The cost of burnout and how to avoid it
How many business ideas have you had that didn’t come to fruition? How many content ideas are living in your head, but haven’t been created? How many different directions can you see yourself taking your business?
My educated guess is that the answer to all of these questions is something along the lines of, “so many it’s overwhelming.”
I regularly work with creatives and business owners on honing in on their marketing plans and strategy, and more often than not there is no shortage of ideas. There’s rarely a lack of inspiration or an empty to-do list.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
More often than not I’m actually shutting ideas down (in a loving way), streamlining processes, and encouraging entrepreneurs to be more realistic with what they focus on and commit to.
Because although their ideas might be new and fun and exciting, there is always a cost to pursuing them.
(True confession: I work with people in my business who kindly help me stay realistic, too.)
Saying yes to one project means saying no to another.
Committing to creating another product or offer requires time and energy that therefore can’t be spent promoting offers that are already in place.
Investing resources in a new idea means other ideas (or current projects) are left on the backburner, or not given the attention they deserve.
It’s why I recently wrote about the importance of objectivity when it comes to your products and services.
The question most business owners are struggling with isn't, “how can I come up with new ideas,” but “how do I know which idea to focus my time, energy, and resources on, in a way that will bring the most impact?”
Having this conversation time and time again with clients, friends, and family, is why I was so inspired by this tweet:
Too many businesses fail to stand the test of time
The stats on the number of businesses that fail each year are fairly consistent:
Approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open
Around 45% fail during the first five years, and
About 65% fail during the first 10 years
😩
This is not only discouraging for aspiring entrepreneurs, but current business owners as well!
If so many businesses fail, how do you know you won’t be one of them?
Based on the “failures” I see (failures being a loose term here, simply describing businesses that were started and now no longer exist, and nothing to do with the individual or their perception of whether they succeeded, grew, or learned from their endeavors), it comes down to a lack of clarity, strategy, and direction.
Far too often I see business owners spinning their wheels – trying to do way more than they have the resources for, because they don’t have a plan in place.
Goals on their own aren’t enough to avoid burnout
Goals are a great starting point for business owners, but they aren’t everything.
Goals do little to no good if they aren’t connected with tangible actions that will help bring those goals to fruition.
Consider any of the travel dreams you have. Unless you start planning out the trip, researching flights and hotels, and putting money down to secure your tickets and stay, that trip will exist solely as a dream.
It’s the same concept when it comes to your business.
Goals to create a certain revenue, attain a specific number of clients, or build a team to a defined level aren’t going to happen unless you start working backwards to determine the steps you need to take to get there.
Understandably, if your goals aren’t being realized, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated, experience burnout, and give up on achieving them altogether.
(It’s one of the reasons so many businesses “fail.”)
That’s why we need a greater focus on the plan and strategy.
A sustainable plan is the antidote to burnout
A lot of clients I work with are frustrated with the lack of traction they’re seeing. But the reason they aren’t seeing “traction” is because it’s either:
Not defined well enough, so there’s no way to tell if they’ve reached it, or
There isn’t enough consistent effort to warrant results
Your plan needs to define where you’re going (your big picture goals), the strategic approach you’re going to take, and the tangible tactics or action steps that are going to support you in moving towards your vision.
You also need to ensure this plan is realistic.
Because burnout can also quickly come to those who are simply overworking themselves.
Consider:
The sustainability of the activity
You need to set a frequency of activity that you can keep up.
While posting on every social media platform 1-2 times a day might theoretically help you achieve your goal of reaching more people, it’s also likely not realistic for you to maintain that consistency long-term unless you have a growing team committed to content creation.
Even then the question becomes, is this frequency really necessary?
Do you need to post on every platform or is there a more targeted approach you can take? Is this where your resources are best served? Is this the best way to reach your goal or is it just one part of the puzzle?
The level of action you decide on has to make sense for you AND the audience you’re trying to reach.
Even if you can handle the creation side, can your audience handle the consumption of the information you’re sharing or are you going to overwhelm them?
Remember that there is an opportunity cost to everything you choose to say yes to. What are you saying no to by prioritizing this action over another?
The longevity of ideas
Along the same lines, a quick way to burnout creatively and mentally is by constantly trying to “keep up” – with trends, new platforms being introduced, or with everything your competition is doing.
Avoid falling prey to shiny object syndrome.
While you can utilize a current content trend to benefit your business every once and a while (assuming it works seamlessly with your current content and offers a great opportunity to share your product or offer), trying to keep up with every new trend online is going to result in burnout, frustration, and disjointed content that fails to offer real substance.
By very definition trends are short-term and constantly changing which is a great formula for becoming overwhelmed trying to keep up.
Because of their popularity, trends can also quickly become saturated, meaning it’s challenging to stand out.
Opt instead to create a plan that prioritizes the longevity of ideas.
How can you create more evergreen (timeless) content? What product or offer is going to stand the test of time? How can you ensure your messaging is consistent and reliable?
Time-based articles or posts (for example seasonal or holiday content) can make up a portion of your content, but in general your priority needs to be on providing value and developing trust long-term through your content, marketing, and offers.
The alignment of ideas with your goals
Will your actions truly help you reach your goals, or are you just doing it because someone else is doing it?
Every business is unique which is why there’s no one-size-fits-all marketing plan.
Be strategic! Consider where there may be a disconnect in your current marketing strategy and mitigate it.
For example, if you’re trying to reach business owners in their 40s, you likely don’t need to show up on Tik Tok (consider prioritizing LinkedIn instead). If you’re trying to reach 15-year old students though, Tik Tok might be exactly what you need to grow your business.
I know it can be tempting to chase the newest thing rather than staying focused on what you’re already doing, but in order to create sustainable progress and business growth, the actions we’re spending our time, money, and energy on need to make sense.
As I wrote in my blog on making data-based decisions,
“It’s simply unsustainable to make these investments [in time, money, and energy] time and time again unless the impact the tool [or platform, or idea] will make for your business is proven and significant.”
If you’re unsure, your best plan of action is likely to wait and see.
Focus on creating a plan that reflects your long-term vision, and you’ll find it easier to stay focused day in and day out.
Rest is productive and necessary
Hustle culture has unfortunately become praised and rewarded in our society, but it’s unsustainable.
Rest is not only productive, it’s necessary!
Because all the, “you can sleep when you’re dead,” mentality does is bring on fatigue, illness, and death prematurely.
Our bodies and minds need regular time and space to recover.
And while this can be challenging to prioritize as a new business owner or entrepreneur, there are a lot of ways you can reclaim your time so that you’re able to disconnect from your business when you need to.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Whether that help comes from a friend or family member picking up slack in your personal life, or through hiring support in your business so you can delegate tasks, recognizing that you can’t do everything on your own is going to help your business scale more quickly – without the costs of burnout.
There are also a lot of free and low-cost resources you can tap into for support! From networking groups, to non-profit coaching for start-ups, to containers that offer support with marketing (hello Magnificent Marketers Club), taking some time to research programs that might be able to pour knowledge and guidance into your business can be transformational.
Automate what you can
We all have recurring, repetitive tasks in our business that don’t need to be done by us.
Automate what you can!
Whether it’s sending a welcome email to those who sign-up for your email list, or creating an automated onboarding process for new clients, automations can help you save time, and can reduce human error (as long as they’re set-up properly).
Here are some guidelines to support you.
Create boundaries around your work
No one should be working 8-12 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
I know you have big dreams and goals for your business. But trust me when I say that overworking and bringing yourself to the point of burnout is not the answer.
Book yourself a vacation. Schedule self-care into your calendar. Set out-of-office emails up when you need to. Try to keep consistent working hours when you can. Make time for activities that support your physical and mental health.
Create boundaries around the types of work, marketing activities, and new endeavours you dive into. Be meticulous around what you say yes and no to.
Prioritize YOU and your wellbeing above your business.
Keep sustainability in mind when vetting new ideas or business offerings
As I did in my post on objectivity around products and services, I want to clarify that I’m not here to tell you to think smaller, halt growth, or to dismiss all your new ideas.
Growing, pivoting, and responding to customer feedback, economic changes, or the ever-changing societal landscape are all important elements of running a successful business so you aren’t left behind.
And creative thinking is a valuable asset, regardless of the business you’re in.
What I am encouraging though, is a standardized process for vetting ideas or pivots in your business, and a healthy objectivity when it comes to new ideas, marketing initiatives, services, or products.
Keep long-term growth and sustainability in mind to help you avoid making impulsive changes that you can’t maintain.
Contrary to popular (loud) opinion, I reject the idea that “hustle” and burnout are prerequisites for success. In fact, I’d say the opposite is true.
Moving slowly but consistently towards your goals will set you and your business up for the kind of success that lets you pursue the right ideas instead of watching them die while your business becomes a statistic.