Running a business in today’s competitive world can be incredibly tough and you need to ensure that you are always at your best in order to make your company a success. Being at your best does not mean completely avoiding stress but avoiding unnecessary stress and using the normal levels of stress that exist as fuel to better do your job.
One of the biggest reasons that most businesses fail within their first 3-5 years is either directly or indirectly because of stress and if you want t o help to manage your stress levels in the business World like Lloyd Claycomb, 40 year veteran in the business world, then here is how to do it.
Hire Well
The biggest cause of stress for most business leaders is that they take on almost every task themselves because they lack confidence in their team. If you want to avoid this fate then it is vital that you hire people who you know have the skills an aptitude to do their job well and people who you can have confidence in and trust to perform the task in hand to a high standard. You job is to manage the company, not work within it and delegation is key to avoiding unnecessary levels of stress at work.
Stay Financially Focussed
Financial mismanagement often cripples firms and when the debts and disorganization get out of control, the stress levels can go through the roof. For this reason, you need to constantly have an eye on the company’s finances and ensure that you understand where you are in terms of profit and loss. Even if you don’t understand finances and you hire a team to do this for you, ensure that you receive daily headlines about the financial status of your business so that nothing comes as a surprise.
Work Hard and Smart
Putting in 100+ hour weeks to help your business is all well and good but not if you are too burned out to be effective. You need to ensure that you have sufficient time away from the business in order to stay fresh and sharpe and perform at 100% for all of the hours that you spend at work. When you are at 100% you may find that you can achieve the same in 50 hours as you can in 100 and you need to ensure that you have sufficient time for sleep and for relaxation to maintain your level of drive.
Stay True
Understanding what your company is about in terms of beliefs, goals and virtues can really help you when things get tough. This is because you always have the same mantra to stick to when you are facing tough decisions or you need to get your company out of a bind. A mission statement or something similar can help to give you the confidence in your business and you will find that it will help you in a number of stressful situations.