Stress and the Small Business Operator #1

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There are so many advantages to operating your own small business, it’s easy for a small business owner to ignore or tolerate the disadvantages. One of the big disadvantages can be stress.

If you’re a small business operator, some of the things that contribute to your stress levels might be:

• Inability to find workers who do the job as well as you do;
• Employees not always turning up – leaving you with more to do;
• Insufficient earnings; 
• Long hours;
• Inability to get away for a break or holiday as there’s nobody suitable to manage the business;

Recently, I spoke with a retail operator who was feeling the pressure of cashflow and staffing issues. They just weren’t their usual self and the stress was taking an obvious toll. Yes, stress is a frequent reality when you’re in business for yourself.  

Let’s look at a few of the common complaints and hopefully find some solutions. We’ll start our series with employees.  

Managing Workers

This might be difficult to accept but the chance of finding someone who’ll do things just as you do is minimal. It’s likely you’ll always have to supervise to a certain degree. You’re the boss and that’s your job, so you might need to just accept that and move on. If employees were perfect, you wouldn’t have to be there at all. Some business owners just throw new staff into a role without any real instruction or support and seem surprised by the mediocre employee performance and high staff turnover…. to make the most of your team, you have to be willing to invest some of your time in training and feedback. It will benefit you, your staff and your business.

Solve the problem of unreliable employees by widening your search and thinking outside the square when you’re hiring. A small business needs reliable employees and young, cheap staff don’t necessarily mean better profits. Increased profits might be better obtained by a higher level of productivity, and less time wasted on errors or lost by poor attendance. That is not to say that young employees can’t be a valuable asset, but don’t limit yourself to what you think is the ‘cheaper’ option.

Consider hiring people who need a regular income, have the skills, but might not find it easy to obtain work – like those nearing retirement or returning to the workforce after a long absence. The chances are they’ll be pleased to have the opportunity, will work diligently and won’t walk away from their employment without a significant reason.

Next time, we’ll take a look at insuffcient earnings…

Question: What are the biggest causes of stress for you as a business owner? How do you deal with it?

Tagged as: Small Business, stress

Article by Christie Lewis

Christie is Practice Manager at Alan Lewis Accountants . Besides accounting, her passion is for all things small business (and blogging, of course). You can contact Christie directly at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.

Christie has written 799 awesome articles for us at Alan Lewis Accountants – BLOG

Twitter: @christielewis