There are many people that dream of one day running a business. The idea of starting a company from the ground up, and making it a success, is looked upon very highly. There are plenty of benefits to starting a business, but there are also plenty of downsides. Like stress and your physical health.
One of the biggest downsides is that running a business can be very stressful. When you’re in charge of an entire company, it puts lots of responsibility on your shoulders. Not only that, but there are loads of causes of stress for business owners.
In this article, we’ll look at the top stressors for business owners, and how to combat them:
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Money Woes
Without out a doubt, the number one cause of stress when running a business revolves around money. Specifically, it revolves around the fear of not having enough, or not making enough, money. Business owners all over the world will have sleepless nights trying to figure out ways to balance their accounts and increase their profit margins. After all, a business that’s not making a profit will ultimately be a business that fails as more money leaves than comes in.
The whole aim of running a business is to make money. Therefore, this isn’t a problem you can simply sweep under the rug. It’s an ongoing issue that might come and go depending on different factors. If the economy is good, then you may get some relief from your money induced stress. But, when the market is bad, and you’re struggling to make sales, then the stress increases. The stress is magnified with small business owners who’ll rarely go a day without feeling the burden of their finances on their back.
Are there any ways you can stop stressing about money? In truth, the brutal thing is that you’ll never fully stop worrying or stressing about money. Not unless you’re incredibly successful and amass enough money to feel comfortable. However, there are some things you can do to lighten the load a little bit. For one, you should start focusing on generating income instead of saving money. Top business experts always say you need to work on making more money if you want to improve profits. If you put your focus on that, then you’ll end up lightening the load on the money leaving your business as it won’t be as big of an issue thanks to the increased income.
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Employee Disputes
For a lot of business owners, their stress stems from employee disputes. The problem is, there are loads of ways in which you and your employees can fall out or ways in which your employees can do something wrong. The world of employment law is a very complicated place, which just adds to the layers of stress too.
Employee disputes are stressful because they take up a lot of time and mental energy. You may need tribunals, you might need to go to court, you could spend months sorting out one particular dispute while trying to handle all the regular goings on in your business. It can all become too much for you, and leave you pulling your hair out with all the stress involved.
Thankfully, there are ways in which you can try and relieve yourself of this stress. When an employee issue arises, it helps if you have a team with you to tackle it for you. There are so many companies like Ellis Whittam that offer employment law and HR services for businesses. With a team of professionals at your disposal, it takes all the weight off your shoulders. The team you bring in can handle everything, and you’re left to focus on the other tasks you have to complete. Of course, the employee dispute can still be a problem for your business, but this just means you, personally, have less stress as you aren’t physically involved and doing loads of things all at once.
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Rival Businesses
Rival businesses are another huge cause of stress for many business owners throughout the world. The main reason for this is purely natural, competition causes people to stress out. Even when you were a little kid, and you had your first sports competition, you got stressed out and nervous. Why? Because you wanted to win and didn’t want everyone else to beat you. It’s the same concept with your business, you want it to be successful, but rival companies prevent you from doing so, and you get consumed with stress.
You also have to think of things from another dimension here too. When anyone else has a rival, they’re told to ignore them and focus on themselves. You could try and apply this advice to business, but it doesn’t add up. You see, your company needs to focus on its rivals and keep tabs on everything they do. Why? Because this is a huge part of your market research to see how others are operating in your market. If they make one move, you need to react quickly and make a better one. Business is like a giant game of chess just with multiple boards and many opponents all playing at the same time trying to outwit one another. Consequently, it’s natural for this competition to stress out a business owner. Plus, it’s even worse when you’re competing with bigger and more established businesses than your own. This makes the stress even worse.
How do you stress less about rival businesses? Well, one thing you can do is employ a team to carry out the market research for you. It won’t completely get rid of the stress as your rivals are still very much in the picture. However, it does tackle one issue and prevent you from constantly worrying about what they’re doing as you have a team on-hand to keep you up to date and advise you on how best to respond.
Customer Issues
Customers go hand in hand with business. You can’t have a business if you don’t have any customers and boy do they cause a lot of stress. For one, they directly link into the biggest cause of stress; money problems. If your business doesn’t have lots of loyal customers spending their money, then you aren’t going to make a lot of cash. But, things don’t stop there, as there are many other ways customers can cause lots of stress.
Satisfied customers are a breath of fresh air and mean nothing but joy for your business. They’ll gladly tell everyone about your company, and give you free publicity with reputation enhancing online reviews. But, flip things on their head and look at unsatisfied customers, and you’ve got a real problem on your hands. An unsatisfied customer can be a major source of stress. Now, multiply that by a hundred, thousand, or even more, and you have a huge amount of stress. When customers aren’t happy, they’ll make themselves heard. They go out of their way to badmouth your business, which leaves you stressing out quickly trying to solve the situation and quieten them down before your reputation gets ruined. Handling unhappy customers can be a stressful experience as you spend a lot of time talking to them and listening to them complain.
Luckily, there is an easy way for business owners to offload this stress on other people. Instead of handling customer complaints yourself, why not outsource a customer service team? They’ll man the lines and deal with any unsatisfied customers as quickly as can be. Therefore, you reduce the damage they can do to your business, and are able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Running a business can leave you seriously stressed out. There are ways to tackle your stress, and you should always start by searching for the cause. Start feeling less stressed, and you’ll become a better business owner as a consequence.
