What’s the worst feeling in the world as a business owner? Watching a business with years of blood, sweat and tears poured into, crumble to the ground because my mental health had fallen to the waste side. 

My first business SPIES was my pride and joy. Having to shut it down, surrender the domain name and say goodbye to all the dedicated followers was a tough, but necessary decision.

Truth be told, you can’t run a successful business while struggling to make it through the day.

Let me say that again… Your business success is not worth the mental breakdowns.

Your mental health needs to be the number one priority in your life. Followed by your physical health and then….and only then can your business thrive. If you’re not on your A-game mentally and physically, your business will suffer. 

How do you grow a business while maintaining your mental health? 

Here’s the short and sweet answer:  Plan as much of your marketing material ahead as you can. Schedule your social media posts, batch-write your long-form content, and automate as much as possible. 

In the early stages of entrepreneurship, it can become too easy to treat your business as a hobby.

Perfecting your website, churning out great educational content for your audience, and posting consistently on social media. All of these tasks can consume your time.

On the outside, it will look like you’re a professional brand that’s raking in the dough. Meanwhile, you’ve been so consumed with perfecting your business that you’ve never taken the effort to make a sale. In other words, your business is actually just your hobby. No money, no business. 

Once you come to terms with that you need to start bringing in clients and making sales, your own business’s upkeep can fall to the back burner. This is again, not the right move.

Treat your business as you would a client project. 

Schedule time out of your day to work on your business just like you would schedule time out of your day to work on your client’s projects.

To make the most out of your limited time, I recommend the following methods.

Create A Content Calendar

When you plan for the month ahead, there will be no lapse in content that your growing audience has come to rely on. Plug in any upcoming holidays or timely content before filling in the rest of the upcoming month.

Schedule Social Media Content

The best form of advertising is free advertising and by using organic social media marketing, you’ve hit the jackpot of free advertising. Using an app like Later or Planoly, you can plan your upcoming social media posts, write their captions, and even schedule the posts to go live automatically.

Batch Your Long-Form Content

Whether your long-form content is a blog or a podcast, it’s going to save you hours if you learn to batch out the work. If you’re unfamiliar with batching content, it’s essentially focusing on one task at a time to get more done. Use one day to write out the outlines to your content, one day to flesh out the content, and one day to create all accompanying graphics or promotional material. 

Focus On The ROI

Which marketing strategies are you dedicating hours to that just aren’t converting into results? If there’s no return on investment after continuous dedicated action, it may be time to focus your efforts elsewhere. Is there one marketing strategy that’s giving you amazing results? See what’s working and strategize so you’re getting the most bang for your buck. 

Outsource Outside Of Your Zone Of Genius

There will always be tasks in our business that stress us out and leave us completely drained when we attempt to complete them. Remove these tasks from your life by outsourcing them to someone who thrives while completing them. Whether it’s your financials, your copywriting, your graphic design, or anything in between, I can guarantee there’s someone out there who would love to be hired by you. You can invest in a freelancer or hire an intern – not everything needs to be your responsibility.

Give Yourself Grace

Recharge your mind, mentally and emotionally by taking a day off now and again. Mental health days exist for a reason and it’s time for you to take advantage of them. These moments of rest can help you reset, reconnect with your why, and boost your productivity. 

No matter where you are on the entrepreneurial journey, it’s never too late to start putting your mental health front and center. I promise you that your mental health is more important than your next sale. 

Sign that new client, but set boundaries in your business. Don’t overwork yourself and steer clear of overwhelm. 

Keep the following quote in mind, “No matter what your psychological makeup, big setbacks in your business can knock you flat.”  It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your past experiences with mental health have been. Failure or setbacks as a small business owner can pull the rug out from under you and be detrimental to your mental health. 

Facts I want to leave you with:

• 20% of Americans are diagnosed with a mental illness every year. ⁠
• 1 in 2 entrepreneurs suffer from a mental health condition in their lifetime. ⁠
• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in Americans aged 15-34 years old⁠.
• SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE: 800-273-8255⁠
• CRISIS TEXT LINE: Text HOME to 741741⁠⠀