Are you living in constant stress because of your business? Are you starting to wonder why you’re even doing this? You, my friend, are on the road to entrepreneur burnout.
Burnout is more than just losing your energy. It’s also losing your motivation to work and socialize, and it’s a big problem for entrepreneurs, regardless of whether your business is successful or struggling.
Entrepreneurial burnout doesn’t just pose a problem for you or your mental health either, but it will also impact your whole business, maybe even resulting in a loss of customers. Keep reading to learn more about entrepreneur burnout and what you can do to prevent or treat it.
What Is Entrepreneurial Burnout?
To put it plainly, entrepreneurial burnout is when you essentially “burn out” with your business. It’s a state of just being done with your business. There’s no drive to keep it afloat, let alone to make it successful.
When you’ve burned out completely, you have no energy, inspiration, or motivation to do anything. This eventually hurts your mental health, not to mention your business. You see, when you’ve burned out, you don’t perform half as well, and trust me when I say your clients will notice.
It’s so important to prevent entrepreneurial burnout before it happens because once it does, it can lead to nervous breakdowns and even physical issues like ulcers and heart disease.
Different Types Of Burnout:
Now, there are two types of burnout that you’re susceptible to as an entrepreneur. For prevention or treatment purposes, it’s really important to understand what you’re experiencing.
Existential Burnout: You can’t really find meaning in your business, you have no personal connections inside or outside of your work, or you’re experiencing imposter syndrome.
Circumstantial Burnout: You’re constantly working without breaks or rest, you have no connections or support from loved ones, or you’re having work-life challenges that you’re taking personally.
What Causes Entrepreneur Burnout?
Now, before we start, it’s important to note that there isn’t one specific cause. It can vary between individuals, but the main risk factors for entrepreneur burnout are almost the same as regular burnout. This includes having a poor work-life balance, no support system, lacking validation, and being exposed to constant pressure and stress.
What Makes Entrepreneurs So Susceptible To Burnout?
It has been said by many that among the most susceptible to burnout are entrepreneurs. Let’s take a deeper look into why you’re more at risk for burnout as an entrepreneur.
More Pressure:
As an entrepreneur, you probably work alone, especially if you’re starting a business. That means you tend to have more on your plate. When you work for yourself, there’s no higher management to fall back on when times are tough. Everything is on you, which is a lot of stress for one person.
Startup Stress:
For new entrepreneurs, there’s the stress of starting up. Starting a business is not an easy feat. The journey is filled with extreme highs and lows, which can have an emotional effect on even the most stoic people.
Higher Stakes:
If you rely solely on your business, you’re likely living in a bit of uncertainty. If your business fails, then what? As an entrepreneur, you have more to lose if your business flops. There’s more at stake, which is, again, a lot of stress to put on one person.
No Separation Between Work And Personal Lives:
It’s common for entrepreneurs not to separate their personal and work lives. Entrepreneurs are generally more passionate about their business than the normal 9-5’er. Your business is like your- baby, and you give your all every day to make it successful. This means working days, nights, and everywhere in between.
Personal Attachments:
When your business takes a hit, as an entrepreneur, you’re more likely to take that personally as some sort of failure on your part. Again, your business is like your baby, and when it’s not doing well, you’re likely to be stressed.
Being Passionate:
As crazy as it sounds, the thing that makes you successful can also be your downfall. A recent study by Harvard Business Review shows that being passionate about your business does indeed make you more susceptible to burnout as an entrepreneur.
Signs of Entrepreneur Burnout
Depending on what is causing your burnout and how far it’s gone, you may not experience all of these signs. Everyone experiences burnout differently. Here are the signs of entrepreneur burnout:
Having a generally irritable mood. Being cranky and snappy at others.
Feeling exhausted all the time, regardless of the amount of sleep you get.
Being unable to concentrate or focus on your work.
Having a lack of motivation towards your work, even for enjoyable or important tasks.
Being in a constant state of stress, overwhelm, or anxiety.
Constantly forgetting things.
Losing your creative spark.
Being unable to do your job as well as you once did.
Getting sick all the time or feeling unwell.
The last three signs are when things are almost at their worst. This is where things become difficult, and you may even receive complaints from your clients or customers.
How Do You Prevent Entrepreneur Burnout?
It's really important to catch entrepreneur burnout before it gets to the point where you’re actually burned out because while self-care is great, it's not a cure for burnout. The first step is to identify which symptoms of entrepreneur burnout you’re experiencing and find out what’s causing you to feel so burned out.
Ask yourself: What risk factors are you experiencing and what could be leading you toward burnout?
Here are some other ways to prevent entrepreneur burnout.
Lightening Your Workload
If you’re struggling to keep up with everything, lighten your workload. Take the things you really hate doing and delegate them to a virtual assistant or a freelancer. This will allow you some time and take away some of the stress in your life. There are also some great business apps that can help take a lot off your plate.
Build A Support Network
If you aren’t getting much social interaction or support, reach out to your friends and family. Tell them what you’re experiencing, go for coffee or dinner. You can also join online groups of entrepreneurs to get some support from people who experience the same things as you do!
Establish A Routine
If you feel like you’re constantly living in uncertainty, and there’s no constant in your life, establish a daily routine to help you stay grounded. This can be a nightly routine that helps you separate your work life from your personal life, or scheduling things that make you happy.
How To Treat Entrepreneurial Burnout Once It Has Happened:
According to psychologists, it can take anywhere from months to years to fully recover from entrepreneur burnout once it has fully developed.
Obviously, it all depends on how bad your entrepreneurial burnout is, the stressors you’re facing, and what you’re doing to combat it. If it’s gotten to the point of a nervous breakdown, you may need therapy to help you get back to normal.
But, treating entrepreneur burnout involves the same steps as preventing it, except you’ll need to start prioritizing yourself first. Then, you’ll need to make changes to your life, like the way you work and your social life. Whatever led you to burn out will need to be cut out, or restructured.
Lighten Your Load By Hiring A Content Writer!
The best thing you can do to prevent yourself from burning out is to lighten the load. If that, for you, is writing content for your business’s website or blog, or other content marketing, then you need to hire a content writer.
Good content that improves businesses takes a long time to create. Instead of spending hours stressing to create good blog posts or landing page content, a professional writer can do it for you, maybe even better. It might even improve your business!
If you’re on the road to burnout or are trying to recover from burnout and you need a content creator with expertise in reader engagement and conversion, fill out the form below! Let’s chat about where your content is at, and how I can take all the stress of content marketing off your plate.