Have you ever stopped to think about if you really like running a business?
I mean, really think about it. Put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard kind of thinking about it.
The one consistent link I see between most of my burned-out clients: They got to a point where they loathed either the work they did or who they did that work for.
Now, they hate owning a business.
Some of the common reasons tell me they continue to suffer through business ownership:
- Have invested so much time and/or money.
- Don’t think they can match their current salary elsewhere or if they changed careers.
- Don’t know what else they would do.
- Changing careers or closing/selling their business feels akin to failure.
- Work in their family’s business.
What many business owners ignore, is their own need for job satisfaction and tell themselves that they are supposed to feel satisfied by the fact that they actually own a business.
But this is far from enough.
It’s Not Like You Can Just Put Your Two Weeks in and Leave
Often, closing/selling/quitting/or whatever you intend to do, is just as complicated and overwhelming as your day-in-and-day-out loathing.
If it helps, most entrepreneurs (like 99% of us) consider quitting at some point or decide they hate owning a business.
And, I think most non-business owners have a romanticized idea of what business ownership is like. Then, we become business owners and discover the truth.
This is the fork in the road that determines our future headspace.
When you realize that owning a business isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, you do one of two things:
- You do something about it by making some changes.
- You continue to plow forward, either ignoring your pain or telling yourself this is just the way things are. Over time you begin to feel trapped, feel a loss of control over your life, and become resentful.
It’s number two that lands many people in the suffocating arms of chronic stress and burnout. (My course, The Burnout Recovery Method, teaches you how to tackle this. Wink, wink.)
It becomes what feels like an inescapable black hole.
You Stopped Growing
What excited us in the beginning was the possibility of growth, that eventually lead to repeating the same things day after day.
A big part of what makes business ownership exciting – until it isn’t – is all of the growth and exposure to new things. The continued building of your skills and knowledge.
In the beginning, I know I was growing and learning every day. There were still so many things to learn about business, clients, and my industry. It appealed to my short, squirrrel-like attention span because there was always something to distract my attention. While the challenges were frustrating sometimes, I was usually motivated enough by wanting to learn how to fix or do something.
Then, I remember hitting a wall. The growth opportunities seemed limited to constant problem-solving. It seemed like something was always broken or someone was always unhappy. I began to think, “I hate owning a business. This is not for me.”
So, I trudged through work that I didn’t consider to be part of what made me passionate about my business. (The bookkeeping, employee management, answering the same questions over and over again, fixing employee mistakes and messes…)
The newness of the work had worn off and so had the accolades. The focus became fixing things, which lead to a negative mindset and the seeds of belief that I wasn’t cut out to run a business after all.
Many of my clients tell me a similar story.
What You and I Don’t Ask and Answer Honestly
I know that face. The face you have to put on when someone tells you that it must be so exciting to be your own boss.
Through a fake smile and gritted teeth, you nod your head and thank them for their support.
Then you go back to your desk and put your head in your hands. “I hate this. I really hate this,” you say to yourself.
Even if you don’t want to be honest with someone else, it’s time to start being honest with yourself: do you even like being an entrepreneur?
The opportunity to ruminate on your love, like, or hatred of business ownership should extend beyond this basic question. You need to probe deeper. Asking and answering the tough stuff is where you discover the truth and the next steps you should take.
What scares most of us away from asking and answering these questions is fear. We are scared that we’ve made a mistake, nothing will change, or that we’ll be in for more pain and stress. Failure. It almost always comes back to a fear of failure.
What you should fear is living the way you currently do with chronic stress and burnout forever.
If you don’t make a change, nothing ever will.
Here are seven questions to sit down and answer honestly to help you decide if you hate owning a business or you hate what it’s become:
- Why do you or don’t you enjoy about running a business? (Be specific!)
- What was your original plan or intention? Why and how did this change?
- When you last enjoyed your job, what were you doing?
- What keeps you awake at night or do you constantly worry about? What needs to happen in order for these things to no longer worry you? (It’s possible that some of these things can’t be changed, but you can change the way you think about them.)
- What is the biggest pain point for you about business ownership?
- How do you think you have changed since opening your business? (I ask this because we do change. A lot. This can affect the goals you set out to achieve, the plans you originally had but don’t seem to be working now, etc..)
- What three things are within your power to change that would allow you to enjoy your job again? (Before you say it’s impossible to make these changes, have you figured out the actual cost/time/ROI? Or, are you just assuming it would cost too much/take too long to fix/someone else wouldn’t do it as well as you?)
Feel free to share with me via email how you answered these!
Another solution: The Burnout Recovery Method online course is made for the chronic stress and burnout entrepreneurs face.
