Zunaid Moti, the investor and founder of MotiMoves. Photo: Supplied
By Zunaid Moti
Entrepreneurship is a double-edge sword. It brings independence, purpose, fulfilment, and the hope of achieving a certain level of wealth. However, it also comes with unmatched levels of uncertainty and stress, made considerably more intense towards the end of the year when the pressure to meet final deadlines and financial obligations is at its highest.
In general, finding and retaining clients, settling creditors, chasing down non-payments and providing for your staff can be taxing. By the time December comes around, you also have to contend with the pressure of reviewing the year’s performance, planning for the coming year, finalising budgets, completing the year’s tasks, and paying bonuses, all while dealing with the fatigue that comes from a full year of late nights and stressful days.
After decades of founding and growing countless businesses, I have developed a few methods to better deal with anxiety, uncertainty and burnout. Here are my three biggest tips for entrepreneurs to protect your mental health:
Don’t do it all yourself
Letting go is often one of the most difficult tasks for any entrepreneur. As business owners, we become used to doing everything ourselves. But as the business grows and becomes more time-consuming, you’ll have to hire employees more experienced than yourself in certain fields to manage parts of the company.
At this point, seek to hire passionate people you can trust to handle the day-to-day without your constant involvement, and step back. This will help ensure that you’re not feeling as burnt out by the end of the year, while having the right people to help work through the additional pre-holiday pressure.
Also learn the importance of not attending every meeting or needing to be included in every email chain. Your time and energy are better spent on making big-picture, strategic decisions and steering the company in the right direction. Then, don’t be afraid to take weekends off, or to go away on a holiday with your loved ones while others continue the company’s work.
Make ‘downtime’ your company culture
Set clear boundaries between the time work needs to be done and when everyone should be resting and spending quality time with loved ones. A few weeks of rest can be greatly beneficial for dealing with work-related fatigue and burnout, which is why an uninterrupted, work- and stress-free December break is especially important for you and your employees.
This period of rest is only really effective if you can turn your mind away from the business and switch off during the break. The hundreds of decisions you need to make will still be there when you and other businesses resume normal operations in January.
Establish a culture where staff, clients, and contractors know not to call, message, or email after a certain time in the day or across the holiday period, except if it’s absolutely necessary. This will also help set an example for employees, demonstrating that it’s acceptable to rest after hours, especially if they have completed their tasks at the office.
Remember: work-life balance is determined by a company’s culture, and culture often begins with the CEO and leaders.
Don’t bottle your emotions
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely road, and it may seem like other people don’t comprehend the challenges and expectations you face. Combine that with the feelings of loneliness many experience during the holiday period, and it can be a recipe for disaster.
There’s a danger in keeping everything to yourself and never reaching out. Have you ever left milk in a hot car? That’s what it’s like keeping your emotions bottled up while things heat up around you. At some point, your mood will spoil, and you’ll lose your zest for life.
The key is to open up, connect with others, and not avoid opportunities to get out and find healthy distractions. This means that instead of isolating yourself during the holiday season, make the effort to visit friends and family often, and share aspects of your life as an entrepreneur with them – you may be surprised at how eager people are to listen and support you. Alternatively, many people value speaking about their experiences, vulnerabilities, doubts, and fears of failing with a trained professional.
Ultimately, intense pressure often produces the brightest diamonds and entrepreneurs need a certain amount of stress to push forward, innovate, and build what few others can. But what’s critical is how you manage that pressure after you’ve used it to drive your business, so that it doesn’t follow you home. How well you rest is just as important as how hard you grind, and finding a balance should form part of your plan for success.
Zunaid Moti the founder of MotiMoves.
BUSINESS REPORT