The Burnout UK Epidemic: Managing in the world of entrepreneurship

Burnout is a common issue that affects millions of people around the world. No more so than for entrepreneurs placing everything on the line to launch their businesses. 

This article explores burnout causes and potential solutions from exercise and breathing exercises, to innovative potential solutions like water soluble CBD.

Whether working from home, in an office, or any other work environment, the pressure to perform can quickly lead to exhaustion, cynicism, and a lack of motivation. It’s a vicious cycle that can be hard to escape, but it’s not impossible.

With the right tools and strategies, you can learn how to manage your workload, reduce stress, and maintain your mental and physical health.  Whether you’re an entrepreneur, motivated team member, or a student, this article is for you. So, let’s get started!

What is burnout?

Think of burnout as a slow burn, like a candle that has been lit for too long and is starting to lose its light. It creeps up on you, taking over your thoughts and energy until you feel completely overwhelmed and exhausted.

It’s a feeling of disillusionment and disconnection that can make even the simplest tasks feel like a burden.

It’s important to understand that burnout is not just a state of mind. It’s a natural and complex phenomenon that can seriously affect your mental and physical health.

But the good news is that it’s also preventable. By taking care of yourself, setting boundaries, and learning how to manage your workload, you can avoid burnout and live a more fulfilling and balanced life.

So, if you feel that slow burn, don’t ignore it. Take action and put out the flame before it consumes you.

Identifying burnout symptoms

Before qualifying how to recover from burnout, it’s essential to understand its symptoms.

Common signs of burnout include:

  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Confusion
  • Irritability
  • Apathy
  • Unproductive
  • Inability to focus

On a physical level, burnout can manifest as

  • Fatigue
  • Headaches
  • Other kinds of physical discomfort

It can be challenging to recognise the signs of burnout, as they can be subtle and easily overlooked. It’s essential to be aware of the warning signs and take action to prevent burnout before it becomes a severe issue.

How to recover from burnout

Recovering from burnout requires taking care of both your physical and emotional wellbeing. If you’re tired from work, it’s important to take some time off to recharge and refocus.

As an entrepreneur you can promote wellbeing as a policy that supports work-life balance and provides resources for stress management.  Ultimately, you will be more productive with a healthy mind and body.

As individuals, simple wellbeing tips can be used to prevent burnout. Remember, taking care of yourself is not selfish; it’s essential for your long-term health and wellbeing, both on and off the job.

Prioritising self care

To protect yourself against burnout, you must commit to making time for self-care. This doesn’t necessarily mean expensive spa trips or activities outside the home – it can be as simple as having a regular bath or doing pilates for 10 minutes at home.

What is important is that you make time to do something for yourself each day, even for a few minutes. This will allow you to relax uninterrupted and focus on your self-care.

Creating a daily routine

Creating a daily routine helps provide structure and encourages self-discipline. As much as possible, try to be consistent with meal times, bedtimes, and leisure activities so you’re not constantly questioning what you should be doing next. A routine also helps reduce stress by giving your mind a sense of structure and familiarity.

Breathing Exercises

Your breath is one of your greatest tools in keeping calm. Breathing exercises are a simple and effective way to reduce stress, improve mental clarity, and promote relaxation. By controlling your breathing, you can improve your heart function, reduce anxiety and calm the mind. Breathing exercises can be performed anywhere and at any time, making them a convenient and accessible tool for managing stress and promoting relaxation.

There are several different breathing techniques to choose from, each with its own unique benefits, so you can find the one that works best for you. Whether you’re new to breathing exercises or have been practicing for years, incorporating them into your daily routine can help you feel more relaxed and rejuvenated.

Eating and sleeping well

Adequate sleep and nutritious meals are two of the most important ingredients in avoiding burnout. To ensure you’re getting enough rest, try sleeping at the same time every night and sticking to a consistent schedule.

Eating nutritious meals will help fuel your body with the energy it needs throughout the day. Additionally, try incorporating small workouts into your daily routine – even 15-20 minutes of light exercise can help keep your body energised.

Exercising regularly

Exercising regularly can be an effective way to strengthen your body and mind while avoiding burnout. Physical activity reduces stress hormones while stimulating endorphins that make you feel good.

Regular exercise will also help you get better quality sleep in the evenings while supporting your body’s overall health. As a bonus, physical activity can also help clear your thoughts, making staying focused on the task at hand easier.

Supplements such as CBD Drops

CBD has become a popular alternative for those looking for new methods to manage burnout. It’s not just a trend either – as the CBD market has exploded globally, with the UK market said to be worth more than vitamin C.

As an entrepreneur, you are looking for anyway to boost performance and so CBD is an obvious choice to test as a bio-hacking tool.  Water Soluble CBD drops are one of most effective forms, due to being fast acting and highly absorbable.  

Of course, everyone is different, and results may vary, but there are those that swear by it, CBD might be a game changer.

Setting boundaries

It’s important to set clear boundaries with employers, colleagues, and family members to protect yourself from burnout. This may require saying no more often or delegating tasks to free up some time for yourself.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities, take a step back and re-evaluate how you can manage those duties more efficiently to make some extra time for something more enjoyable – like reading or taking a walk.

Connecting with Friends and Family

Socialising is an essential part of self-care that is often ignored in our busy lives. Make time to socialise with friends or family members regularly.

Whether that be regular phone calls home or having supportive conversations with colleagues at work, staying connected can help you stay mentally engaged while creating a sense of community support.

Seeking professional help

If all other methods fail, don’t hesitate to seek professional advice from a doctor or therapist who can help guide you through any issues that may be causing burnout in your life.

Burnout is a serious problem that you should not take lightly. With simple lifestyle changes to prioritise self-care, relaxation, exercise, and socialising – as well as seeking professional help when necessary – one can effectively avoid burnout while recharging their energy.

Final say

Burnout is a growing concern in today’s fast-paced society, but taking care of oneself and utilising alternative methods such as CBD, exercise and seeking help can greatly aid in managing its symptoms.

By Oliver Osgood, co-founder of Master Plant

How Much Does It Cost to Start Your Own Business?

When it comes to launching a brand-new startup business many entrepreneurs miscalculate how expensive it is to launch, and what sorts of things that they will need to spend money on to make their business successful.

We explore some of the main start-up costs that efficient small businesses owners may need to consider when they set up a new business. Not all these business startup costs apply to absolutely every business, but they might apply to certain types of business. If you have your own business, you may need a good services like the ones at Acclime that can help you grow your business.

Also, many of these costs will apply to all businesses, so it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the common expenses and business costs that entrepreneurs should have planned and covered for in their business plan, and for employees forms, the use of a w9 creator can be the best choice.

Research & Development Costs

When it comes to research and development, the costs here can be astronomical depending on what it is you are hoping to release. If you are bringing a brand-new concept to market, the cost of development might be so high that you will immediately require third party investment into your business. If you’re an entrepreneur with an existing track record, this might come from venture capital companies.

These costs do not apply to everyone. Some businesses do not really have much exposure to research and development outgoings, aide from some basic market research. This is especially true if the organization is being built on your own skills or as a services company.

Incorporation Costs

Although you could start your business on the side unofficially, as soon as you need to grow and lay some proper foundations for your business down, you will need to register it, and this will incur some incorporation costs.

The cost for incorporating your business is dependent on your own local market. For instance, the cost varies at a state level in the US. You will also need some documentation created depending on the type of company that you intend to create. With that in mind you may need to hire an expert to help you incorporate your company correctly, so you may need to factor this in as well. However, this expense is typically a one-time cost, and the fees are quite low in comparison to other things that you will need to invest in for your business.

You may also need to look at specific business licenses covering the area that you want to work in. These might be one-off costs or re-occurring but often you’ll need to get these before you begin trading so you should include them at the time of incorporation or trading if there is going to be a big delay between the two points.

Real Estate & Property Costs

When it comes to office space, warehouse space and retail space in general, the costs can range from effectively zero to a huge amount of money unless you know about healthcare logistics uk who are cost friendly. It all depends on what sort of business you will be running and what your operational needs are. You can turn your office space, warehouse space and retail space into a positive environment through the help of reputable architectural signage companies!

If you are looking to launch a new business, one question you need to ask yourself is whether your business model can operate without office space in the first place. Many businesses today can run just as well with its team members working from home. When starting a brand-new business, it is a good idea to trim the expenses and costs down as far as you can, and often, renting or leasing expensive office space is a good way to burn through your finances quickly, without much to show for it.

Of course, some businesses require real estate, so this cost must be factored in. Size and location are the key factors to consider when choosing a retail property for your business. If you need to save some of your money on rental think about what your needs are and what location, you could base your business in.

Product, Tooling, Machinery

If your business sells physical products, then you will need to consider the costs of the products you sell. Retailers will look to source products from resellers, distributors and manufacturers and you will need to research where you can get your products from.

One problem is that many larger manufacturers won’t supply a new business with product directly, they will push you through to a reseller or distributor and even these companies can be picky with who they deal with since often they will look for a track record in retail and a decent credit score. Many new retailers find that the ‘doors are closed’, and it can be hard to buy product in the first place.

Other businesses that aren’t looking to sell other companies products look to create their own and bring a new product to the market. For these companies there is a different problem. How will the product be developed and produced?

Ultimately this will depend on the product you are creating. Sometimes it is a good idea to create the product yourself, but for this you may need tooling and machinery. Often, a different approach when a business first starts out is to outsource all of this to a third-party manufacturer. With this method a new business can at least get quotes and ascertain what the outgoing cost is going to be at an early stage, prior to investing in expensive machinery or tools. Often this is the preferred approach for a new business and many large multi-national companies also use this approach when manufacturing products for sale.

Another aspect that is overlooked that is relevant to this type of expense is shipping. Both from manufacturing plants and to your customers. It can be expensive and often it is an aspect that can be overlooked when calculating product profitability.

Business Equipment

Business equipment is another expense that is often overlooked. Some brand-new startups can get away with just one computer or laptop to get started but many people do not consider that if they recruit employees, each of these individuals will likely require a laptop if they are office-based staff. This then leads to the need to go to the furniture store for office furniture such as desks and office chairs. Even things like the office kettle or coffee machine can fall into this category, so again, have a long hard think as to what you will need for your business. This also includes all the software packages you will need to buy.

You will need to buy office supplies, from coffee, to stationary and all sorts of other things that employees need in their day-to-day activities. These will also need to be replenished on a regular basis, so you’ll need to consider this in your general day-to-day business expenses.

When it comes to software often there are free versions that offer similar features to the main applications that many businesses use. Perhaps you can cut costs and use these instead in the beginning. Other software packages such as with accounting software, you may need something that is specialist, so you cannot cut cost easily for all packages. Either way, anywhere you can save money on your startup costs and ongoing expenditure is something worth doing since all these business costs add up, especially in the beginning.

If you’re thinking of opening a retail outlet, then you will need to fit it out and invest in a whole range of different things to Point of Sale equipment to shelving and signage. It’s a long list of things that you’ll need so you will have to set a lot of money aside for this aspect. Warehouses, specialist outlets and manufacturing plants come with their own types of expenses, and these costs can add up quickly, so it is a good idea to have a comprehensive plan as to what it is you need in terms of startup funding. Often the expenses are a lot higher than first expected.

Business Insurance & Cover

There are a lot of different business insurance products available, like the ones from business insurance uk, to help protect yourself when you are trading as a company. You might not need them all in the beginning, but lawsuits and claims can be expensive.

According to great professionals like these commercial public adjusters in Dania Beach, FL, some of the different types of business insurance products that might be applicable to your business (but not always all) might include: general liability insurance, professional liability insurance, product insurance, hazard insurance and insurance to cover issues with employees.

It is worth sitting down and going through the different insurance packages that are available to work out what you need and what doesn’t apply to your business type. It is an added expense to your outgoings but could make the difference to whether your business survives or fails if something is to occur that is unexpected. You’ll need to shop around to find out what the average cost of insurance is for your small business.

Recruitment, Employees, Outsourcing

Generally, a business needs people to service it and that’s where employees come into the picture. Payroll and salary expenses normally take up a huge amount of a businesses operating cash so you will need to factor in as to what employees you need and what budget you will need for them.

When evaluating how much an employee costs, you shouldn’t forget that they usually need items to do their job. Think about the uniforms, laptops, chairs, desks and even coffee! This also needs to be factored into your budgeting.

How are you going to find employees? If you use recruitment firms then these can be great at finding the right employee for your business, but they come with their own set of fees.

Often when a business is new it can be pragmatic to consider using freelances and external companies to service some of the areas of the business which you would need to typically need to hire a person for. One example might be too hire a third-party accounting firm to handle your books or to outsource your IT services. Although these costs can be high it is a lot easier to switch or cut back on an expense from another company than lay-off internal staff.

there are a wide range of professional services and freelancers that you might need for your business anyway, regardless of employees. These include accountancy firms, book-keeping, legal firms and lawyers to handle legal fees and issues, IT, and even marketing and advertising agencies, who all bring specialist skills into your business which you would otherwise have to recruit for. However if you or someone you love has sustained a traumatic brain injury, you’ll be needing good lawyers like TBI lawyer las vegas for the legal representation you need to make sure that you are fairly compensated.

Marketing & Advertising

Marketing and advertising is another area that you might need to spend money on as a business. If nobody knows about your product or service, how are you going to sell it? You need to get the word out about your new business and the way to do this is through marketing and advertising.

How much you may need to spend on marketing is dependent on your budget and your industry, but the good news is that there are some ways to reduce your marketing costs by utilizing some of the free marketing channels, such as social media. If you manage to get a post trending on social, then your customers can come in from that. Of course, social media is not always useful for every type of business, but it is one option out of many.

Most businesses these days have a website and if you’re an online business this might be a necessity. Building a web site can be expensive, but you can find free packages available for your site with free templates. You could pay someone to create a custom template, but if you’re looking to cut costs then a free one will get you started.

Once it’s time to launch your business then you will need to think about branding and design. This is something else you’ll need to spend money on at the beginning, because you will want something that looks professional and unique.

Types of Business Cost

When it comes to your business there are a lot of different costs, and these can be broken down into different expense types. Unfortunately, in the first year of trading there are a lot of different expenses and business needs, and this can have a big influence on your cash flow.

Some of the different business operating cost types are classified as:

Fixed and ongoing costs – these are the costs for your business that you cannot change. For example, your business property rent might be considered both fixed and on-going (even if it might be subject to change at some point or if you move location). In this case this is an expense that you need to factor in to pay your bills each month.

Variable costs – are the costs that can change depending on what happens in your business. Examples of variable costs are employee expenses and business travel.

One-time costs – These one-time expenses can be the big investments that your business needs, such as tooling and machinery, or even things like office equipment, such as laptops. You may occasionally need to replace items, but typically they can be classified as one-off costs. Often this is a type of upfront business cost that is quite high in the beginning.

How to Finance Your Business

So how do you finance your business? There are many ways to get the money to launch a new business. The question is what business finance method is right for your own startup?

Often new businesses are self-funded by the entrepreneurs own personal savings. You may even hear of businesses being launched off the back of someone’s credit card. These success stories are few and far between.

If you have a business idea but lack the funds to realize it, then you could look to outside sources for money for your business.

When you open a bank account you might expect that the lender will also offer you a small business loan. Unfortunately, that is not the case for most brand-new businesses and a line of credit is not open to most. Often, they will not even give you a business credit card.

The good news is that there are other financing options such as angel investment. Angel investors are high net worth individuals who look to invest in brand new businesses and startups in return for some equity in the business.

Often angel investors can help with business startup expenses or expansion costs and offer an invaluable service to would be entrepreneurs what have good business ideas but do not have the means to launch themselves with their own finances.

If you’re looking for an angel investor to help fund your business, then the Angel Investment Network can help. Sign-up to pitch your business to investors located all over the world.