Many people think that owning and running your own business is a ticket to Easy Street. They relish the idea of “being their own boss.” However, the reality is often far more challenging. If you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur, you know what we’re talking about. When the going gets tough, how do you stay motivated and ensure everything gets done?
Being an entrepreneur is hard, really hard. Every day, new problems come up that need to be addressed “asap,” and more tasks and responsibilities get piled on the desk for tomorrow. All too often, business owners find themselves overwhelmed, stressed, and feeling concerned about the future. If you’re feeling the same way, keep reading. Although there’s no magic bullet to make your problems go away, there are a few practical strategies you can use to get yourself over these hurdles and across the finish line. Let’s explore them.
First, Get Your Mind Right
The first and most crucial step to overcoming business challenges is mindset correction. This isn’t about getting into psychological mumbo-jumbo; it’s about shifting your perspective so that you’re prepared to solve the problems ahead. Your mind is your most powerful tool as a business leader, and it will have to do the heavy lifting of coming up with creative solutions.
Here’s where to start:
Remember How Far You’ve Come
This first tip applies mainly to entrepreneurs who’ve been building or leading their own businesses for several years. The point is, remember all the challenges you’ve already overcome to get here. Know that you’ve got what it takes. Zoom out and look at the big picture. You’ve learned to roll with the punches and take the peaks with the valleys. Yes, you’re in a valley now, but that just means another peak is just around the corner. Watch motivational speeches on YouTube and get in the zone.
Stay Physically Active
When you’re cooped up at a desk for hours on end, it’s easy to get so absorbed by the day-to-day problems that your mental health starts to suffer. This is the road to burnout. Get outside! Even if it’s just for a few minutes, a brief walk in the fresh air keeps your stress levels in check. Research has also shown that exercise reduces anxiety. By releasing this tension, you can ensure your mind is more prepared to tackle business issues effectively.
Let Go of Perfectionism
Many business owners, especially those involved in the arts or design industries, fall into the trap of perfectionism. This leads to them delaying other projects or tasks to continue editing and refining. This is a mindset issue that can be a serious thorn in your side during tough times. Your time is limited, and, as an entrepreneur, you need to be able to quickly adapt to focus on whatever is most important at any given moment. Perfectionism robs you of your flexibility. Let it go and embrace the imperfections. Do your best with the time you have, and then move on.
Cut The Fat
When a ship is at sea in rough waters and loses a mast, the mast can become a sea anchor that can tear the ship apart. In order to save the vessel, the captain must cut the riggings and leave the mast behind. This is something entrepreneurs have to do as well. Businesses tend to collect clutter. At first, this isn’t really a problem. However, as it grows, the unwanted elements of your business can become a major problem, like a sea anchor, it can tear your business in two.
If you’re struggling as a business owner, start by looking to cut anything and everything you don’t need. This could be legacy offerings (“we’ve always offered them” is not a good excuse), operational complexity, or bad relationships (especially troublesome clients or employees that cause more issues than they’re worth). Even some physical assets can become liabilities. For instance, if you still have a physical office after going remote, why not sell the space and put that capital into your business?
Leverage A Crisis For Innovation
Instead of viewing overwhelming periods of chaos purely as a time to strive for survival, use them as catalysts for innovation. When your systems are stretched to the breaking point, look for the flaws. Where are your processes not holding up? If your team can’t handle customer volume, don’t just hire more people—this might be the push needed to fundamentally redesign your service model. Look for patterns. The difference between the entrepreneurs who succeed and those who fail is the ability to innovate through challenging times.
Look For Opportunities To Delegate
Instead of trying to work harder or faster to solve the problems facing your business, you may simply need to work less. Knowing when and how to delegate is one of the most difficult aspects of being an entrepreneur. However, if you’re consistently facing more challenges than you can realistically overcome daily, that could be a sign that it’s time to hire someone to help out. To make delegating genuinely effective, make sure to choose the right people for the job. Provide your new hires with comprehensive training materials and give them enough freedom to complete tasks on their own.
Invest In Relationships Selectively
When it feels like everything’s falling apart, invest a disproportionate amount of time in 2-3 key relationships that can solve multiple problems downstream. This might mean spending several hours with your top engineer instead of handling 10 technical issues yourself. Or you might have a long dinner with a key client who can provide both revenue and market intelligence. Now, this might feel inefficient, but it’s actually far more efficient than cluttering your calendar with six 30-minute meetings with all different people. Here’s what to cover in these meetings:
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- Work through complex problems that need deep context
- Do scenario planning for multiple possible futures
- Transfer implicit knowledge in both directions
- Build genuine trust by being vulnerable about challenges
- Create models for decision-making that you can share
By reinforcing these relationships (especially with core employees), you enable them to take some of the decisions and tasks off your plate so that you’re less overwhelmed and have more time to lead your business.
Be Smart With Prioritization
Multitasking is impossible. No matter how much we attempt it, all we’re really doing is context-switching. The problem is that this inevitably leads to each task receiving less attention than it deserves. Practice calendar blocking and create strict windows for different tasks and decisions. For example, personnel decisions only happen on Mondays, product decisions on Tuesdays, etc. This will mean that certain tasks and questions get batched together and saved for the specified time or day. The end result? You and your team have clearer expectations and can better focus your resources on what matters most.
There are various tools and software that are available that can help you with scheduling your tasks and blocking out time. Although they may be helpful for some, they won’t replace the need for discipline. Setting objectives and blocking out times for specific tasks is only worth it if you’re willing to stay committed. If you’ve set aside time to focus on nurturing sales leads, you need to be stubborn–stay on task and don’t stray into other activities. Silence all irrelevant notifications to avoid distractions.
Systemize Your Business
One of the other reasons many entrepreneurs get bogged down by tasks is that their business lacks well-defined processes. This means they’re constantly bouncing between different processes and then forgetting about them, failing to finish them, and other problems. Every process must be clearly recorded. As you go through a process, write down every step in a shared document. That way, every task has a detailed to-do list that you can follow. This ensures that every customer has a consistent experience and makes it easier to bring in new hires. Simply show them the documentation, and they’ll be off to the races.
Bonus Tip—Work With The Right Vendor
The right partner can make all the difference. A new hire may not be what you need. Why go through all the costs of interviewing, hiring, and training when you could work with a vendor that is already well-versed in all the skills you need?
Matcha Design is built for busy entrepreneurs. Over our last 20 years as a small business, we’ve helped countless business owners overcome challenges and reach new heights. If you’re looking for someone to take tasks like web design, logo design, or market analysis off your plate, give us a call today!
