them talk.
Don’t hide behind social media. Yes, it’s easy to think you’re growing your community on social media — and you are, after a fashion. Nothing beats a face-to-face — even if you’re in a different state or country you can connect. Fire up a video chat such as Skype and get to know the person face-to-face, even if it’s virtually. Quality over quantity when it comes to social media numbers.
Get involved. If you’re a member of a professional organizaion, trade group, Chamber of Commerce, get involved. Volunteer on committees. Support the group you’re a part of because it mirrors your business’s mission and values. The more you get involved, the larger your community will be and the more people you will meet.
What can you do today to build your community? What have you tried that has been wildly successful in building your community? Are you still struggling to find and nurture your community? Let us know. We can help.
Entrepreneurs and solopreneurs sometimes have a hard time staying motivated. You don’t have a boss to stay accountable to, but you do have yourself to be accountable to/for. If you aren’t moving your business forward and finding and nurturing clients, you won’t have a business. Do you ever wonder how to stay motivated when it seems you’re going no where?
When you work in your business each and every day — many times doing the same tasks over and over — you could feel like you’re just banging your head against a wall. How can you stay motivated and engaged, even when it feels as though you’re not making progress?
How To Stay Motivated
I’ve put together my top three ways to stay motivated even when you feel like throwing in the towel! Keep in mind, at the end of each day, your success wiull be measured by the time you put in (and by the dollars in your bank account and the satisfaction you feel):
Write down your goals. If you don’t have goals written down, you won’t truly be able to measure success. If you don’t know what you’re striving toward or for, how will you know when you arrive? Set goals that are realistic and attainable. Don’t set a goal that is simply too difficult, or impossible to meet. An audacious goal is ideal IF you chip away at it. If you set this huge goal and cannot achieve it, you will suffer setbacks that will emotionally grind you down.
Failure is inevitable. No matter if you fail small or if you fail big, chances are you will fail. Plan for it. Prepare for it. When it happens — it probably isn’t as epic as you imagine it is — pick yourself up and start over. Look at your failures as an experiment — scientists don’t give up when an experiment fails, do they? No.
Get into your groove. What I mean by this is set up a routine — whatever works for you. When you set up a routine and set up habits you will be better prepared for the day and that will be motivating. One small thing you can do as part of your routine is to write down your to-dos for the following day before you close the office door at night. This helps set you up to jump right into work the next day and it also helps you focus and make progress toward your goals.
Are you motivated? What makes you lose your motivation? If your motivation is flagging, leave us a comment — we can help.
