Managing Stress and Burnout as a Startup

The startup phase is one of the stages in business that requires a relentless amount of willpower, persistence, and trust for your business to succeed. More often, entrepreneurs are likely to experience a lot of stress and burnout which calls for one to be resilient to overcome the stress.

Many people think that entrepreneurship is a walk in the park, however; it has its own dark side that is kept unknown and is only known by entrepreneurs. When you ask an entrepreneur, he will tell you that during the startup phase, one may get depressed when things are not working well or when startups fail to hit their yearly target. Sometimes such situations may make the business to collapse when they get out of hand.

As the business owner, it is crucial for you to know whether you are on the edge in matters of mental wellbeing. At this stage, you ought to get cues from parents, friends and other entrepreneurs who have made it. Nevertheless, self-care is critical for entrepreneurs at this stage.

In this post, we have some of the important ways to manage stress and burnout as a startup. Without much ado, let’s dive into it.

1. Identify the cause

This is the first thing that entrepreneurs should first deal with. When you identify the cause of the stress and burnout, you will have begun the healing process. A study by the American Psychological Association has shown that some common workplace stressors could be as a result of the extreme amount of work, lack of social support and even when the work is not interesting.

When not dealt with properly, these problems can negatively impact a person physically both long-term and short-term. Many people mistake such situations with headaches, stomachaches and also fail to get good sleep but all these are a result of stress and burnout. It is good to note that chronic stress leads to anxiety and high blood pressure. Stress can also cause health conditions like depression and cardiovascular diseases. Many people have tried to deal with excessive stress by smoking or abusing alcohol and drugs but this can even cause more complications in your health. Once you identify the cause, you can find the possible ways to deal with it in the best possible way.

2. Give yourself a break

Most of the experienced entrepreneurs will tell you that stepping away is very crucial when it comes to managing stress and burnout at the startup phase. In fact, it is hard to find an experienced entrepreneur struggling with stress and burnout since they know when to take a break and that is what helps them to preserve their mental health.

You can go for a short sporting exercise in the field, meet your friends for the tournament, or even travel abroad. The secret is to see the value of taking a break so that you can overcome the problem and forget about it as soon as possible before it gets out of hands. The good thing is that during the time when you have taken a break you might get a solution and get back to work feeling stirred up.

3. Share the problem with your team

At this stage, communication is crucial. It is good to make your team know the issue so that you all can get down to it. Lack of communication can cause everything to go bad. Maybe you are thinking of that good deal that went awry or maybe, you have not set rules and responsibilities clearly to your staffs if you have any.

When you have a talk with your team, you get an opportunity to relieve yourself from these stresses.

4. Exercise

Do you think exercise is only meant for those going for a sports tournament? You are wrong! Everyone can exercise and in fact, it is believed that regular exercise can help to lower stress levels thus lowering the chances of developing other health complications such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. You can take 20 minutes to 1-hour walk or even go to a gym.

5. Make your goals clear

You will agree with me that during the startup phase, business owners are usually loaded with a lot of work on a daily basis. Although all are part of your startup, you need to clarify your goals so that you are clear which one to prioritize.