Wearing Too Many Hats in Business Can Lead to Burnout

As a new business owner, you tend to wear many hats and you cover a lot of different departments; marketing, sales, customer service, public relations and even the janitorial department (someone has to clean the toilets, right?)

There’s a big problem with wearing all those hats; you’re going to get burned out very quickly!

If you’re anything like me, you don’t like to ask for help because you want to prove to yourself that you can get it all done on your own, no one can do it as well as you and you feel like you can’t afford to hire some help.

The reality is that when you take on the world alone are going to get overly stressed about everything, you will constantly be playing the game of catch up where you just barely keep your head above water and you are going to actually cost your business more money in the long run.

The goal of owning your own business isn’t to get so overwhelmed you’re ready to pull your hair out or worse throw in the entrepreneurial towel. I don’t want you to give up on your business because you become overwhelmed and stressed out. Owning your business is supposed to be rewarding and meaningful.

Here’s the deal:

You are going to have to focus on the skills that you rock at, the ones that are most enjoyable for you and earn you the biggest payoff. You are going to have to learn to delegate some responsibilities to other people, even if its just temporary or part time. No one said you had to hire on help full time.

Hire people for the tasks you least like to do and take up most of your time (and don’t earn you any money)

Let me give you an example:

When I first opened my last business I was the receptionist, the trainer, the cleaner, the marketing/graphic designer/sign creator, customer service rep. and sales department all in one. I would spend 12+ hours a day at work and started to get so frustrated that I was being spread way too thin. I felt like my mission, my goal was being pushed away. The more I had on my plate the less time my customers actually got to spend with me. Finally, I said enough was enough and I hired on my very first part-time employee. She was absolutely amazing! She took care of the little things that seemed to be eating up most of my time. Once I started to share my responsibilities with someone else I found I had more time to focus on my clients and give them my best service and attention.

If you find yourself feeling stretched too thin, frustrated with your business, ready to toss in the towel and close your doors…hold that thought. Think about some of the things you could have other people doing for you so you could focus more on the things that make you most happy and earn you the most profit.

I know what your thinking…

“But I can’t afford to hire anyone to do anything for me, I’m just barely getting by as it is”

If that’s the case we need to reevaluate your business model, expenses and get you working smarter not harder! I find that a lot of first-time businesses start to offer way more than they should when they first open causing them to overspend. Check out my other blog article: Knock one Great Business Idea out of the Park this might help you narrow down your business services or products so your profits can be bigger than they are now. (You’ll be able to afford the help you need after all.)

Here’s what you should do

1. Make a list of all your responsibilities

2. Prioritize those responsibilities in order from most important to least important

3. Which of those tasks are you absolutely the best at and which ones do you really wish you didn’t have to do anymore?

4. Of those tasks that you don’t wish to do anymore could they be passed on to someone else either temporarily or even on a part-time basis?

5. Start to pick the tasks you think you make the most impact on and delegate the tasks that bog you down or stress you out the most

You could:

1.Hire someone to come in and clean for you after hours

2. Hire someone to write up or design your marketing material? (There are affordable options like Fiverr.com)

3. Hire a VA (virtual assistant) that would be happy to answer your office phone, respond to emails, work on your back office work that keeps you from interacting with your clients (scheduling, expense reports, follow-up phone calls) many VAs are affordable and only work when you need them.

4. Reevaluate your business goals and what services or products you offer (can any of these be cut or redesigned to get you more money for less time?)