Avoiding Burn Out in Your Business
Welcome back to The Spa Business Building Podcast. I'm Tiffany, your host. And in today's episode, I wanted to talk about something that I feel like doesn't get a lot of discussion, and it's burnout in our business.
It's a real thing, and I feel like so many business owners, solo business owners, we push ourselves to the point of burnout. And then oftentimes, this leads to us closing our businesses, not making a profit. It affects our mental health, it affects our family life.
And today, I wanted to talk about what the signs of burnout are and what we can do to prevent burnout. So I did some research. I wanted to make sure that I came prepared.
I looked it up. There are about five stages of burnout. And I read through the articles.
I realized, yep, that's pretty true. Five stages of burnout. So I've been there, and I know for me, when I start feeling like I'm heading towards burnout, I start feeling more irritable.
And I get snappy at my family. And then I have to take a step back and be like, whoa, I'm working way too hard. My mental health is suffering.
I have to take a break. So burnout occurs when you're exposed to ongoing chronic stress. It results in fatigue, can result in depression, and it's many business owners are facing this, especially when you're doing it yourself, especially when you have other stressful things in your life and your personal life.
If you're a mom and you're managing a household at home and you feel like you're not getting a lot of help, and then you also have to do the tasks at work, running your business, it can lead to burnout quickly. So let's identify the five stages of burnout. So the first stage isn't really burnout.
It's more of a honeymoon stage. You've just opened your business, and you're feeling excited and ready to start something new, and you're jumping at this new opportunity, you're happy, you're feeling productive, you have no real stress, I mean, slight stress, because you're like, I just opened a business, but you're excited and you're ready to jump in. The second stage is the onset of stress.
This comes because we're solo beauty and wellness business owners, we are hustling our butts off to get this up and going. We're marketing to clients, we're putting everything together, and it leads to the onset of burnout. You start to feel stagnant, and you may begin to notice that your business is taking more of your time than you anticipated.
And that's where the stress comes in, because you're still managing your personal life that you now have not a lot of time for, and you have this business that is taking up all of your time. So that's stage two. Stage three is the chronic stress.
You've been in stage two for so long, it's now become chronic. Your frustration levels are rising, and you're feeling increasingly stressed out. You may start to notice that your sleep patterns are suffering.
You are just starting to feel more fatigued. It's just really starting to take up more of your life. You may even start to procrastinate more, because you feel so overwhelmed, you don't know where to start, you have all these things to do, that you're just kind of procrastinating and putting them off.
So that's stage three. And stage four is the burnout stage. You've been hustling so hard that you've hit the wall.
You are burnt out. You may start to, you know, feel more exhaustion. You are starting to get crabby and snap at people.
This is me, this is my burnout, this is when I know I've hit the wall. The fifth stage is habitual burnout. When you haven't actually recovered from burnout, and it's just an ongoing thing, that's habitual burnout.
So what does burnout feel like? I've identified the stages, but you're wondering, okay, is this me? Am I burnt out?
When you're in the stage of burnout, you are feeling physically and emotionally drained. You're exhausted. And people who feel burnout often feel tired, weary, fatigued, their emotional energy is just zapped, and they just feel like they can't cope with their responsibilities.
You may feel more self-doubt. Like, when you're experiencing burnout, it's not uncommon to doubt your abilities and question whether or not you're capable of performing your job, because you're so stressed out and you're just wondering, like, can I even do this? What am I working for?
Like, sometimes you feel like you're not moving forward. Like, why am I even doing this? So those are some of the signs that you're feeling burnt out.
But what can you do to recover from burnout? So some of the ways to, like, recover or prevent workout is, first, you need to recognize the stages of burnout, where you're at, practicing consistent self-care. We are constantly giving to others.
Our families, if we're a caregiver, and if we're a beauty and wellness service provider, we are constantly giving to others. We need to give back to ourselves, and if you've heard the saying, you have to fill your cup to pour into others, that's what you need to do. Practice your own self-care.
Go get your own massages and facials. Get your nails done. Whatever self-care looks like to you, do it.
Whatever is going to make you feel good. Also, striving for a work-life balance. Oftentimes, we are hustling so much that our work-life balance starts to blend together.
We're working on the weekends and at nights and during the day. Whenever we have a free moment, I know that I do this because my schedule is all over the place with my kids and my husband. I don't have a consistent schedule of my own that I was working from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed, and it was exhausting.
But when you're striving to disconnect, set a schedule. Tell yourself that you're not working past 6 doing admin tasks. I work till 8 o'clock some nights.
I work from like noon to 8, and I come home, and I don't do more work. I am done with admin tasks. I don't answer texts.
I don't answer emails. I don't answer messages. I am done for the night.
I have automated messages on social media that these are my answering hours. I do not answer emails before 9 o'clock until 6 o'clock, and I don't answer emails on the weekends. Now, sometimes if there's an emergency and someone is canceling an appointment or something has come up, then I will answer them, letting them know.
I understand that this is an urgent situation, and that is why I'm answering you. If someone is trying to book an appointment, I will let them know that these are my office hours and that they can schedule online, and I'll give them the link, and that's it. Usually, I will tell them that I'm a solo service provider and this is my hours for my family.
So separating those. It's also a good idea to experiment with mindfulness. One thing that I like to do is remind myself of what I'm grateful for, what I'm happy for, bring me back to reality.
It calms my senses, and just practicing mindfulness and gratitude can really be beneficial for your mental health to help overcome and prevent those signs of burnout. It's also a good idea to engage in physical activity. Take a walk, get some sunshine, vitamin D, wear your sunscreen, but you still need to get outside, fresh air, eating healthy.
It's so good for your mental health. And I know that sometimes when I start working too much, and I neglect working out or just a little bit of physical activity, I start to feel it, I feel fatigued, I feel tired, I feel irritable. And once I work out, I sleep so much better.
I'm so much like less stressed out and overwhelmed, and it really is helpful. So other things that I like to do to prevent burnout or to help me come back from burnout is I started practicing that wonderful art of not comparing myself to others. Stop comparing yourself to others, because when you're looking at what everyone else is doing, and you're comparing how far you've come or where you should be, then you start working harder, that leads to burnout.
Stop doing it. Stop scrolling on Instagram and social media and comparing your lives to the tailored social media lives of others. The grass is not always greener, you don't know how far they've come, how hard they worked.
And it's easy to make something look a certain way on social media when that's not the reality of it. And like I said, setting aside time to do the things that you love, so self-care, but I love to read. So I make sure that I set aside time every night before I go to bed to disconnect from my phone, from social media, and I read.
And it makes me feel so much better, but even just doing other things, connecting with people, spending time with your family, have a board night, go bowling, spend time with friends, get out in nature, snuggle your dog. Another really great way to help with burnout in your business as a solo business owner is planning your content, setting up really good systems in your business so you have a well-oiled machine and you don't have to always be working and hustling. You can get out of the office and just have your treatment room hours.
You have everything scheduled and planned and automated, and it makes your life so much easier. You don't have to hustle as hard. There's always going to be a sense of hustle when you're a solo business owner.
It's just what it is. But you can go from hustle to ease in your business when you have the right systems, processes, automations in your business. So that's it, my friend.
We talked about the stages of burnout, how to identify them, what it feels like, how to prevent it. So I hope that you found this episode helpful. Please share it with your fellow beauty and wellness besties.
I'm sure that there's someone who needs to hear it, know when to identify the stages of burnout so they aren't leading to burnout in their business. I want to see you thrive, and I want you to go from surviving in your business to thriving in your business, and identifying those stages of burnout can help you do that. So, if you want to continue this conversation, you can find me on Instagram, spa.biz, B-I-Z dot building.
Let's talk more about it. I also have a free Facebook community, Spa Business Building Community. I'll post that in the show notes so you can request to join.
I would love to have you there. You can also find me on my website, spabizbuilding.com. So until next time, friend, stay inspired, stay fabulous, and happy business building.Es posible que este material esté protegido por copyright.
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