How to Prevent Burnout as a Business Owner
As a business owner and entrepreneur, it can be difficult to find personal and professional separation in your life. You may feel like you always have to be “on” 24/7 and work around the clock to drive your business forward. Particularly as a maternity care provider, you’re often helping people through extremely important and emotional moments in their lives. You share their joy, but also their frustrations and challenges – and that can take a toll. It can be impossible to find the time to recharge or disconnect from the never-ending tasks on your to-do list. Because of this reality, it’s important to learn how to prevent burnout as a business owner.
Being a successful small business owner requires hard work, dedication, and (sometimes) sacrifice – that’s just the honest truth. However, if you continue to steamroll through your day to day without nourishing your own physical, mental, and emotional health you are likely limiting your success without even realizing it.
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is: “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” This state of being can wreak havoc on your health and your business. Between symptoms like crippling stress and feeling overwhelmed to the inability to truly focus on the task at hand, burnout can slowly but surely become a massive problem. The good news? You can prevent burnout before it gets way out of control.
Here are six strategies to prevent burnout as a business owner:
Remind yourself of your “why”
All too often, it can be easy to lose sight of your “why” as a provider and business owner. It’s hard to remember the meaningful purpose of your critical work with clients when you are buried in emails or researching the latest trends on TikTok. Connecting to the deeper meaning and purpose behind your practice can bring clarity and calmness.
Whether your “why” is to serve a population you deeply care about or you desire the freedom to work for yourself – or both – consistently remind yourself of this reason. Ultimately, it can help put everything into perspective to reduce symptoms of burnout.
Create a self-care routine
Self-care is about as much of a buzzword as anyone can imagine, but the merits are real. It looks different for every individual, and taking the time to figure out what truly makes you feel good is priceless.
Dr. India Barkley, Acupuncturist and Zaya Provider said it best: “Recognize the importance of balance in your life and what that looks and feels like for you as a wellness provider. You are a role model to your patients. Your invested self-care time is a profitable tool. A healthy self-care routine will allow you to take on the demanding yet satisfying work required of us providers.”
Celebrate success
Another strategy to prevent burnout as a business owner is celebrating your wins. As business owners (and humans!) the brain’s default is to focus on the negative. Meaning, you are probably constantly thinking about what else needs to get done or how to work with a particularly difficult client. But when was the last time you actually took a moment to recognize something that went well? As a mental health therapist, maybe it’s a breakthrough with a client. As a dietitian, perhaps seeing your client through a healthy and happy pregnancy. It can be big or small, but creating the habit of identifying and celebrating success will keep you motivated and energized.
Find community
As a solo provider, it can often feel lonely and isolating. You’re typically working on your own, and every decision, task, and client is swirling around in your head. That is overwhelming! So, it can be extremely powerful to tap into a network of like-minded individuals. Whether that’s other providers in your specialty or solopreneurs in general, finding community is a positive way to reduce stress and burnout.
Set working hours
This might be easier said than done, but setting working hours – and sticking to them – will help you keep focus and prevent burnout in your practice. If you do this, your professional life will spill over less and less into your personal life. Try to maintain a consistent schedule with clients and administrative work. Additionally, you will feel more accomplished in a day’s work because your motivation to maintain productivity within a certain timeframe will be higher. When you know in the back of your mind that your work day does in fact end, you will have more balance overall.
Determine your ideal client
Sometimes, it’s ok to say no as a business owner. Identifying your ideal client avatar can help you only take on work that aligns with your mission – and leave the work that would make you feel drained and depleted at the door.
Dr. India Barkley shared her advice on creating your ideal client: “Be intentional about the type of patient that aligns with your values and style of practice. Intend to attract ONLY those patients that benefit the most from what you offer in the unique way you practice.”
At Zaya, we empower you as a provider to grow your practice with a simple and easy solution to providing in-network care. If you are interested in learning more, click here.
As a business owner and entrepreneur, it can be difficult to find personal and professional separation in your life. You may feel like you always have to be “on” 24/7 and work around the clock to drive your business forward. Particularly as a maternity care provider, you’re often helping people through extremely important and emotional moments in their lives. You share their joy, but also their frustrations and challenges – and that can take a toll. It can be impossible to find the time to recharge or disconnect from the never-ending tasks on your to-do list. Because of this reality, it’s important to learn how to prevent burnout as a business owner.
Being a successful small business owner requires hard work, dedication, and (sometimes) sacrifice – that’s just the honest truth. However, if you continue to steamroll through your day to day without nourishing your own physical, mental, and emotional health you are likely limiting your success without even realizing it.
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is: “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” This state of being can wreak havoc on your health and your business. Between symptoms like crippling stress and feeling overwhelmed to the inability to truly focus on the task at hand, burnout can slowly but surely become a massive problem. The good news? You can prevent burnout before it gets way out of control.
Here are six strategies to prevent burnout as a business owner:
Remind yourself of your “why”
All too often, it can be easy to lose sight of your “why” as a provider and business owner. It’s hard to remember the meaningful purpose of your critical work with clients when you are buried in emails or researching the latest trends on TikTok. Connecting to the deeper meaning and purpose behind your practice can bring clarity and calmness.
Whether your “why” is to serve a population you deeply care about or you desire the freedom to work for yourself – or both – consistently remind yourself of this reason. Ultimately, it can help put everything into perspective to reduce symptoms of burnout.
Create a self-care routine
Self-care is about as much of a buzzword as anyone can imagine, but the merits are real. It looks different for every individual, and taking the time to figure out what truly makes you feel good is priceless.
Dr. India Barkley, Acupuncturist and Zaya Provider said it best: “Recognize the importance of balance in your life and what that looks and feels like for you as a wellness provider. You are a role model to your patients. Your invested self-care time is a profitable tool. A healthy self-care routine will allow you to take on the demanding yet satisfying work required of us providers.”
Celebrate success
Another strategy to prevent burnout as a business owner is celebrating your wins. As business owners (and humans!) the brain’s default is to focus on the negative. Meaning, you are probably constantly thinking about what else needs to get done or how to work with a particularly difficult client. But when was the last time you actually took a moment to recognize something that went well? As a mental health therapist, maybe it’s a breakthrough with a client. As a dietitian, perhaps seeing your client through a healthy and happy pregnancy. It can be big or small, but creating the habit of identifying and celebrating success will keep you motivated and energized.
Find community
As a solo provider, it can often feel lonely and isolating. You’re typically working on your own, and every decision, task, and client is swirling around in your head. That is overwhelming! So, it can be extremely powerful to tap into a network of like-minded individuals. Whether that’s other providers in your specialty or solopreneurs in general, finding community is a positive way to reduce stress and burnout.
Set working hours
This might be easier said than done, but setting working hours – and sticking to them – will help you keep focus and prevent burnout in your practice. If you do this, your professional life will spill over less and less into your personal life. Try to maintain a consistent schedule with clients and administrative work. Additionally, you will feel more accomplished in a day’s work because your motivation to maintain productivity within a certain timeframe will be higher. When you know in the back of your mind that your work day does in fact end, you will have more balance overall.
Determine your ideal client
Sometimes, it’s ok to say no as a business owner. Identifying your ideal client avatar can help you only take on work that aligns with your mission – and leave the work that would make you feel drained and depleted at the door.
Dr. India Barkley shared her advice on creating your ideal client: “Be intentional about the type of patient that aligns with your values and style of practice. Intend to attract ONLY those patients that benefit the most from what you offer in the unique way you practice.”
At Zaya, we empower you as a provider to grow your practice with a simple and easy solution to providing in-network care. If you are interested in learning more, click here.
