Stress Management in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Venturing into entrepreneurship, especially for the first time, can be a bit overwhelming. The

experiences are new, the challenges are multiple, and being at the top can be lonely. Business owners are likely to encounter pressured situations on numerous occasions. Consequently, coping strategies are necessary.  We’ve compiled a list of some of the most reliable and effective strategies to keep every entrepreneur afloat and on top.

Recognizing the Source

With the inevitability of stress lurking around the corners of entrepreneurship, it is important to be able to recognize the cause of your heightened emotions. If you can locate the source, you have a greater chance at a successful resolution. For example, if you find that you are regularly stressed around deadlines, assess the situation to determine whether or not it is a time-management issue. If it is, create a schedule that accommodates checkpoints at least two weeks prior to your deadline. In doing so, you reduce the pressure to complete everything in a short time frame and you have the flexibility to make changes or re-evaluate your decisions within reasonable time. In totality, knowing the source of your stress leads to the alleviation of it.

Change your Environment

Sometimes your work environment can be stuffy. You become accustomed to the space that you think, create, and close deals in day after day. This repetition can result in a feeling of entrapment, stagnation, and overall fatigue. Business owners advise on changing the scenery to keep your mind fresh and elevate your productivity. Whether it’s renting a space for a month or taking one or two days out of the month to work in a coffee shop or a quite conservatory, a new environment stimulates your brain and maintains your sanity.

Get a Team

Business owners are overprotective of their projects and rightfully so. Unfortunately, that over-protectiveness, in some instances, breeds a ‘one-man show’. Consequently, your business, in its entirety, becomes your responsibility. You are in charge of accounting, sales, marketing and advertising, and productivity. While this methodology works for some people  (many start-ups begin this way), after a while it becomes stressful. Add someone to your team to lighten the load. Even a single person makes a difference. Further, it is beneficial to have someone to bounce your ideas off of and company to decompress work tension. You can still maintain the integrity of your business with a team.  Hire individuals who share your passion so you can worry less about their performance and concentrate more on being a successful business.

Healthy Work and Lifestyle Balance

Working is great, but so is not working. Take regular breaks when your body gives you warning signals. Engage in external activities that allow you to recharge your batteries. Many entrepreneurs play sports in their down time to stimulate their brains and heart rate in a healthy and beneficial way. Spend some time outside to breathe in some fresh air. Become intertwined your family and attend as many family-related events as possible. The most successful entrepreneurs understand this balance and actively work to achieve and maintain it.

This list is not exhaustive and is an essential starting up for reducing the entrepreneurial stress of starting a business. In closing, don’t just work hard, work right. 

Mental Health in The Workplace

Given the frequently serious consequences of mental health problems for individuals and their loved ones, there is a strong moral case for businesses to prioritize mental health in the workplace. Moreover, a growing body of studies and polling data suggests there’s an equally strong economic case for taking mental health seriously.

A Gallup poll from 2013 found that absenteeism due to depression alone costs U.S. employers approximately $23 billion per year in lost productivity. Add to this missed work days because of stress-related illnesses, addiction, and other common mental health disorders that afflict millions of people in our society, and the expenses can mount quickly.

Aside from reducing productivity losses and employee turnover, an effective approach to mental health in the workplace can raise workforce morale, and improve relations among employees and managers.

A work environment conducive to good mental health

A manager’s first priority should be to foster a salubrious work environment, and encourage sound habits and practices in general.

•  Keep stock of the essentials, like workplace safety, clean air, good hygiene and organization, proper equipment and training for all employees. Ensure that everyone knows and understands h/er own role and assigned tasks.

•  Promote mental health literacy in the workplace. Consider supplementing your organization’s current training regimen with expert seminars that address warning signs of mental health problems, stigma and unwarranted feelings of shame or embarrassment around mental illness, popular misconceptions about the mentally ill, and common but inaccurate descriptions of mental illness.

•  Involve staff members in decision-making. Ideally, they should feel that their point of view and individual agency are respected, as opposed to feeling like cogs in a machine who robotically follow orders.

•  Promote work-life balance by enabling staff to share the workload, and providing adequate vacation, sick leave, and family-related leave.

•  Insist on respectful behaviour and inclusiveness at every level of your organization.

•  Provide opportunities for skills acquisition and advancement.

•  Recognize and express gratitude for good work at all levels, and acknowledge individual employees’ contributions to the overall success of the enterprise.

•  Provide employee feedback mechanisms, and have an appropriate conflict resolution strategy.

•  Encourage openness, honesty, and respectful discourse around mental illness, emphasizing the notion that mental health challenges are nothing to be ashamed of. (This is especially important, since concealed mental health problems can undermine an employee’s performance and overall health.)

•  Remember that people with mental health challenges may be taking psychoactive medication as part of a treatment program, and/or attending regular therapy sessions. These obligations may preclude them from putting in long hours at work, or limit their flexibility in terms of shift-scheduling.

Aspects of the physical environment can also help to promote good mental health. For example, studies indicate that the presence of green plants in an office environment can help reduce negative emotions like stress, anger, and fatigue, while promoting focus, productivity, and job satisfaction. Nowadays, a growing number of office environments offer recreation spaces to help employees regain their focus, and some even have dedicated nap rooms!

Accommodating mental illness

Just as with physical disabilities and chronic conditions, reasonable accommodations can often be made for employees with mental health challenges, helping them perform to their full potential at work. The first and most crucial step is to overcome the stigma that our society has historically attached to mental illness, so that staff members who face mental health difficulties can freely articulate their needs.

Conquer the Fear of Saying No

If you ask a person on the street which word is likelier to contribute to personal and professional success—yes or no—that individual will probably choose the former. But as many leaders in the world of business and politics will tell you, learning to say no can be every bit as important as knowing how to say yes. The reasons for this are largely intuitive: by turning down some engagements, you free up time, energy, and mental focus for the endeavours you find most inspiring.

However, many of us feel distinctly uncomfortable with saying no, often because we worry that doing so may cause offence or otherwise lead to negative social consequences. Insofar as it compels us to take on more commitments than we can handle at any one time, this anxiety can hamper our pursuit of the professional and life goals that are most important to us.

Establish and respect your own boundaries.

Your work is surely a high priority for you—but so are your health, quality time with friends and family, leisure time, and other hobbies or avocations. Think of your lifestyle as analogous to a meal: nearly everyone would prefer a flavourful medley of high-quality, healthy ingredients to a monochromatic, humdrum dish of little nutritional value. Likewise, if you devote all of your time to a single work-related project, you probably won’t enjoy a wholesome existence.

Once you set parameters like the number of hours you’re willing to devote to a new project, and commitment versus expected benefit, you’ll find it easier to distinguish the undertakings that really interest you from the also-rans.

Be honest with yourself.

Before you dive headfirst into any significant assignment, ask yourself the following questions:

1)  Am I genuinely passionate about this project?

2)  Five years from now, will I look back on my efforts with pride?

3)  Is it consistent with my values?

4)  Why is it important to me to take this on?

5)  Will I be able to dedicate sufficient time to this?

6)  Do I have the necessary technical expertise, and/or can I partner with someone who does?

Unless you can answer all or most of those questions, you’re better off saving your talents for something that’s more up your alley. Otherwise, you’ll likely either feel stretched too thin, or a sense of regret about the opportunity cost.

Know your strengths.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. The first step on the path to success in any field is to identify your own. Once you know where your own aptitudes and deficiencies lie, you can work to refine the former and improve the latter. You’ll also know which of your personal attributes you can rely on in high-pressure situations.

The willingness to venture outside one’s comfort zone is often an admirable quality. But if a project either isn’t your cup of tea from a technical standpoint, or you sense that your time would be better spent elsewhere, you should consider either turning it down or delegating it.

Strategies for politely declining:

“I’d like to know more. Can you send me more information?” This serves two purposes. First, it provides a test of the other individual’s commitment; if you never hear from h/er, you will know. Second, it gives you the opportunity to learn more about the endeavour itself before deciding whether to take it on.

“Let me check my calendar and get back to you.” This is not an explicit demurral, but it does enable you to buy time. It is possible that the person who pitched the idea to you will forget after a while. Alternatively, on further reflection you may decide that the project is right up your alley.

“This seems like an excellent, worthwhile idea, but unfortunately...” Shortage of time is an excuse that most people will accept, particularly if they’re not close friends of yours who happen to be conversant with your schedule.

Can Meditation Help You Leave Stress Behind?

At some point in your life, you may have asked yourself the question “Should I take up meditation?” There really is no right or wrong answer. For many people, meditation is an effective stress reliever and aid to productivity, concentration, and personal contentment. Others, having attempted meditation, still fail to see what all the hype is about. The only way to find out which camp you fall into is to give it a try.

Meditation is a skill.

Like all skills, it can be acquired, cultivated, and eventually more-or-less mastered. But you won’t become an expert overnight. Finally, as with all other skills, consistency and discipline are key: your progress is more likely to be noticeable and beneficial if you practice diligently.

The goal is to release tension, and quiet your mind.

If you’ve seen the second film in the Star Wars series, The Empire Strikes Back, you will recall the Millennium Falcon’s perilous voyage through an asteroid field, with Imperial fighters hot on its tail. Commander Han Solo and his passengers manage to evade their pursuers and navigate a slew of hurtling boulders suspended in the vacuum of space, only to find themselves engulfed inside a giant carnivorous worm disguised as a cave.

The asteroid field is analogous to an overloaded mind, deluged with thoughts, distractions, and stressors, and generally unable to function at its full capacity. Busy people are often haunted by the spectre of opportunity costs—the notion that they could or should be doing something more productive at this very moment, and the irritation of knowing that, try as they might, they simply can’t perform five complex tasks at once. If you’ve experienced these feelings, you know how challenging it can be to escape the mental asteroid field, and regain your focus and composure. An effective round of meditation can help to quiet your mind by redirecting your attention toward a single objective.

Start with a simple breathing meditation.

Begin by finding a relatively quiet space, and seat yourself comfortably in a balanced position, with your back straight but not rigid. A straight spine, with your chin facing forward rather than drooping down, is important in order to avoiding lethargy or sluggishness during and after a meditation session.

Next, close your eyes. Search out tense areas of your body with your mind, and give them permission to relax. Direct your focus toward your breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose and exhale fully, imagining all the while that the air entering your respiratory tract is cool, pure, relaxing fuel, while the air that exits your body is hot, tension-filled exhaust. I find it helpful to pretend that oxygen is filling my body all the way up to the peak of my forehead. I then release 100% of the breath stored within me, all the way down to the pit of my stomach.

 Feel the sensation in your nostrils as air flows in and out. Concentrate on this as you relax, and gradually settle into a natural, comfortable respiratory pattern. An array of thoughts will probably enter your mind at this stage; this is perfectly normal. Gently direct your attention back toward your lungs and nostrils, and resist the temptation of allowing your mind to wander far off course. Continue this exercise for about 10 minutes, or until your focus settles singularly on your breathing, your brain quietens, and you feel ready to resume your day.

Potential benefits.

Meditation yields different results for different people. If you commit to a 10- to 15-minute session daily, you may find that your overall stress level declines, your concentration improves, and your relations with others become smoother and more amicable. Over the long term, diminished stress and strife and greater personal contentment can promote improved physical health and career longevity too. In any event, there is no harm in trying.

Restoring your attention span

The rapid march of technology in our times is truly remarkable, and shows no sign of abetting. Smart phones exemplify this trend: over the past decade they have become as ubiquitous as credit cards—even the majority of schoolchildren in our society seem to own one. In fact, the presence of smart phones in our lives has become so prominent, that many of us strain to recall how we managed to function with landlines and dial-up internet just fifteen years ago.

While the advantages of this development are clear—extraordinary connectivity with the people in our lives, and an unprecedented repository of knowledge at our fingertips—the pitfalls are less frequently acknowledged. (Leave aside, for the moment, the capacity for governments to track their citizens’ movements and communications as never before.) A growing body of research suggests that one pernicious effect of the newfangled gadgets has been a diminution of the average person’s attention span. In other words, as the number of visual and auditory stimuli in our environment increases, our ability to concentrate on one single element of our surroundings tends to suffer. This can put a serious damper on both our productivity, and our ability to think deeply about things.

To enhance and regain your concentration, try the following:

Remove clutter and distractions. If you face an important task that you anticipate will require your undivided attention for an extended period of time, remove as many of the unneeded stimuli from your environment as possible—particularly those which tend to distract you. Switch off your phone temporarily, close unnecessary windows on your computer desktop, and remove superfluous items from your workspace. This requires a bit of discipline, but the effort is usually worth it.

 Ambient sound. This is not a recommendation that necessarily applies to everyone. Some people are best able to concentrate in silence, others find that a bit of music or bustle (as in a coffee shop) actually enhances their productivity.

 Go for a walk, jog, or bike ride. A bit of light exercise in advance to tackling a demanding task will facilitate the flow of oxygen to your brain, and induce the release of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine—both of which will, among other benefits, help you concentrate. A brief stroll has the added advantage of giving you time to collect your thoughts, and temporarily remove yourself from sources of stress in your work environment.

Make time for sleep. It may seem obvious, but too many people with demanding schedules tend to sacrifice sleep on the altar of progress. Now that the aforementioned smart phones have afforded us the ability to communicate with each other anywhere, anytime, and through a variety of channels, the temptation to forgo sleep is particularly acute. However, remember that fatigue will invariably detract from your productivity the following day—while a chronic lack of sleep can have detrimental effects on your health, quality of life, and career longevity. Set firm ground rules for yourself and your co-workers: if they e-mail you at 1:45 a.m., they shouldn’t expect a reply before morning.

Keep healthy snacks on hand. The contribution of proper nourishment to your ability to concentrate is significant. Fruit, granola bars, yogourt, and nuts are preferable to sugary items like doughnuts, candies, and milk chocolate. Eschew sugary drinks like pop and from-concentrate juices, and aim to limit your coffee/caffeine consumption to no more than a cup or two per day. (See Make time for sleep, above.) Less caffeine generally translates into fewer trips to the bathroom and more time for productive effort.

How to Burn the Candle at Both Ends and Stay Healthy

After packing a 40-hour workweek into just three days, and with several projects still to get through in the four remaining days, I had to take a deep breath and think about how I was going to make it to the end of the week and still have my sanity. Every so often, no matter what’s on our plate, it’s important to make time to look out for number one and make sure that all those hours, and all that pressure, don’t catch up to you and knock you down. One of my favorite health podcasts recently took the opportunity to address this very question about how to stay healthy while doing shift work. While the podcast is specifically addressing people who work off hours, most of the tenets of health outlined in the podcast are universal.

It’s all about the Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that’s naturally produced by the body that regulates the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. During the day melatonin is naturally low and high at night, and is a result of millions of years of evolution of our bodies working in harmony with light and dark cycles. This rise and fall in melatonin secretion is related to our circadian rhythm and what happens when we work late into the night is we expose ourselves to artificial light which disrupts melatonin production, raising cortisol (also known as our stress hormone), and interfering with our body’s natural rhythm. The health effects of this hormone disruption are significant.

Some frightening statistics

Every cell in the body seems to be affected by this disruption and shift work is associated with a wide variety of problems including insomnia, depression, and gastrointestinal disturbances, as well as an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, decreases in fertility, increased risk for diabetes and other metabolic disorders, increased risk for cancer, and an overall increased risk of death. More specifically, rates of prostate and breast cancer in men and women who do shift work rise 40% to 70%. There’s also some evidence suggesting that one’s risk of stroke rises by 5% for every year of doing shift work.

The deeper problem

Obviously it’s not as simple as just hormone secretion. What we find is that people who do shift work, or who work late into the night, also adopt a number of poor lifestyle habits.  For example, shift workers are more likely to eat at restaurants or eat poor quality fast food instead of cooking at home. They’re also less likely to seek an adequate amount of exercise. Mixing poor lifestyle habits with hormone disruption appears to be a recipe for poor health.

What can you do?

Well the obvious answers here are to make sure you’re eating a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep, getting enough exercise, and, when possible, obeying our body’s natural rhythms. Less obvious is a handy trick called light control. That is, first, ensuring that when you’re sleeping during the day that you’re blocking out all light sources and sleeping in total darkness. Second, while working at night it’s important to use the right kind of lighting, and when working at night you should be using very bright LED lighting at full power. The idea here is essentially to trick  your body that night is day and day is night. Chris Kresser also recommends that when leaving work in the morning when the sun is beginning to rise, that shift workers filter out blue wavelengths of light by wearing amber tinted glasses. By filtering out these blue wavelengths you are sending signals to your body that nighttime is coming, even if it’s not.

Get more information about this podcast by following this link:

http://chriskresser.com/how-shift-work-impacts-your-health-and-what-to-do-about-it

Got Tax and Financial Stress? Here's How to Avoid It

There is one time of year we all dread. No, it's not going over to the in-laws for Thanksgiving. It's tax day. Whether you pay your business taxes on the due date or in advance this can be a stressful time of the year.

Depending on the circumstances, you could find yourself writing out a huge check to the government that wipes out your cash reserves. It's no wonder your blood pressure spikes and the headaches come on.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be that way.

Yes, you'll still have to pay taxes but there is no reason why you should stress out about this part of your business. First thing to understand - everyone is in the same boat. Beyond that there are some tactics you can adopt to help manage your small business finances and avoid getting on the government's bad side.

Make a Plan

A business's success is built on the back of meeting deadlines. That comes with shipping products to customers and paying the bills. It's important to have a well thought out plan for your entire business. This is not something that should be "kept in your head."

You should be using a written calendar that covers all your responsibilities both to customers and to the government. If you know a payment is approaching you won't feel burdened or surprised when it comes time to write the check.

It comes down to a matter of making priorities. And yes, there is an app for that!

Don't Do it Alone

Feelings of stress go hand in hand with feelings of being overwhelmed. When was the last time you asked for help? As a small business owner there are a lot of new aspects of your business you thought you wouldn't have to contend with. Sure, you knew you'd be paying the bills but keeping up with your company's Facebook page and generating original content for your website? Did you budget time for that? More importantly, do you know what you're doing when it comes to optimizing search engines and social media?

You don't have to become an expert because there are plenty of experts out there in cyber land willing to lend a hand. Even your kids could probably be a big help posting notices or even cleaning up around the office. Start asking for help and watch the stress melt away.

Take Time for Yourself

All work and no play? We've heard it before and it has meaning for the small business owner. The first few weeks or months of your start up will be grueling. No doubt about that. However, that doesn't mean running yourself into the ground. You certainly can't pay your tax bills that way. Leave some relaxation time for yourself and/or with your family every week. Schedule it like a business meeting and hold it with the same level of importance. You'll find that approaching your business after taking a "time out" won't be a struggle. 

How to deal with stress when starting your small business

Congratulations! You’ve just got your brand new small business up and running. It took a lot of hard work and planning but you can finally see your dreams coming true. Does this mean that all the stress associated with your start-up is now over?

Sadly, not likely.

As you settle into the routine of operating your small business you’ll be introduced to a whole new set of potentially stressful situations. Number one is family-related stress - the concern that you’re spending too much time at your business and not enough time with your family. Finding a way to strike that balance might be the key to alleviating that stress. Don’t let the excuse of “I don’t have the time” stand in your way. Make the time!

Other than family, here are some more stress busting tips you can start using today:

·         Get Physical: As in exercise. If you didn’t work out before you started your business then this is the perfect time to start. Join a gym and devote some time to sweating it out. This doesn’t mean turning into a gym rat but even a 30 minute cardio workout 3 times a week can help loosen up your muscles and clear your mind.

·         Have a Laugh or Cry: Bottling up your emotions is not healthy. That holds true whether you’re a business owner or not. Watching a funny movie and allowing yourself to laugh is going to release certain chemicals in your brain which will generate good feelings. It’s like giving your brain a “break” from all the things it has to deal with. Likewise, crying can also be stress reducing. This doesn’t mean standing in the middle of your business and breaking down in tears. However, if you can find a quiet moment and the tears do come, let them flow freely. You’ll feel better!

·         Stay Organized: As you embarked on your small business start-up you probably put together a business plan. You need to apply that same level of organization to your new day-to-day routine. Yes, there will be the occasional time which will cause you to deviate from that plan but having structure allows you to be flexible. Perhaps the most important “meeting” on your daily schedule is dinner with your family. That’s one item you shouldn’t neglect.

·         Treat Yourself: Being a business owner means you are suddenly in charge of a lot of people’s economic well-being. You’ll be constantly tending to your staff and your clients. But what about you? Often stress builds up as a result of not taking care of your own needs. As you plan out your week, carve out some special time to do whatever it is that brings you pleasure. It might mean going to the movies alone or spending time in the garden or just sitting by the shore watching a sunset. Whatever that moment is, include it in your schedule. Don’t wait for stress to overwhelm your life.