10 Health & Wellbeing Tips for Business Owners

I have a huge interest in Health & Wellbeing on a general level but increasingly I find a reminder is needed especially for people who run their own businesses.

It’s so easy to forget and let ourselves be drained by the day to day needs of life, instead of keeping the ‘engine fuelled’ to make sure that we’re in peak condition to not only run our businesses but also spend time with our families, be supportive to our friends and generally enjoy life!

So I have pulled together ten top tips for Health & Wellbeing perfect for small businesses owners, or in fact anyone that works within any business; see which ones you can tick off….

1. Take time out – every day!
   • each day try to get outside, even if it’s just for 10 minutes – there are a multitude of benefits in this, but here’s 2 reasons why
     • it refreshes your brain – we all have a maximum threshold of concentration and you’ll notice once you’ve hit yours your concentration will start to wain and your efficiency will gradually get worse & worse. Rather than struggling on thinking you have to keep working, take 10 minutes out to go outside, walk around, potter in the garden or whatever and you’ll find you’ll come back to your work refreshed and ready to work at full efficiency again.
     • it can be very meditative – I have some of my biggest moments of clarity when I’m walking the dog because it clears my mind of the day to day ‘stuff’ that goes on & your subconscious can then really get to work, providing you with ideas & realisations that you might not have thought of chained to your desk!
   • at weekends try to have some quality digital downtime – be focused in the moment with what you are doing rather than half involved & half watching Facebook / emails / what someone has posted on Instagram. Make the time you spend with your family & friends real quality time and it will become so much more.
2. Remind yourself why you started your business
   • do you know what your end goal is? do you know why you started your business? do you know what you want to get out of it?
     • if you do, do you have it written down or on a board so you can look at it every day and remind yourself of where you want to be? A vision board or statements can be so empowering and impactful especially on those days when perhaps things aren’t quite going right.
     • if you don’t know – why don’t you know?! A business without a goal is like a boat without a rudder and all your efforts will be for what? (Read more here for my blog about Goal Setting!)
3. Reward yourself – this doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be a day of pottering in the garden, a day out with loved ones, catching up on some tv you haven’t seen for a while or it could be a massage. Whatever you decide your treat is, if you meet your goals for the month reward yourself and remind yourself how well you have done. Your journey should be enjoyable not all drudgery!
4. Remind yourself how far you’ve come – alongside rewarding yourself, take a moment every so often to see how far you have come in your business, your personal development and even your home life. Even if your business is quite new, I can guarantee that this month will be hugely different compared to the previous month, 6 months ago or even a year – and you’ve made that difference.
   • your tracking might be in terms of revenue, number of clients or it might be getting your social media campaign up & running or learning a new skill. Whatever it is, take the time to look at what has happened and celebrate it, maybe with the nice reward you thought of for number 3?!
5. Get a good diary that works for you (not anyone else!) and get organised – People who know me will know that I have a tomb of a diary and I love it. It’s not only my diary but it also holds my goal setting, reflection & tracking and project notes. Unfortunately I have to keep a top line electronic diary to keep my husband informed of any meetings I need to go to etc. but in the main my diary is all I need. Sadly some might say, I block out each hour of the day that I need dedicated to an activity (business, exercise and kids / family events), highlight them and relish the joy of ticking them off each evening as I reflect on what I have achieved during the day. You might prefer everything electronic or a mix of both like me, just try all the options and find the once that works for you because the more organised you can become the more efficient you will be.
6. Learn to say ‘no’ – so easy to say, yet so hard to do! The fact that you have your own business means you can choose who you work with, who you work for and when you work. If you’re very lucky you’ll have clients & customers banging on your door; however they might not all be for you, especially if you’re in the service trade!
   • be polite if you’re not quite suited to a client and suggest that perhaps they need a different approach or someone who specialises in x, y or z – if you can refer them on to someone that you think would be better suited all the better.
   • deciding which clients are right for you will focus your business and ensure all your efforts are going to the right clients plus your contacts will thankyou for your honesty and integrity and not wasting their time or money when you know you might not be able or want to give them what they want.
7. Ask for help – when we start our own businesses we have to be the master of everything – the bookkeeper, the salesperson, the marketeer, the buyer, supply chain…..
   • if you’re finding all these roles overwhelming then find the things that you really don’t enjoy doing and see if there’s a way to make them easier or even outsource them.
   • it might be business related such as your accounting, spreadsheet work or it might be home care activities like washing and ironing. Whichever are your ‘unloves’ see if you can delegate them or get the whole family involved to make things easier for you – you don’t have to do everything!
8. Don’t waste your energy comparing your business to others – your business is your business and no-one else’s. Your goals are your goals and let’s face it it’s unlikely that there will be anyone else doing what your doing exactly the same (which is where you’ll find your usp!!). Of course be mindful of what your competitors or the market is doing, but don’t waste your energy thinking you’re not as good as them, as successful as them or have as many clients. The world is not always black & white & let’s face it, as anyone on Facebook will know, many people only post the good stuff or a rose tinted version of what is happening in their life to make it look better than it actually is! (oooh I can be such a cynic!)
9. Don’t fight your competitors – collaborate! In a similar vein to #8, fighting your competitors will waste your energies when you could be concentrating them on growing your business, heightening your expertise and finding new customers. Instead, find out where your like-minded competitors are and work with them to offer your clients an extra special service or product. There’s truth in the saying ‘two heads are better than one’!
10. Sleep…..! (easier said than done, I know!) It’s easy to work all hours, wake up in the middle of the night with your mind whirring with what you have done, haven’t done and need to do, watching the clock go round and round. However getting a good level of sleep each night is vital to make sure that you can keep on doing what you want to do – eventually without getting enough sleep both you and your business will suffer. So, a few recommendations to hopefully make the night time slumber a bit easier are:
    • have a bedtime routine – pick a time that fits with the time you need to get up the next morning to ensure you get 7-8 hours sleep (or ‘rest’ if sleep evades!) a night
    • switch off all electronic equipment at least half an hour prior to going to bed – the blue light that is emitted from electronic equipment suppresses the ‘night time’ hormones and stimulates the brain rather letting it relax which will make sleeping more of a challenge
    • use the 30 – 60 minutes before bed to relax whether it be with music, reading a good book (not on your ipad or kindle!) or a bath – whatever resonates with you and being relaxed
    • keep a sleep diary – as with business, tracking your sleep will show you any regular habits or issues that you can then try to address to give your sleep hours a boost

Oh and a final tip, if you’re struggling to do all of these at once, just do one or two to start with, make sure you do them at least 21 days consistently (the length of time to create a new habit) and then once those are established introduce another one – don’t let trying to get a good night’s sleep add to your stresses of the day as that would be totally counterproductive!!!

Add these tips in to your week and your Health & Wellbeing should dramatically improve making you more energetic and your work more effective and productive. Let me know how you get on…..