Your cell phone is ringing. It’s also beeping, letting you know that a text message has come through. The afternoon is full of back-to-back meetings. You’re sitting at your desk, wondering how the day could already be half over when it feels like you just got started. Looks like it will be another late night …
Sound familiar? If you’re a small business owner, we’re writing with you in mind. We understand all too well the way a person can get swept up in the day-to-day details of running a business, making it difficult to keep your head above water. We also recognize that burnout is a very real issue for small business owners. Whether it’s after one year or ten, everyone finds their breaking point if they are constantly under the gun.
Working on your business vs working in your business
The fact is burnout is inevitable if you don’t have a plan for change. It’s possible to dig deep and work hard for a season of time, especially if it’s in the service of a longer-term possibility; but to be faced with an overwhelming amount of work with no end in sight isn’t tenable, even for the most resilient of spirits.
When small business owners say that they don’t have time to stop working, what they really mean is that they can’t let up on the work they’re doing in the business. These are the day-to-day operations that keep a business afloat. If they don’t pitch in, deadlines will be missed, clients will be lost, and vendors will go unpaid.
They are so preoccupied with working in the business they don’t even realize that they are missing something more critical, which is working on the business.
What’s the difference? Time spent working on the business refers to time spent thinking critically about why the business exists and where it’s headed. It’s time spent working on strategies that can govern day-to-day decisions and proactively steer the company in a certain direction.
When business owners step back from the day-to-day and dedicate time to this type of planning and strategy, they find new solutions from a new perspective. It’s like hopping on the interstate at rush hour and finding yourself stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. You were in a hurry, so you didn’t check traffic beforehand. But taking just one or two minutes at the front end to plan your route would have ultimately saved you time, not cost you.
This is why we caution business owners: you don’t have time for burnout. You’ve invested too much and come too far to give up now. Take some time to plot your course. This post on the Thinking-Doing Sequence is a great place to start.
The ReWild Group is dedicated to multiplying the number of exceptional businesses in the world. Towards that end, we’ve made a number of tools and resources available for free on our website. To go even deeper, check out our series of books for small business owners.