How to Avoid Burnout as an Entrepreneur and Build a Profitable Portable Business
You hit a creative wall and start questioning your commitment to your business. Sound familiar? These are part of the earliest stages of entrepreneur burnout.
The entrepreneurship journey can be grueling. Some entrepreneurs posit that you need to put in hours of work to create a profitable portable business.
But there is a problem, one that we are ignoring. Burnout does exist, and not only does it affect your business, but it can also be harmful to your long-term health and well-being.
What is Burnout?
Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychiatrist, coined the term burnout. He described burnout as ‘physical, emotional, and physiological exhaustion that negatively affects an individual caused by prolonged stress.’
Entrepreneurial burnout is a big issue. An entrepreneur can get stuck in this cycle of creating new ideas or new products after another without an end in sight.
To avoid burnout and build a profitable portable business, we all have to look at Mother nature and learn that rest is part of the process.
How to Avoid Burnout
Burnout can happen to anyone at any time, but it’s common among entrepreneurs. Being passionate about your work and dedicating your energy towards building a profitable portable business is good.
However, without the appropriate tools to avoid burnout, you could lose the drive to continue.
Here are four (4) ways to avoid burnout at work;
1. Sleep
Get adequate sleep. Good sleep declutters the brain and enhances productivity. If you want to be more productive and creative during the day, then you need to get good quality sleep.
2. Eat Good Diet
Good food nourishes the body. To avoid burnout as an entrepreneur, you must have a balanced diet. Eating a good diet prevents your body from illness, keeps you energized and healthy enough to carry out your day-to-day activities without any breakdown.
3. Drink Enough Water
60% of the human body contains water. Water regulates body temperature, keeps you hydrated. Dehydration affects the human brain, which can lead to burnout. Water is necessary for survival so take as much water as regularly.
4. Exercise Your Body and Mind
Yoga exercises help relax the muscles and mind. You could do some morning exercises before you start your day.
Critical Mistakes of Entrepreneurs
A critical mistake I see many entrepreneurs make is posting to social media and relying solely on word of mouth aka ‘hope marketing’ is enough.
Entrepreneurship is not a walk in the park, and most successful entrepreneurs have made mistakes at one point or the other. It is an inevitable aspect of entrepreneurship.
Some critical mistakes made by entrepreneurs include;
Lack of proper research
No backup plans
Concentrating more on results
Lack of knowledge on the customer base
Financial negligence
Fundamental Must-Have In Place to be a Success & Avoid Burnout.
In this section, we’ll look at three basic fundamental must-haves in place to be a successful entrepreneur.
1. Adopt an Entrepreneur Mindset
As an entrepreneur, your mindset shifts from being an employee to being the boss. Therefore, your productivity goal should be on the rise.
An entrepreneur is responsible for decision making, thinks of ways to overcome challenges, and is growth-oriented.
Be ready to develop new skills, stay positive, and be creative. Some entrepreneurs focus mainly on finding clients, offering services to get paid.
They keep repeating the cycle in their business, unknown to them that all these lead to burnout.
If you want to avoid burnout at work, build a solid system where your money begins to work for you so that you don’t always have to work for it.
2. Understanding Active Income vs Passive Income
Active income is the income from rendering a service, while passive income is the profit made from investments that generate income consistently. Interestingly, there are only three ways to earn money which includes;
Work and Get Paid
When you exchange your time for money, you get paid. People in this category are referred to as just over broke(J.O.B). They can't earn money if they don’t work.
Invest
Investment lets your money work for you. You don’t need to be employed to earn from your investment. Interests from investments are known as passive income. You can invest in real estate, mutual funds, brokerage accounts, and other financial institutions.
Create Multiple Streams of Income
As a passive income earner, you can create multiple streams of income by having your money pay you over and over. You can make money online through digital marketing, run ads, and lots more.
This is the most important part of earning money.If you want to build a sustainable source of income, you have to become a passive income earner.
3. Smart Systems in Place - Marketing Sales Funnel
What is a Marketing Sales Funnel?
Have you ever wondered how successful businesses make sales consistently?
In business, it is one thing to make a sale, and it is a different thing to make huge sales consistently.
One of the keys to consistent market sales is a good sales funnel.
A sales funnel involves a step-by-step process that takes potential customers a step closer to your offer and a buying decision through a series of marketing options.
Sales funnels are everywhere, even if you do not realize it. It is one of the most used digital marketing strategies employed by most online businesses. Think of an automated funnel as a virtual salesperson that works 24/7.
Business owners know the pain of missing a sale, especially after all the sales pitches. However, big business winners have figured out how to build a sales funnel that can convert prospective customers into paying customers.
Which of these would you prefer?
Why You Need a Sales Funnel
Prospective customers have several options.
You want them to be high-paying customers by choosing your product or services, yet you cannot force them to do so. Instead, you have to use a sales funnel to market strategically.
One of the biggest problems in business today is creating a digital marketing strategy, a step-by-step process that can consistently acquire profitable customers.
Here are some reasons why you do need a sales funnel:
The sales funnel helps to generate new leads systematically.
They allow you to build lasting relationships with potential customers at every stage of the channel and turn prospects into high-paying customers.
Generating high sales by reselling products/services to existing customers.
They allow you to build trust with potential customers and customers buy more from people they trust.
With email marketing at the core of your sales funnel, you can drive sales to your market.
Conclusion
More and more entrepreneurs around the world are being affected by burnout. However, to build a profitable portable business as an entrepreneur, you must focus your efforts on building a rock-solid marketing strategy and learn how to overcome burnout.
Once you do, then you can breathe deeply, relax and know that your business will thrive. The best way to do this is to construct your marketing sales funnel.
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