Be Aware: the 3 Biggest Sources of Business Stress

It’s easy to think that stress is just a part of running a business and we should just “like it or lump it.” However, stress is one of those things that will consume us if we let it. The best defence is a good offence, and we should always be aware of the biggest sources of business stress so we can stop them from enveloping our lives and our abilities to run our business. What are the biggest sources of business stress?

Overheads and Expenses

Financial challenges provide a pretty strong stress response. The best solution to overcome this is to be completely aware of every aspect of your incomings and outgoings, but also be aware of the potential problems that can cause your finances to deplete rapidly. There are external environmental factors that may cause problems, such as natural disasters. While something like this can easily be offset by having the right business contents insurance policy, the real solution is something that we all know deep down we should do: build a financial buffer into our earnings. The 50-30-20 rule is a great approach here; where 50% of your earnings go on the essentials, 30% go on the things that you want, and the remaining 20% goes into savings or is used as a financial buffer.

Workload

Excessive workload and task demands can result in a major amount of stress. In fact, 73% of employees cite workload as a common cause of stress at work. From the perspective of any business owner, this can be even more stressful because of a lack of control over the workload. When we feel we lack control over our work or do not receive adequate support and indeed don’t feel in control of our lives; this is when we start to feel strung out. Having a set working pattern is critical, as this can keep you structured and recognise that it’s not vital to take on more work now in the hope that this will boost your business in the long run. We should always recognise the proportion of our workload in relation to our stress.

Managing Staff

Managing staff can be an extreme pressure because we feel we need to present a certain approach to working or we can worry about what others think or talk about us behind our backs. What we have to remember in these circumstances is that we are in charge. There are certain legal frameworks that we need to follow, but ultimately, as long as we understand those, we can then run a business the way we want to run it. If there are people not pulling their weight, we need to address this in a proactive manner and at the same time remember that encouraging autonomy is one of the best tools for any employee because if they have greater control over how they do their work, they will feel a lot more satisfied in the role, and this will show them you have greater trust in their abilities, which will reduce your stress in turn.

With so many sources of anxiety like financial stress threatening to overwhelm us, we have to be aware of the biggest sources of business stress.