So you’re a solopreneur. It all falls on your shoulders. Are you often overwhelmed by your long “To Do” list? Are you always feeling frustrated at work? Do you come home exhausted and drained, without any energy to do all the personal things you would usually accomplish at home? These are some classic signs of solopreneur burnout, and we have some important tips for helping deter this effect.
Avoid Solopreneur Burnout: 3 Tips to Keep You Sane and Satisfied
As a solopreneur, you’re expected to do it all – you are the boss, the manager, the marketing team, the PR professional, the grunt worker. It’s no wonder so many solo entrepreneurs are approaching a burnout – a successful business requires a lot of attention. Usually, solopreneurs work so much more than they did when they were working at a typical 9-5 because the success of their business depends on getting all the important tasks done.
So what’s the best way to avoid solopreneur burnout? You have to work smarter, not harder. Here are a few important tips that guide you towards a more balanced work life:
Tip #1: Share the Workload
As a solopreneur, you are very protective over your brand, and that makes sense: you put a lot of effort into building it from scratch. That being said, if your business is building quickly and you are being overwhelmed with work, you need to start considering sharing the workload. You have three routes that you can take when it comes to spreading the work.
Automate
You can save time and energy by incorporating automation into various areas of your business. Marketing especially is set up for some automation – there are so many options out there these days to help you automate your social media posting, email marketing, and drip campaigns, and even sales lead generation.
Start small with one automated function, test it to make sure you’re getting the most out of it, and then work on expanding. It may take some effort to set up from the get-go, but it’s well worth it when your automation is running smoothly and you don’t have to worry about it.
Delegate
Whether you have a full-time team or not, you should consider delegating some of the work. If you do have team members, taking the time to show them the ropes on certain tasks that you’re willing to trust them with will definitely help your sanity and workload in the long run.
Even if you don’t have a team, you likely have some trusted family members or friends that you can recruit to help with getting the word out about your brand.
Outsource
Sometimes you need to expand out of your immediate trust circle and bring in someone to help. Taking some time from the get-go to find someone you trust to outsource some of the mundane work is so important. That way you can shift your focus from just maintaining the basics to growing your business quickly and efficiently.
When choosing someone to outsource your work to, try to find a professional that can fully take on whatever project you need them to take on without much help or guidance. It may cost a little more, but you will have peace of mind knowing that your work is in good hands, not to mention, the risk of reaching solopreneur burnout will be greatly diminished because you will have a professional helping you take care of your business.
Tip #2: Take your Hands Off
It’s true, your business is your baby and you want to make sure that it is well taken care of. That being said, it’s ok to not give everything the utmost personal touch. In the tech world, there is always a lot of talk about a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – that means that you should put out the minimum out to the public without losing quality and see what happens.
Once you have that minimum down and you can get some feedback on what your audience actually wants, you can start to build on top of it and create a better, more personalized experience for them.
The one caveat is that you shouldn’t give up the QUALITY of your brand when taking your hands off, you should just start at the beginning with the basics and scale as you need to. As you start scaling, your brand will likely have more income coming in so you can consider bringing in additional team members to build a more robust experience for your audience.
The moral of the story is that whether you offer a product, service, or experience, it’s ok to start with a minimal, quality experience and then build onto it as you can expand in a way that will keep you from avoiding solopreneur burnout.
Tip #3: Unplug Once In a While
It’s a notorious issue for solopreneurs that often leads to solopreneur burnout: overworking. Your business depends on you, so you never stop putting effort into it. Evenings, weekends, even when you go out of town – there’s no time that’s off limits for working on your brand. Unfortunately, that’s a great way to burn out quickly and kill your business. It’s great to be excited and bring a high-intensity, but you need to make sure to do it at a level you can maintain for the long run.
Unplugging from your devices and taking time away has been proven to increase creativity and recharge you. What you do in that recharge time is up to you – but make sure it’s something you love to do.
That being said, it’s really important to note that you should make sure not to work in that time. Solopreneurs are notorious for being “workaholics” – they can’t seem to step away from their work. So when you unplug from your main project, make sure that you ACTUALLY take a break – DON’T use that time to work on a side project or check your phone every few minutes.
Truly take the time to unplug away from your business and enjoy a relaxing activity or hobby, whether it’s taking a walk outdoors or putting aside some time for a fun and relaxing craft project.
SEE ALSO: PODCAST: 3 Tips to Avoid Entrepreneur Burnout
Final Thoughts
Being a solopreneur is a huge undertaking, and it’s important for you to make sure to create a situation for yourself where you avoid burnout. Your business depends on you staying sane and happy, and bringing some balance to your life will ensure that you are able to continue supporting your business in the best way.
That’s why you should make sure to unplug on a regular basis and consider delegating or outsourcing work to help you maintain your successes for a long time.
What’s the biggest thing that’s driving you towards burnout? Let’s commiserate together – let us know in the comments.
