Lately I’ve been talking with business owners who want tips on how to control overwhelm in business. A few have intentionally avoided success because they are so afraid of the potential overwhelm.
This leaves them stuck. They have a desire to succeed, but the fear of overwhelm is greater.
If you find yourself in this same position, know that you are not alone. There are things you can do to be proactive in making sure you don’t become overwhelmed as your business grows.
Set Boundaries
Setting boundaries is one of the first things you need to do in your business. Without boundaries that help you live out your values, you will feel overwhelmed. When we allow people, schedules, events, or many other things to take over our lives to the point that our values are not being honored, we begin to feel overwhelmed because we are living outside of our boundaries.
For more information about why boundaries are important and how to set them, check out these previous blog posts, The Importance of Boundaries in Business and Business Boundaries to Avoid Burnout.
Hire A Team
When you start a business, you are used to doing everything on your own. As your business grows, though, you’ll need to bring on more help in order to control the overwhelm you feel and still grow your business. Hiring a team member will also give you space to create again.
Knowing when it is the right time to hire a team is key as well. Always be looking ahead. I suggest that my clients create an organizational chart well before they need a team. To determine the first role they may hire for, they first think about the tasks that they don’t enjoy doing. Always be looking down the road for what you will need to outsource as your business grows. Be proactive, not reactive!
Improve Operations
When I think of operations, my mind immediately goes to ease. When I first start working with a business owner, I begin to look for ways we can improve processes and add in automations.
As your business grows, begin to document everything you do, especially those things that are recurring. Yes, this may take some extra time. But will you have more time on your hands as your business grows? No! So do it now. By documenting your processes in SOPs now, you are setting yourself up to hire a team. SOPs make great training tools.
Documenting your processes also allows you to identify gaps and find ways to improve or automate steps. A regular review of your processes allows you to continually improve the way you do business. I recommend a quarterly review.
Create a Plan
When you approach business without a plan, you’ll end up feeling like you are spinning your wheels and not moving forward. On a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis set aside some time to evaluate what you’ve accomplished and plan ahead for the future. As you make plans for the next quarter, really break down those goals into tasks and assign due dates. This will help ensure that you actually get the tasks done.
If you are like most entrepreneurs, you know how to make a plan. However, because you are always putting your clients’ businesses ahead of your own, a plan for your business never gets created. As a result, your business remains stagnant while your clients’ businesses thrive. If you need help creating a strategic plan for your business, check out my Strategic Planning Session and fill out my contact form to book a call with me.
Remove Clutter
When things become cluttered, my brain doesn’t function well. It simply sees the mess and shuts down. If this is the same for you, set aside time each week to do some housecleaning.
I recently pivoted my business services. As a result, some of the emails, packages, and workflows in my CRM no longer were relevant. Recently I spent about an hour going through my CRM and deleting what wasn’t needed any longer.
Now when I go into my CRM, only the items that are moving my business forward are in front of me. I can focus on those items and continue to improve them. I apply this same strategy to my Google Drive, Canva, ClickUp, email, and other software I use.
Controlling The Overwhelm
A lot of business owners think they have to be further along in their business journey before implementing some of these suggestions. That is far from the truth. If you have the intention of growing your business, you need to instill these habits from the beginning. I’ve worked with too many business owners who didn’t, and they come to me overwhelmed and ready to give up.
Don’t let that be you! Get your business in order now and control the overwhelm in your business.
