When I talk about the ‘how’, I’m referring not just to your logo, but your entire Brand Identity. It’s the personality behind your brand that dictates the look, the feel, the tone of voice, and even the type of ways you choose to interact with your target market. From your online platforms to your point-of-sale displays; customer experience; product packaging; and everything in between. When you have a strong brand Identity, every single interaction you have with your audience becomes infinitely more impactful.

Here’s why:

1. Consistency builds brand recognition: When you follow a set of brand guidelines (specific colours, typefaces, messaging etc) your customers begin to recognise it. The more often they see this particular combination of elements (your branding), the quicker they connect it with your business. This repeated experience fosters familiarity and familiarity equals comfort. The more comfortable they feel with your brand, the more likely they are to buy from you.

2. Consistency establishes trust and credibility: You will no doubt have experienced this in your own purchasing behaviour. When you perceive a brand to be stable and reliable, you are far more likely to buy from them. A consistent brand conveys reliability and professionalism, making a business appear more trustworthy.

3. Consistency creates an emotional connection: Remember in point one I talked about customers feeling comfortable? That’s because how your brand makes them feel, carries far more weight than what it costs, or where it’s made. If you need evidence of this concept, just take a look at Coca-Cola. That entire brand was built around nothing more than a feeling. Having a consistent brand message and tone of voice cultivates emotional ties with your audience, and if done well, will evoke specific feelings to strengthen their attachment to your brand.

4. Consistency differentiates your brand: In a crowded market, having consistent branding sets you apart from competitors. When you have a well-defined Brand Identity, you’re able to lean into that personality and position your brand in a unique way. It provides you with the tools to highlight your brand strengths and reinforce the same message every time. A great example of this is mail-order toilet paper company, Who Gives A Crap. They have a distinct Brand Identity that leverages the same tongue-in-cheek humour in everything they do.

5. Consistency supports growth and scalability: If you lay a strong foundation with a well-defined Brand Identity, you allow room for business expansion and also enable easier scaling of your marketing efforts so that as your business grows, it becomes a much easier task to remain consistent. It also provides a very clear format for any future employees to follow.

So, with all of that in mind, take a moment to reflect on your current branding.

Does your brand have a clear personality? Do your colours and logo reflect that personality? Are your marketing and sales materials written in the same tone of voice? Is your imagery and messaging consistent across everything you put out into the world?

If yes, then you’ve got this in the bag! If not, begin by choosing a message that best suits your business goals, and then create your identity around that messaging.

Now go forth and bring your brand to life, my wonderful business friends.

The post Why brand consistency counts appeared first on Inside Small Business.

As we all know, building a brand can be tough. It takes time, dedication, hard work, and often costs your sanity! Luckily for you, we’ve got your back with some ways to get over the holiday hump and ensure that your business is positioned for a successful year! Here are our top tips for building your brand in 2024: 

1. Focus on business goals: Setting goals is an important part of any business strategy, but if you’re not careful, you can find yourself committing to unrealistic or unhelpful goals. A better goal would be something more specific, for example, “I want at least 100 new customers each month by December 2024″; or “I want five per cent more sales than last year by the start of 2025″ – whatever works best for what you need! When working towards something specific, it makes it easier to define success and reach milestones along the way – and ultimately achieve them faster than if you were just aimlessly wandering around trying different things at random until something works out! 

2. Establish a clear direction for your team: One of the best ways that you can stay focused during a project is by having a clear direction for your team. It’s crucial to know what you want to accomplish, so you can create a plan that will help lead you there. If you don’t already have a focus, try thinking about what’s most important to you and how it aligns with the company goals. It’s important to stay focused on what makes your business strong, instead of the negative aspects that may come with it. A strong team will help keep you grounded and make sure that everyone stays motivated when things get difficult or overwhelming at times (and they probably will).  

3. Celebrate every win: This might seem like common sense but it’s easy to forget when everything else is going on around us! We often don’t take time out in our busy schedules because we feel pressure to keep the momentum, but this isn’t true at all! Instead of feeling guilty about taking breaks throughout each week or month (or even day), think about celebrating achievements together as a team – whether they’re big victories, like hitting new sales targets, or smaller victories, such as achieving certain KPIs within certain timeframes. Both types are equally important when boosting morale among employees and encouraging them onward toward future accomplishments.

4. Review your progress: At the end of each month, take some time out of your busy schedule to evaluate how well things have gone. Review the goals you set at the start of the month and ask yourself if those goals were achieved. If so, pat yourself on the back! If not, what can you do differently next time? Review how well (or not) your marketing plan was executed and how it affected your business. What worked and what didn’t? Were there any surprises along the way that should have worked but didn’t? What lessons did you learn from these experiences? Think about all of these things as they apply to each one of your marketing channels individually: website, social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter, email newsletters and promotions etc. 

I hope this goes without saying, but I want to remind everyone that you need to take care of yourself as well. If you don’t, then how can you expect your team members and clients to do so? The most important key to building a strong brand in 2024, is keeping yourself healthy, happy and motivated.

The post Top tips on boosting your brand in 2024  appeared first on Inside Small Business.

So how do you get your brand out into the public sphere without grabbing a megaphone or putting yourself on show? The answer: quiet disruption.

A quiet disruptor is someone who has a positive effect on the world, without being showy, loud or in your face. They do not need to be in the spotlight because they are quietly getting on with the job of making life better for other people.

Believe it or not, many influential business people in history were introverts. The likes of Warren Buffett, Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg have all been reported as being shy and introverted individuals, who struggled being thrown into the limelight. Each began their careers by working their magic from behind closed doors until the success of their respective companies forced them into the public eye.

If that strikes a chord with you, and you’re one of those quiet achievers who isn’t comfortable showing up on socials, putting your face on billboards, or being the focal subject of marketing campaigns, then let’s talk about some branding strategies you can use to build your business profile.

1. Know your customers: If you’ve honed your target market and know exactly who you’re talking to (i.e. demographics, interests, dislikes, hobbies, even what they eat for breakfast), then it’s much easier to build connections without needing to pull out the megaphone and spruke yourself. Spend time narrowing down your customer avatar so you can talk directly to them.
2. Offer a solution to their problem: Once you’ve locked down your customer avatar, understand and address their pain points. What are they struggling with and how can you help them? Sell them a solution, rather than your product or service.
3. Be a heart-centred business: Investing in relationships is key here—you’re building trust and giving people reasons to engage with you, even when they have other options available to them (which is basically always). You might not be comfortable attending big events, or networking groups, so remove that stress and focus on building relationships one person at a time.
4. Write a blog or e-book: Quite often for introverts, written content is more within the comfort zone. Write in-depth, high-quality content that addresses the pain points of your target customer. This allows you to focus on providing valuable insights and solutions in a way that feels safe for you, without the need to pitch to journalists or meet with publishers.
5. Email marketing: This allows you to communicate with your customers (and potential customers) in a controlled and thoughtful manner. You can nurture your leads over time, by creating personalised email sequences that provide valuable content, address common questions, and guide subscribers through the customer journey. If you feel brave, you can even include videos!

In summary, if you concentrate on building the relationship with your customers and emphasise the problem you’re solving for them, then you’ll shift the focus from you to ‘them’. Your customers. 

Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll be able to bring your own brand of quiet disruption to your business as you build your profile without ever having to step foot in front of a camera.

The post The quiet disruptor: how to build a brand when you’re an introvert appeared first on Inside Small Business.

In other words: opinions count.

Sure, you absolutely need a professional logo, consistent brand colours and a well-established brand message. I’d be a terrible brand strategist if I told you those things don’t matter, but the fact is that your brand hinges on so much more than the way it looks.

Beneath the visual elements of your branding, there’s a wide array of contributing factors that keep your brand afloat, and one of those is public perception. Your overall reputation, and the emotional response people have towards your business, is an integral part of your branding. People’s thoughts, feelings, associations, and experiences with your brand matter, especially when you run a small business.

Finding ways to create genuine connections with customers; potential customers; industry professionals; other business owners; and even competitors, is the most reliable way to develop a strong brand reputation.

Referrals and word of mouth have a much greater impact than any marketing campaign ever could. So how do you get out there and make genuine connections with other businesses and industry professionals? Here are my top tips:

1. Attend industry events: This one is a no-brainer. The more you get out there, the more people you meet and the more potential relationships you can build. Trade shows, conferences, and networking events are all great opportunities to establish relationships.
2. Join industry (or local) associations and groups: Again… Networking. These groups often hold meetings, workshops, and other events where members can connect and collaborate.
3. Social media: A caveat on this one not to spam people! Use it as a tool for building relationships rather than making a sale. Share valuable content, engage with others, and participate in industry discussions. Use your socials as a two-way conversation, not just a marketing platform.
4. Collaborate: Be selective about who you choose to partner with, but by teaming up with other businesses on certain projects or initiatives, you’re able to develop mutual trust as well as reach a larger audience.
5. Offer value: It’s okay to give things away or do freebies – just not all the time! I’d highly recommend being a little strategic with who and how you’re doing this (ie not your mate Jack who always wants freebies but never supports your business), but when you have the bandwidth, share your expertise. It could be as simple as answering someone’s question in a Facebook group; or require a little more effort like writing an article for relevant publications (as I do here regularly); or even running a competition for a giveaway. In whatever capacity you have, when you provide helpful resources or tools and offer support and assistance, it helps build trust and establish yourself as a valuable partner.

Whether or not you make use of the tips above, just remember that as an owner of a small business, you are your brand. This is why relationship building is so important and why it should always be at the forefront of your mind.

The post The power of relationships in building your brand appeared first on Inside Small Business.

For SMEs, reputation is everything, so when you see big brands having serious brand trouble, it can feel a little concerning. I mean, if they can’t get it right with their huge marketing budgets and expert publicity teams, how can small-business owners expect to weather a PR storm efficiently? 

The answer is: You own it. 

Last year, we witnessed some rather massive brand bungles (Optus, Qantas and Splendour in the Grass), where the management, or more accurately mismanagement, of their respective situations led to serious brand damage. Each was categorically responsible for the issues that occurred, but rather than stepping up with integrity to face the public, they failed to take any level of responsibility, instead laying blame on external causes and in some cases even blaming their customers. Had any of them made the decision to accept fault and attempt to rectify the issues, the narratives would have played out very differently. 

As detrimental as it was for them, however, for us as small-business owners, it’s fantastic because it perfectly illustrates how not to PR.

So, what is the right way to handle a PR nightmare? 

I’ll give you an example from my career to demonstrate how a publicity team tackles these types of situations on a large scale. Hopefully you can then apply these tactics on a smaller scale if, god forbid, you ever find your business in a brand crisis. 

“Don’t wait for your customer to complain, get in there and own it.”

Back in pre-COVID days, I was working for a PR agency in London, and we were hired by a high-profile, global car rental company in Europe, because their brand reputation was going up in flames. 

Their media reach, coverage and share of voice were all relatively high, but unfortunately not in a good way. Scathing reviews were pouring in daily and the media was having an absolute field day. 

In the wake of the bad press, our first task was collating and assessing the feedback to get a clear idea of the issue, or multiple issues in this particular case. The results weren’t pretty. 

The sentiment analysis metrics for the brand were incredibly low, and we found a wide variety of complaints, ranging from accusations of bogus cleaning charges, right through to a class-action consumer protection suit being lodged due to clauses in their car hire contracts. 

In situations like that, counteracting with proactive PR campaigns is pointless, so it was time for full-scale damage control. Our priority was not to generate positive publicity, but to address the negative press. For this, we took a three-phase approach. 

Firstly, we needed to respond directly to the complaints and accept responsibility where applicable. Apologies go a long way in maintaining brand reputation. Often, the greatest desire of a wronged customer is acknowledgment. So that was step one. 

Secondly, alongside an apology, compensation is sometimes required and, even in instances where it isn’t warranted, having something to offer as a gesture of goodwill is advisable. In the case of our client, we had to tailor the compensation to suit the complaints. We looked at options such as partial or full refunds, discounts on future rentals, and even a free car rental for equal or lesser value to the hire in question. 

Finally, we issued a formal press release, addressing the recent issues and highlighting the ways in which they’d been rectified, along with direct statements from the CEO. 

This strategy slowed the immediate backlash, appeased the angry customers, and prevented the bad press from getting out of control in the short term. 

Now that the fires had been extinguished, it was time to look at some proactive PR. It wasn’t enough just to escape the crisis, we needed to generate positive publicity to get our client’s brand back on the map as a reliable car hire company. 

To create a buzz, we launched some engagement campaigns. The first and most crucial was influencer collaboration. We teamed up with a carefully selected group of well-known travel influencers and offered them free car hire in exchange for a review. 

Secondly, we partnered up with a couple of high-profile travel suppliers and ran an online competition for people to win a free holiday that included flights, accommodation and, obviously, car hire. 

Finally, we generated a whole lot of press focusing on the positive impacts the company was making. For example, its carbon offset program, the jobs being created by its new regional branches, and its latest sponsorship deals, one of which was an English Premier League football team.    

Within six months, our internal metrics showed that we’d improved brand perception by a substantial amount and their share of voice was sitting up around 30 per cent, which was on target for its market share at the time. 

As small-business owners, what can we take away from this case study and how do we apply it in a smaller-scale PR crisis? 

1. The customer is always right, even when they’re wrong: Never publicly attack or blame your customers for mistakes, it can deter potential customers and make you look unprofessional. 
2. Don’t respond in the heat of the moment: It can be easy to take things personally, especially when you’ve done everything right. But it’s important to remain calm and objective. Take a moment to breathe, and tell the client that you understand their concerns and you need some time to investigate and/or respond. 
3. Acceptance, not avoidance: If someone leaves a bad review or lodges a complaint, don’t ignore it. Get in touch to understand exactly what the problem was and address it. Most of the time, people just want to be heard. 
4. Get ahead of the game: If something has gone wrong, don’t wait for your customer to complain, get in there and own it, and give them a solution to rectify it.
5. Listen and learn: Mistakes can often be good growth moments, so be receptive to the idea that perhaps there’s room for improvement. If you take the time to review your service, process or product honestly, you may find that there are things you could tweak to avoid the same issue in future.

Mistakes happen and they happen to everyone. After all, we’re only human, but how we respond to them is the most important part of the equation and the difference between losing brand credibility, or your customers staying loyal to you.

Integrity is everything when it comes to public perception, so it’s up to you to maintain your brand’s reputation no matter what dramas arise.

This story first appeared in issue 41 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine

The post Secrets of brand-saving PR appeared first on Inside Small Business.

We can wax lyrical about our noble intentions and how we want to change the world by *insert your preferred ‘humanitarian’ aspiration here*, but at the end of the day, we’re all in it for one reason and one reason only…to make a living.  

That being said, I do believe we can use our businesses to make the world a better place, and I’m not talking about ending poverty or starvation (although wouldn’t that be amazing if we could!), I’m talking a little closer to home than that. I’m talking about the lives that you do have the ability to impact: your employees. Whether you have one employee or one hundred, you have the power to make lives better.  

A majority of the active workforce will spend more waking hours at work than they will with their families, ‘surviving’ Monday to Friday and ‘living’ for the weekend. They’re under pressure, stressed out and quite often worried about money.   

This anxiety-riddled, high-pressure lifestyle has a (massively under-rated) negative impact on business productivity. When people are in ‘survival’ mode, their brain stops functioning efficiently. A stress state triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response, which leaves a person unable to view challenges with clarity and logic. Their primitive reflexes take over and small issues that would normally seem easily solvable, become overwhelming problems.  

If this sounds familiar, then you may have a team who is underutilising their brains and doing half the work they are otherwise capable of.   

Obviously, there will always be pressures and stressors in the workplace, that’s an unavoidable fact of both business and life. So, if we can’t remove the cause, how do we treat the ‘symptoms’? 

1. Be empathetic: Relate to them as humans rather than worker-bees; know them as people; understand their motivators and empower them to achieve the goals they’re aiming for in life. I know this sounds like a laundry list of inspirational quotes but if you’re empowering your team and helping them build a life that they don’t need to merely ‘survive’, then you’re changing their brain-state, and in turn, you’re strengthening your own business.  

2. Promote mindfulness: Model mindful behaviour in the workplace and show your team better ways of coping with stressful situations. Let them know that it’s okay to stop and take a breath to gather themselves when they’re feeling overwhelmed. Even pausing quickly to breathe can help reset the brain.  

3.  Allow room for mistakes: When people don’t feel safe to make mistakes, stress-levels rise and ironically, that’s when most mistakes occur. If your team feel comfortable about owning mistakes, they’re more likely to be creative and try new ideas; and less likely to hide mistakes, shift blame and create distrust amongst themselves.  

4. Encourage breaks: If you can see that someone has hit their wall and/or flipped out of their ‘logic brain’, suggest they stop and make a cup of tea, grab a glass of water, or even take a quick walk around the block if needed. It may seem like five-minutes of down-time, but that five minutes could save several hours of unproductive work.  

5. Create workplace routines: Try to build some structure into the working week. We’re not talking about micro-management here, just higher-level undertakings. Whether it’s a morning meeting; weekly team catch-up; end-of-week drinks; or daily project updates, schedule it for the same time every day/week, to provide consistency.   

If people feel valued, empowered, secure, and part of something bigger than themselves, then they stop surviving and start flourishing, which will ultimately have a positive impact on your business. 

The post The impact of company culture on productivity appeared first on Inside Small Business.

Wrong.  

Good content, when implemented strategically, can actually do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.  It doesn’t matter what your business is, or whether it’s big, small, local or global. The digital age has brought about a new way of doing things in the business world. Content is now king and content marketing has now replaced more traditional sales and marketing models. 

So, what exactly is content marketing?  

It’s a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience, with the primary objective of driving profitable customer action. 

To put it more simply, the content-first approach is about publishing useful information, that provides value to your target market, and helps ease their pain points. Clarity is really the essence of content strategy. It’s not just about churning out relevant content, it’s about making sure that there’s a clear connection between what you do and the people who want it. 

Here are my top five ways to engage your audience. 

1. Blogging: Regularly publishing high-quality blog posts on topics relevant to your target audience can help to establish your business as a thought leader in your industry, and can also help to drive traffic to your website. 
2. Social media: Creating and sharing engaging content on social media platforms can help to increase your brand’s visibility and attract new customers. 
3. Email marketing: Sending out regular newsletters or email campaigns that include valuable content can help to keep your existing customers engaged and can also help to attract new ones. 
4. Video marketing: Creating and sharing videos that provide helpful information, tips, or entertainment can be a great way to engage with your target audience and build a relationship with them. If you’re tech savvy, perhaps look at starting a YouTube channel to host and organise your video content in one place. 
5. Infographics: Creating infographics that make complex information easy to understand can be a great way to attract and engage customers. 

If you’ve read all of that and you’re now thinking ‘I don’t have time for any of that!’ then just start with one of them and work your way through the list. Try doing one each month, and once it becomes easier, try two per month and so on.    

If even that sounds like too much, refer back to my piece on How you can avoid small-business burnout and perhaps content-marketing strategy may be one of those tasks you outsource.   

The ebbs and flows of consumer behaviour are erratic. Without a compass to steer us in the right direction (ie a proper marketing strategy), our boat (business) is left to the mercy of an unpredictable tide of current fads and trends. Hoping you catch a decent wave back to shore isn’t enough. It’s time to take control of the ship and navigate it forwards with clear and precise direction.  

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Millions of people worldwide remain undiagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder until adulthood and quite often, as in my case, it crops up during the process of having their children tested or diagnosed.

So, what exactly is ADHD and what does it have to do with running a business, besides the fact that high-profile CEOs like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and even Walt Disney are in the ADHD club?

ADHD is a neurological condition that affects the parts of your brain that control executive function, which is the ability to plan, organize and prioritize tasks. Some skills that are imperative when you run a business.

Adults with ADHD struggle every day with challenges ranging from poor organization skills, forgetfulness, procrastination, to impulsivity/hyperactivity. None of them are particularly helpful when running a business, so how do you excel when your brain is constantly working against you? You leverage your strengths, and you manage your weaknesses.

There are a lot of perks to having ADHD: hyperfocus, multi-tasking, creativity, risk-taking and problem-solving just to name a few of them. In fact, ADHD can be a “superpower” if you know how to work with it, so let’s talk about how we can use it to our advantage.

1. Identify your strengths and utilise them: Hyperfocus, for example, can help you smash out tasks that you find interesting, as well as perfect your work; Risk-taking allows you to take chances on big-ticket wins that other people might be afraid of; and the ability to problem-solve makes you a great leader.
2. Acknowledge your weaknesses and outsource or problem solve: If you struggle with disorganization and forgetfulness, then consider hiring an assistant, or investing in software that can send you automated reminders; Or, if blocking out distractions is a challenge for you, try noise cancelling headphones to reduce stimuli.
3. Routine is crucial: This one will make any ADHD-er in the audience cringe, but whilst we hate routine, the hard fact is that we need it to stay on track. When we implement daily routines, they become habits, thus removing the need for your brain to remember (or agonise over) doing them. Add one habit to the routine at a time and, once that becomes automatic, add the next one. Soon enough you’ll be adulting like a pro without even realising it.
4. Self-care is important: Self-care is one of the most important tools you have for managing your symptoms as well as your stress levels and motivation. It’ll help keep you positive and motivated when everything gets tough. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to take a break. It could be anything from making yourself a cuppa, to going for a walk around the block, or even treating yourself to an hour at the spa (and yes, those things can be good for ADHD).
5. Mindfulness and meditation: If you’ve ever watched a meditation video and thought, “I could never do that,” it’s time to reconsider, even if it’s just five minutes at a time. Mindfulness is about focusing on the present moment and accepting what’s in front of you without judgement. If meditation feels too hard, there are options: Tai Chi, Yoga or even just focusing on your footsteps while you jog.

It’s easy to see ADHD as a weakness, but it’s time to flip the narrative and make it work for you rather than against you. It is, after all, your superpower.

The post Navigating neurodiversity: An ADHD’ers guide to running a business appeared first on Inside Small Business.

1. Company set-up

Do you want to start as a sole trader to test the waters, or do you expect to grow quickly? There’s quite a large set-up cost with a Pty Ltd, so in the majority of cases, I suggest starting as a sole trader and moving to a company set-up once the business is consistently earning. Partnerships can be fraught with danger, so if you have a business partner, I’d suggest going for the company set-up in place of a partnership.

2. Business name

If you’re pondering a name, make sure you search the ASIC business name register for availability (click here), and also check that you can buy the correlating URL. If you can’t get either, try a different name. These two investments are non-negotiables and absolutely essential expenditures.

3. Logo

It’s great to start out as you intend to go on, but the budget doesn’t always stretch to a fancy logo. If you’ve got a decent kitty, then 100 per cent invest in professional branding, but if your purse strings are tight, jump onto Upwork or Fiverr or any other e-lance website. You can grab yourself a fairly cheap logo to get you started. You can’t expect miracles with this option, but at least it’s a starting point.

4. Website

Without a doubt, you need a website. Yes, you can sell directly from Facebook and Insta, but a website gives you credibility and gives you a certain level of professional legitimacy. If your budget doesn’t stretch this far, jump onto one of the consumer platforms like Wix or Squarespace (I don’t recommend WordPress if you don’t have previous experience). Both of these platforms offer drag-and-drop templates that are super easy to use with zero design experience. Wix even gives you a free URL when you upgrade to a premium account so you can kill two birds with one stone.

The post Launching a small business: the start-up costs you should expect appeared first on Inside Small Business.

We’ve constructed a bizarre ‘busy’ culture, where we’ve glorified ‘the hustle’ to such an extent that even taking a quiet day is almost considered blasphemous. It’s become a round-the-clock game that makes us feel like we can’t stop to take a breath, or we’ll fall behind.

After all, if you want something, you work hard and sacrifice for it right?

While this is true to a certain extent, the key factor we seemed to have missed is that humans need rest. We can’t grind 24/7 because our bodies, minds and souls aren’t designed for that. We can’t physically sustain ongoing pressure, and if we don’t find a way to create balance, burn-out is inevitable. And the longer we leave it, the worse it gets.

This is particularly evident in small business. For most SME owners, our business is our baby. We’ve sunk our heart, soul and finances into making our dreams a reality and we’re not willing to let all of that effort go to waste by dropping the ball. A ball which is usually just one of many things we’re currently juggling, because we’re trying to do everything, whether we know how or not. 

So, how do you avoid small-business burnout?

These are my tips for keeping a business running successfully and nourishing yourself in the process:

1. Delegate  Identify the areas that aren’t your forte, and offload them to an expert. I know this is hard when you’re used to doing everything yourself, but why spend two hours agonising over a task that would take a someone else 30 minutes to complete? It’s a waste of your time, and your time is money.
2. Schedule down-time Create space for ‘you’ time by scheduling it into your diary/calendar so that it can’t be booked out. Whether it’s a proper lunch break, a gym work-out, or some family time, solidify and prioritise that activity by blocking out that time the same way you would for a client meeting.
3. Automate  The plus of living in a technological era is that we have tools to simplify everything. The more you can automate your workflow or client funnels, the less you have to think about. If you have a system (or systems) to do the basic brainwork for you, then you can focus on the important work.
4. Book holidays – If you’re rolling your eyes right now, then you definitely need to do this. You don’t have to go away, but you do need a break, so book in at least two weeks throughout the year (not including Christmas because, that’s not a break), where you switch off from your business. If you plan it in advance, you can schedule accordingly. If you were working as an employee on a salary, you’d be accruing holidays and at some point, would be forced to use those days, this should be no different. 
5. ‘Competitor’ team up – This may sound counter-productive, but find another business owner in your industry you have good rapport with and build a relationship. Chances are, they’re probably feeling the same as you, and you can help each other. Whether it’s about having someone to chat with who understands completely; or cross-referring work when you’re too busy; outsourcing small jobs; auditing each other’s offerings; or even partnering up on projects. You’ll be surprised how much both business can grow when you work together.

Small businesses and burnout should not go hand-in-hand, but we need to prioritise ourselves and understand that nothing works if it’s broken. Working 5 am to 11.30pm every night isn’t balancing your life or giving your business your best. Let’s reward our own commitment with some downtime and break the burnout cycle for good.

The post How you can avoid small-business burnout appeared first on Inside Small Business.