As the unemployment rate rises and the economy slows down many women home business owners are feeling burnt out from the daily grind and pressure of doing-it-all and making enough money.

Buck Stops With You
One thing that many new small business owners overlook is that owning a company means executing a huge skill set and working long, hard hours particularly at the start up. As the MD, accountant, banker, manager, do-er, writer, and so on and so forth, your time is taken up from the moment you put on your work hat until the moment resume your ‘normal’ family life.

Business Burn Out
This often means new business owners only step out to sleep and, possibly, to eat. Such an existence usually leads rapidly to business burnout. Typical signs are a change in your personality, feeling emotionally exhausted and having no energy.

If this is the case you need to step back for a while to appreciate how consumed you are.

It is tough. Your business is your baby. Your business is your life. But unless you specifically make it a point to take breaks and find time to relax you will not survive.

Some practical things to do include creating a business plan, hiring a team and taking a break so you can feel refreshed.

It is typical of many women small business owners to believe it’s possible to “do it all”.

The Super Hero mentality works only for a while, and it is certain to cause some burnout at some point.

Get Help
Assessing what someone else can do the best for you is really the key. For example if you are spending all your time doing bookkeeping then that leaves you no time to do the real work of your business, which means less profit. Quite simply you cannot afford to do it all.

Hire a virtual assistant. Network your contacts to find whether there’s someone who might be interested in picking up a few hours of admin work each week or month.

One of the best pieces of advice for small business owners is always hire people who do the job better than you can do it. Assess what you do and what needs to be done to keep your business running smothly. Then find people or virtual services that are really great at that task and hire them.

Worried you might be headed for business burnout? Get practical help and support with my special programme.