Overwhelm: The Start-up Killer · Zamboni Inner Circle

Sep '23 (edited) in Mindset

Overwhelm: The Start-up Killer

**Please Note This Is An Article I Just Published On Medium, all promotional links have been taken out, but I thought some may find the words of some use **

The Destroyer Of Start-ups and How To Deal With It

Starting out on new projects, as a solopreneur or a new business whether on or offline is a very exciting time. You have the dream, the vision of the future and an inkling of the positive impact your venture will have on life.

The stats on how well new business ventures will fare are never kept in front of mind.

On average the failure rate of start-up businesses is 90%…the odds are against you right off the starter blocks, but hey, your business is going to be in the 10% winners!

So, the seed idea is formulated and you start to execute on that.

Now, whether from the get-go things go well, good or awesome, the overwhelm factor has the potential to raise its scary head.

Overwhelm for small and start-up businesses can be on varying levels, but that sense and experience of drowning in a sea of “things” coming at you from every angle can be debilitating.

When you try to be the go-to person for everything often with limited or diminishing resources but the dream is still hardcoded in your being…things are hard.

Suddenly the pivot from a conventional job to being the central entity of a business can entail much longer work hours. Your healthy work-life balance goes out of the window. The weight of decision-making can beat you down. The culmination leads to stress, ill health and a floundering business as the overwhelm creeps in.

So, what do we do?

Is it time to roll over and give up?

Whilst some will say, yes, I am sure most will say no, we must continue…and I would agree but first take stock of where you are.

Make sure you have a plan, with realistic goals, checklists and other administrative things you may think are boring or a waste of time.

Fail to plan…plan to fail.

Look at your business and investigate the delegation of tasks, if you are more than one person in the business or see if there are processes that will allow you to outsource.

Outsourcing can feel daunting in itself, it’s an overhead and can eat into your profit margin, but be realistic, the weight of certain tasks, taken off your shoulders, will a) counter overwhelm and b) give your business scope for growth.

Tiny steps to start, and again, plan the future and keep returning to those plans…they can always be updated, after all, you’re the one in the hot seat!

Build YOU TIME into your days, ensure you timetable breaks and yes, days off. Take time to do things beyond the “office”. It’s a tough call when you are striving for better things, but you will find, that taking time away will aid your work process both physically and mentally.

Seek support…you may be a solopreneur but bouncing ideas off your peers or joining a professional network sharing experiences and gaining insights can be pure gold.

You are not giving away the keys to your kingdom by seeking help you are ensuring that your kingdom remains viable.

Best Regards

Dominus

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