16: Overcoming Overwhelm In Your Small Business Finances - 6 Tips To Ensure You Stay Motivated And
Overcoming Overwhelm In Your Small Business Finances - 6 Tips To Ensure You Stay Motivated And Successful, Whether You Are A Solopreneur, Small Business Owner, You Have A Virtual Online Bookkeeping Business Or Are A Virtual Assistant Or VA
Owning your own business can be stressful enough with all the tasks of running your own business, but also taking into consideration your small business finances can easily push you over the limit for keeping your cool. Even if you enjoy what you are doing, feeling overwhelmed can happen so suddenly and it isn’t good for anyone. Today we are going over a few tips to ensure you don’t slip into having feelings of overwhelm in your small business, because we know when this happens, you start to procrastinate, and those feelings just start to snowball into more and more overwhelm and it is difficult to make good business decisions. Listen in today and find out what you as a small business owner, an online virtual bookkeeper, virtual assistant or solopreneur can do as soon as you start to feel stressed or overwhelmed from managing all the roles of owning a business so that you can successfully follow through with your small business finances as well as other important areas of your small business.
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Show Notes:
Owning your own business can be stressful enough with all the tasks of running your own business, but also taking into consideration your small business finances can easily push you over the limit for keeping your cool. Even if you enjoy what you are doing, feeling overwhelmed can happen so suddenly and it isn’t good for anyone. Today we are going over a few tips to ensure you don’t slip into having feelings of overwhelm in your small business, because we know when this happens, you start to procrastinate, and those feelings just start to snowball into more and more overwhelm and it is difficult to make good business decisions. Listen in today and find out what you as a small business owner, an online virtual bookkeeper, virtual assistant or solopreneur can do as soon as you start to feel stressed or overwhelmed from managing all the roles of owning a business so that you can successfully follow through with your small business finances as well as other important areas of your small business.
Welcome Back…This is the time of the year when I see many clients start to feel overwhelmed with all their bookkeeping and financial tasks. I get it, and to be honest this is the time of the year when I personally feel overwhelmed as well. It is important to dig deep and find out what is causing your overwhelm, but most often it is your to do list or task list that is causing the anxiety. It’s the beginning of the year, we are frantically trying to catch up on everything tax related so that we can have our tax returns processed on time and we still need to keep up with all the day to day business obligations, and there are so many due dates to keep track of. If you have the opportunity to delegate some of your workload, obviously this would be your best option. My goal for this episode is to help you, the solopreneur, small business owner, bookkeeper or virtual assistant find a few solutions to use when you recognize that first sense of being overwhelmed and stressed, so take a deep breath and let’s get started.
Follow the money. What a better way for you to stop feeling overwhelmed than to do something that will actually make you money or increase your cash flow. I know there are lots of responsibilities small business owners have that aren’t sexy, but I think all small business owners are willing and ready to make money, right? So, we’ll start with the low hanging fruit. If you have a list of projects that need to be done, start with one that you know will make you money. Better yet, if you have a few projects that need to be done that will make you money, choose the one that will make you the most money. Some tasks might not actually make you money, but if it helps with your cash flow it might be motivating as well. It could be as simple as recording your invoices and getting them sent out to your customers which will in turn increase your cash flow. Money motivates many people and if you find this is a motivator for you, use it to your advantage.
Prioritize your tasks each and every day. I have days when one item on my list is a low priority, and the next day it is a high priority. There’s nothing like lighting a little fire under you to get you going again. Don’t get too overwhelmed by the number of tasks you have on the list. Take just the top three and see if there is any way you could get them accomplished that day. Do this every day and your list will start to dwindle down. Make sure your tasks are all in alignment with your goals for your business. When you look at your list as a whole, it can get very stressful, but when you really focus on just three things it turns into a very doable list and it will help you eliminate any busy work you may be doing throughout the day. You may also want to take a look at your list and decide your top three tasks are the night before, so you are ready to hit the ground running in the morning.
Tackle the “big one”. There will be times you will feel overwhelmed by the amount of time it is going to take you to get everything on your list done. In reality, when you break down all the tasks you need to get done, you find you only have a few items on your list…but one is a huge project. I personally find that if I tackle that one big project that is causing most of the burden or overwhelm, I feel so much better. Not only is that big project done, when I look at the next items on my list, they seem so small and easy to manage. It is hard to get going, but once you eliminate any distractions, get started, and build momentum, before you know you are crossing that one big project off your list and the weight on your shoulders gets lifted.
Sometimes the feeling of overwhelm will cause you to procrastinate. This only causes your overwhelm and additional problems to grow. My tip here is to just start. Take for instance, if you are like me and you don’t really like to exercise, you may have heard a recommendation similar to this before, but it does work. They say when you don’t want to exercise, if you tell yourself to just do something for a short amount of time, this will get your mind going and before you know it, you are doing it for a longer period of time. I know I do this with the treadmill. I find if I just get on the treadmill and tell myself I only need to walk for 10 minutes, it isn’t so bad and often I will end up walking for a much longer period of time…and I feel much better. The key here is to just get started. So, start with something small. If you know your mail is getting behind, and the bills need to be paid, try telling yourself you will take just 10 minutes to start opening the mail. Hopefully, this will cause you to get in the groove and before you know it, you have all the mail opened, sorted and you might possibly even get to those bills that need to be paid. That’s a win that will surely start to turn those feelings of overwhelm around.
Write it down. I find myself thinking about things I need to get done at all times of the day. I’m not sure why, but most of them come to me as soon as I step into the shower. You know, someone should invent a way to take notes in the shower…or maybe it is already out there…I should investigate this. Anyway, don’t make yourself try to remember every single thing in your head. Write them down as soon as you think of them or put them in your planner. Once they are out of your head and written down, you will start to release some of those overwhelming feelings.
Schedule some time for yourself and think about what you are grateful for. This may sound counterintuitive, but if you take time to refresh and revive yourself and think about how grateful you are to have such a successful business with the opportunity to have a busy season like you are currently in, you will find you have more energy to jump back into that project list. I am a firm believer that you need to schedule time into your day, or even schedule a mental health day for yourself. Pamper yourself, practice meditation or yoga, take a walk, do some leisurely reading or spend time with family and loved ones. You may find you are even more creative and productive when you know there is time carved out each day for yourself to escape the normal workday and do something you love and don’t forget to set boundaries. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day. If someone asks you to do something that doesn’t align with your business or personal goals, it’s OK to say no.
Lastly, every day is a new beginning. Don’t let the prior crazy day with all the voice messages, emails and fires you put out disrupt how your new day will go. Start each day fresh, have a plan and crush those feelings of overwhelm! If you haven’t received your copy of The 5 Essentials For Stress Free Bookkeeping, be sure to go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/5Essentials these 5 essentials will also help to alleviate feelings of stress and overwhelm.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you need some accountability, join our PRIVATE Facebook community and post your action item, we’d love to support you.
