I’m burnt out running a business

[Lucan Unlordly]

Me and my son run a camera repair business. We usually work until 10pm each night, sometimes later and quite often 7 days per week. Still building the business and I'm hopeful that we will cut back on our hours as things settle down. Funny thing is, I should be retiring in a few weeks! Not a chance. Got bills to pay and I just don't have time to burn out - just age-related feelings of exhaustion a lot of the time. I suffer from depression and that isn't good. When you mentioned that you just couldn't bring yourself to order Christmas stock - well, that made me wonder if you might be suffering from depression caused by stress? Just a thought.

I made reference the other day to the Doctor at A&E telling me very sternly that I needed to 'GO to BED!' He recommended a book that I've been listening to and at the risk of sounding like I've become a medical expert overnight, reflecting on my working lifestyle in recent years, yours and many others above - your killing yourself. Depression - lack of sleep, Anxiety - lack of sleep, Exhaustion - lack of sleep.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/why-we-sleep/matthew-walker/9780141983769

It's a recommended read/listen, a little hard going at times but having changed my 1am-3am bed times 'cos i'm working' to 10-12pm for the past 3 weeks, with no caffeine in the evening and an hour of chilling away from phone or computer - usually watching something lighter than my usual shoot em up fayre on Netflix, I'm getting more done in 8 hours than I ever did in 12.

 

[Someone else]

It has been tough to run businesses. Covid has had its impact in economy and people have lost their consumption ability. I think we may have to struggle for at least a year to two to recover it.

True, lack of turnover can cause burnout too and you are not the only one in that boat. How are you tackling your business challenges? Can you tweak things to target a different consumer group?

Also, is there a lot of poverty where you are? That is the case for me and I've learned that it can give you tunnel vision. It may help to take some afternoons off and go hang out where the well-to-do hang out. Look at what they buy (and why), how they spend their money and how you could make use of that knowledge.

(Me, I am turning the reason why I am stuck into a new service.)

 

[DavidWH]

Have you got your pricing structure correct?

Your hours worked suggest you are either cheaper than everyone else or there is a shortage of good repair businesses.

Putting your prices up should either give you a better income for the same amount of work or cut down the amount of work you do for the same income. (As a rough guide obviously)

This was my initial thought, but if they're working outside of a full time job, working 8pm-10pm its not so bad. If they're working 7am-10pm, it's a concern.

There are people I know earning more a month than I do, but their hourly rate is far lower, they just work far more hours to compensate for it.

I'm astounded at the number of businesses that never look at their costs, work out their margins, and just price off what they think it right.

 

[Mr D]

This was my initial thought, but if they're working outside of a full time job, working 8pm-10pm its not so bad. If they're working 7am-10pm, it's a concern.

There are people I know earning more a month than I do, but their hourly rate is far lower, they just work far more hours to compensate for it.

I'm astounded at the number of businesses that never look at their costs, work out their margins, and just price off what they think it right.

Yes, its often surprising how many start out in business focusing on the sale. Undercutting everyone, pricing say £2 above wholesale without finding out their costs add £2.50 to the price!

The worst ones I see are the hobby sellers. Pricing an item at £2 when its taken half hour and £1 of materials to make and will cost 75p to sell.
No value for time, a single problem can cost a chunk of the profits. If I was making the same item I'd sell at £4 or so.
Lot less sales, a profit per sale.

 

[Faisal Talpur]

Slightly disagree with the quote above, if i've understood it right

During lockdown I felt the burnout a few times doing what I love doing, infact, I think I felt the burnout from doing too much of exactly what I wanted to do, some would say that's an ideal scenario, but, I feel burnout is more a result of not giving your mind and body a break from the task at hand, no matter what that is, so its the consistent, monotonous and mundane situation that's created from doing the same thing either over and over again (repetitively) or for a long time (weeks or months) without giving yourself a break.

So now I break my week into two types of tasks, the tasks I love and the tasks I hate, and I insert the tasks I hate during the course of my day, as that gives me a clear break and variety.

Even though I don't like doing the tasks I hate, I feel this allows me to have fresher thoughts and I am mentally energised when I return to the tasks I love, it increases my productivity and I appreciate them more.

Not sure if this makes sense

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Never found jobs I hated when I ran a business, I enjoyed them all especially when I had to learn a new skill
Also never understood the term Hate as such a extreme word

 

[Faisal Talpur]

Never found jobs I hated when I ran a business, I enjoyed them all especially when I had to learn a new skill
Also never understood the term Hate as such an extreme word

I've never understood this whole issue about hate being a strong / extreme word, I feel it's a valid word that should be used appropriately to explain the right emotion.

I agree, when one is a small company (a one-man band) one cannot afford to hate anything, I've been there when I was building my first business, everything seemed exciting and rosy as I was learning new things, but when you are on your 4th business and your focus is growth and you find yourself doing things that you'd rather not do, (no matter how organised your company is) for me, unfortunately, those tasks go on the hate list.

 

[DavidWH]

We're a small company (father & son)

There are jobs I genuinely hate, and we actually turn down some jobs. Printing t-shirts is a prime example, I just hate doing them, it bores me and the margin compared what else we do is rubbish.

We don't miss the small amounts it generated, and I don't miss doing them, and spend my time doing other stuff.

 

[Faisal Talpur]

We're a small company (father & son)

There are jobs I genuinely hate, and we actually turn down some jobs. Printing t-shirts is a prime example, I just hate doing them, it bores me and the margin compared what else we do is rubbish.

We don't miss the small amounts it generated, and I don't miss doing them, and spend my time doing other stuff.

You've hit the nail on the head, exactly what I meant, in fact, I like to use the word hate because subconsciously it makes me realise (one day) I need to completely stop doing them, and also make me appreciate the tasks I love more.

You're right, it is almost impossible to put your heart and soul into something that is tiresome and specially if it doesn't bring in much money, I have a name for them (BUTs) Boring Unproductive Tasks)

Opposite of those tasks I call RPTs (Real Productive Tasks) and these are tasks I associate directly with activity that brings in revenue in the company and as CEOs or Business Owners anything that takes us away from RPTs we should avoid as much as we possibly can.

 

[DavidWH]

@Faisal Talpur yep, but there are plenty of people who blindly do it, because everyone else is doing it.

Best thing we did was concentrate on a specific service, rather than machine gun approach trying to hit everything that came our way.

 

[simon field]

Put your prices up until you lose a customer. Or two. Or however many PITA customers you need to get rid of so you can do less work, but for better margins.

Time is the most valuable thing we have, and none of us know how much of it we have!

Get some!

 

[Faisal Talpur]

@Faisal Talpur yep, but there are plenty of people who blindly do it, because everyone else is doing it.

Best thing we did was concentrate on a specific service, rather than machine gun approach trying to hit everything that came our way.

Agreed 100%, the Rifle VS the Machine gun approach.

Precisely our approach now, but we learnt the hard way, there was a time across my businesses we were offering some 200 products and services, in hindsight, what a stupid thing to do honestly, in other words we were everything to everyone and to better it, we were actually trying to focus on all the 200 items, I'm not sure what I was thinking (I guess we were trying to give the word 'FOCUS' a new definition altogether, lol).

The moment we stopped listening to our own story and started working on our best sellers, that was it.

 

[getsetgonline]

I am the same. I ran a travel business which also has a web dev aspect servicing the industry. However, COVID has pretty much wiped everything out. I managed to get some walking holidays in the UK going for this summer but it's very seasonal.
It's had a profound effect on my health and have recently tried to get work without any luck. I've developed severe tinnitus which it appears is brought on by stress (grinding of teeth apparently).
I'm just drained from the stress of the lack of business rather than being over run.