Regardless of how it manifests, it's a low point for any entrepreneur - you're burning out.
Like several other stressful careers, running a business can take a heavy toll after years of long hours and constant deadlines. But for many entrepreneurs, the realization that they've pushed themselves too hard for too long becomes clear from either a burnout epiphany or a full-fledged breakdown.
Both situations are a wake-up call for the entrepreneur. It's time to reorganize and rethink the demands you've placed on yourself.
Warning signs The first symptoms of burnout are easy to dismiss. Problems such as reduced energy, sleep trouble, muscle tension, headaches, constant fatigue and depression can often be lumped in with general health problems.
But as an entrepreneur continues to ignore these symptoms, they begin to interfere with a person's ability to think clearly and work effectively.
The key warning sign for burnout is fragmentation or becoming scattered, said Vally Sharpe, co-owner of Solutions for Organizational Success (SOS) in Duluth. Entrepreneurs can have a hard time recognizing that they may be spreading themselves too thin and possibly even moving toward mental and physical exhaustion.
"It starts when they find themselves going off in too many directions at once and dropping balls all over the place," Sharpe said.
But as burnout begins to increase, personal relationships can also suffer. You realize that you're spending less and less time with family and friends and little or no time on recreation and relaxation.
"When your family starts saying things like, 'We never see you,' and you start working 16- and 18-hour days seven days a week, it becomes obvious that you need to change the way you're doing things," said Jennifer Holmes, co-owner of MIS Solutions Inc., a computer services and IT consulting company in Suwanee.
Holmes said she never really burned out - she simply realized that work was consuming her life and resolved to turn things around.
Some entrepreneurs believe that they can ignore the physical and mental warning signs and continue to push themselves. What they don't realize is that the quality and even quantity of their work begins to falter as they become more frayed around the edges.
"Some entrepreneurs that push themselves too hard don't appreciate the fact that as you are more stressed and exhausted, your capacity to do good work decreases," Sharpe said. "It may take eight hours to do something that, if you were rested, would only take two."
Burnout causes and prevention
Entrepreneurs have certain characteristics that make them vulnerable to burnout. They tend to be perfectionists, type-A personalities and even control freaks. All these traits, which can be an asset when running a business, can also lead to burnout.
Most entrepreneurs are people who consider themselves too talented or valuable to work for someone else. They leave their jobs and decide to start a business using their talent or expertise in a certain trade. Difficulties arise, however, as the new entrepreneur struggles with the numerous tasks associated with running a business.
"The problem is that very few of us, unless we went through small business school, have the experience to manage a small business," Sharpe said. "At first everything goes great, as long as there's only one project at a time. But as growth continues, the person who used to love writing computer programs starts to hate it."
Instead of doing what they love, the entrepreneur becomes bogged down by the mundane details of running a business. As a business owner, they suddenly have to be an HR expert and an accounting whiz. And if business is booming, it can become overwhelming.
To escape this cause of burnout, Sharpe said, the business owner needs to relinquish some control and determine which aspects of running the business are not a strength and let someone else handle them.
"Unless you can take a step back as an entrepreneur and say, 'Okay, this isn't what I'm good at and I need to let go and let someone else take care of this,' you may be heading for a burnout," she said.
But letting go, even of tedious tasks, is very hard for many entrepreneurs precisely because of all the blood, sweat and tears they've poured into their businesses. Even if the business owner has a suitable number of employees, he or she often is compelled to be involved with every aspect of the business, regardless of how far it is from their area of expertise.
"Once you start to hire one, two or three assistants, you not only have to hire them but you've got to trust them to do their job," Sharpe said. "The need to dot every I and cross every T is why they get themselves trapped into the idea that they're the only one that can do this."
In addition to shifting some of the burden of running a business, entrepreneurs also need to shift some of their energy from work to play. Many business owners, however, find it difficult to leave the office for a few days or even hours.
"I think the key thing is to always make room for yourself," MIS Solutions' Holmes said. "My husband, the co-owner of our business, and I made a resolution this year to plan personal time before we let our calendars get booked up with business."
She said they have planned four or five "mini vacations" for this year. A few weeks after she returns from each vacation, Holmes will call her travel agent and set up the next vacation.
Mini vacations may be a good tradeoff for entrepreneurs that have trouble taking a week or more for a vacation. But for some potential burnout victims, even a few days off is too many.
"For many entrepreneurs, leaving the business for two or three days is just scary," Sharpe said. "It's like they think that all their hard work for three or four years is suddenly going to disappear in three days."
This is especially true of business owners who have few, if any, employees. That's still no excuse for not taking time off, Holmes said.
When she and her husband first started their business and were its only employees, taking time off was a problem. But the couple stuck with their plan to plan personal time first and arrange clients around that schedule so the two would not clash.
Finding a balance between personal and work time is overall the best way to fight burnout, Holmes said.
"We're not machines and we're not made to work 24/7," she said. "If you get really passionate and involved about your business, it is easy to start to overlook that but balance is key. Balance in your work life and your personal life allows you to run hard and strong when you're working in either area."
