You’ve made it through the start-up phase, which can sometimes feel like wading through mud, and secured the funding needed to take your business to the next level. Now the work really ramps up a gear as you work to ensure your investors see a return on their investment and all the cogs are running smoothly.
Looking after your own mental health as a founder is crucial, especially during the scale up phase. Unfortunately, half of entrepreneurs struggle with anxiety and more than a third report feelings of burnout. It’s important that you’ve got people to lean on, tools to support you, and contingency plans in place to make you feel at ease.
We want to ensure founders and senior leaders have everything in their arsenal to not only protect their business, but themselves and their team too. In this guide, you’ll find 6 ways to ensure you not only manage the business pressures of scaling, but also tips and resources to look after your own health and wellbeing too.
Construct a real-time financial dashboard
Implement tools for instant access to key financial metrics. This will help you make informed decisions quickly. You can also use these dashboards to regularly review performance against targets to ensure you’re staying on track, avoiding any nasty surprises.
Whether you keep your dashboard on a google sheet, excel, Power BI, or use one of other dashboard tools like databox, the most important consideration is the quality of the data it’s showing: Are these the KPIs that drive decision making? Are the KPIs being calculated from accurate data? If not, make it a priority to improve the processes to get you the right information.
Empower your team
Focus on building a strong leadership team that can take jobs off your plate. Ensure you have skilled professionals in key roles, like finance, to own that element of the business and make it work. Once you have those people in place, empower them to make decisions within their domains to prevent bottlenecks and take tasks away from your desk.
Focus on core competencies
Consider outsourcing functions like IT, payroll, or marketing to experts. This frees up time to focus on your strengths and keep the business moving forward. Make sure to keep communication channels open and clear to avoid any wires being crossed.
Here are a few communication channels to consider:
- Teams – Great for growing teams who want to easily add members, share files, and collaborate.
- Slack – Slack is perfect for teams that work either fully remote or in a hybrid fashion. Features, like Donut, create opportunities to have more of those “watercooler” conversations in a remote working environment, ideal for team morale.
- WhatsApp – Great for the small, close-knit team that wants to sporadically keep in touch without the formality of a business-specific app.
Scenario planning and risk management
Regularly run financial and operational stress tests to understand the impact of various scenarios. This is especially key when identifying potential risks (e.g., customer churn, market changes) so you can have strategies in place to mitigate them.
Maintain work-life balance
Define work hours and personal time to avoid burnout and encourage your team to do the same. Use tools to help quieten you work brain when you’re at home, such as mindfulness and meditation apps. Also, ensure you’ve got a support network of people to turn to when the going gets tough. They can provide advice and perspective when it can be difficult to see the wood from the trees.
Top tools to use:
- Calm – Brilliant for soothing guided meditation on those days that thoughts are racing.
- Headspace – Great to help drift off into peaceful sleep.
Continuous learning
Not knowing what could happen in the future is a reality many business owners have to get used to, (until someone finally designs a working crystal ball) but it doesn’t mean that the not knowing is any less unsettling.
By keeping on top of market trends and changes, while you won’t be able to know exactly what could be coming round the corner, you’ll certainly feel more prepared. Take time for your own learning, either through regular reading, joining webinars or attending events. Having this bank of knowledge could be the difference between pivoting your strategy calmly and seamlessly or being forced to manage the sheer sense of panic of not knowing what to do next.
Scaling your business doesn’t have to come at the cost of your wellbeing. By implementing these six strategies, tools and resources, you can navigate the pressures of growth while safeguarding both your business and your mental health. Remember, a strong, resilient leader builds a strong, resilient business. Keep these tools and tips in mind to scale with confidence and minimal stress.