Stress.................

[SillyBill]

I personally have never felt entirely comfortable in business unless I'm stressing about something, I think it helps you acheive more (and I'm not knocking those who like to coast - we all run companies to create the lifestyle or income we want), pressing yourself, colleagues, and the business to tight deadlines, setting very ambitious goals creates stress, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It obviously just has to be manageble. I actually don't like it when its all too easy, in those moments I go and do something which I know will pile pressure on. If I don't feel under pressure, my motivation to do anything is quite limited. I am about to invest a lot of money next year that I don't really need to with a mature business like ours, simply because I want the challenge of getting into something else we have little experience in, that potential for failure, that need to get a return on the investment, bring it on!

 

[stormy3000]

Stress... definitely has its moments. I'm not sure if having a 2nd business director would have helped (or made it worse). But over the past 13 years I definitely found benefits in running 5k - 10k regularly. I'm currently very much out of the routine and really should get back to it.

I definitely scaled my business down, or at least consciously hampered its growth through wanting to keep a handle on stress levels. I like people, I'm social, but my word I really do not enjoy managing teams when also trying to meet client deadlines and my own expectations of content. I've gone from having 7 regular staff with a mix of full-time and freelancers (at one point managing 25 freelancers for a big project was a tipping point). Then Covid, then remote working, now happily scaled down to just me, and ad-hoc freelancers... and then I've made various pivots to really focus on work I enjoy which was the best decision I've made in years. (*whilst still paying the bills and actually likely earning more).

Stress, anxiety.. it definitely crept in there and I'd say I project a seriously chilled persona (and am pretty easy ozy about life), but have hit burn out now and then, and have seen much the same with friends who run their own businesses. Divorces, hair loss through stress, full on break downs, lots of councilling... ... they've all done well in business but no doubt there's been a cost.

 

[Porky]

I don’t know, perhaps I’m on my own here, perhaps how much cash reserve you have to fall back on is a main factor, cash flow stress when trying to scale is right up there and different stress to day to day trading challenges stress imo.

At 55 I think business can be too hard, maybe age is also a factor in this. At the end of the day Stress is our biggest killer: do I want more interests/ challenges yes, if you are driven you don’t stop do you but do I want more stress: hell no, it’s hard enough.

 

[SillyBill]

I don’t know, perhaps I’m on my own here, perhaps how much cash reserve you have to fall back on is a main factor, cash flow stress when trying to scale is right up there and different stress to day to day trading challenges stress imo.

At 55 I think business can be too hard, maybe age is also a factor in this. At the end of the day Stress is our biggest killer: do I want more interests/ challenges yes, if you are driven you don’t stop do you but do I want more stress: hell no, it’s hard enough.

So true, if you've got cash in the bank and don't actually need the business to be humming all the time this removes 90% of the (bad) stress. I had several years at the beginning of running a sizeable (and decently profitable) business while constantly being maxed out on a 6 figure overdraft, anything that came in, went out immediately, I spent at least an hour or two a day monitoring the bank feed and planning cashflow. Add in all the other day-to-day problems on top and it pushed me right to the edge, I'm glad I never gave up but I paid a serious price for those years - this experience shapes my whole approach to tax etc., put simply I expect to be seriously compensated in these later years for that time in my life. If I had to go back there, no way, I'd make 90% redundant tomorrow and scale back to me, my business partner and a very small core team that looks after themselves, any grief I'd scale it back even more.

 

[Mark T Jones]

A slightly different take, following a family party at the weekend

My older brother, not one to take things in his stride, was moaning (a lot) about the stress he had experienced selling his house. So much stress that he'd been unable to take a holiday.

As the story unravelled we universally agreed that his version of stress was what most of us (particularly those running businesses) would view decision making. Not even big board-meeting decisions, but the type you'd mostly make on the spot.

Sadly, pointing out that hus problems were entirely first world didn't ease the situation

 

[Onthebrightside]

I think sometimes personal matters help bring what's stressing you into 'focus'. I nearly lost my boy (31yrs) because of covid, I spent months just begging the world to leave him here with me and when he made it through I came out the other side with the realisation that if your fed and housed there's very little else to stress about.

I wouldn't say I don't care about anything, as I take each and every business decision seriously, I guess the difference is the anxiety level fades off quickly and even if the outcome isn't quite what I wanted, I can just move on quickly without dragging doubt with me, assessing what went wrong and what I can do next time. I have a photo of my boy on the desk, just a glance at that keeps me grounded.

Obviously I hope no one has to learn the lesson the way I did, but perhaps the photo on the desk of your loved ones needs a closer look if you're feeling a little anxious and stress. Imagine if it all went wrong, but you still had them, would anything else really matter

 

[Keynote Speech]

So I just got an email from IOD about high levels of stress among directors according to a recent survey of members.
It is linked to various member promotions they are doing with BUPA for health checks and the like. Which is all fine and dandy but it got me thinking about what everyone does to combat stress when running a business.

For me, it's running. I need to get my 30km a week in and if I do that generally keeps me sane. I do a bit of meditation which also helps. I am lucky in many ways as my natural temperament is fairly calm (low trait neuroticism on the OCEAN personality test). But some colleagues I know are more predisposed to stress and that has led to health problems. Even with my running regime and naturally low-stress personality I still have borderline high blood pressure. Whilst I love running my businesses it is still stressful leading.

So what do you do?

Running seems to be a common one for a lot of founders. I’ve noticed that having something completely separate from the business during the week makes a big difference mentally, whether that’s exercise, walking or just time away from screens.

Something I’ve heard mentioned by a few mental health speakers, such as Ruby Wax and psychologists such as John Amaechi, is that stress for leaders often comes from constant decision load rather than just long hours. Building in small breaks where you’re not thinking about the business at all can help reset that a bit.

It’s interesting how different people manage it though. Some people need physical activity like running, others seem to benefit more from quieter things like meditation.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

You are replying to a 2 year old post. suggest this is locked off @Ozzy

 

[Ozzy]

You are replying to a 2 year old post. suggest this is locked off @Ozzy

Aren't we all still stressed from two years ago?

 

[Keynote Speech]

You are replying to a 2 year old post. suggest this is locked off @Ozzy

Fair point, I hadn’t noticed the age of the thread when replying. Still an interesting topic though, stress management never really goes out of date.