Carrying Our Collective Backpack: Unpacking the Weight of Business Ownership

Dear Business Owner,

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that your days have been filled with far more than just managing staff, budgeting for a new financial year, rising cancellations and an impeding recession. Your workdays have evolved into marathons where you’re juggling responsibilities, shouldering immense burdens, and finding the resolve to keep going when your energy reserves have hit an all-time low. If you’re feeling hyper fatigued, know this — you are not alone.

We are a collective community carrying heavy backpacks that we cannot seem to put down and it’s time to support each other.

Hyper fatigue is an intense, overwhelming feeling of exhaustion that’s more than just physical tiredness. It’s the result of bearing the weight of chronic stress, constant decision-making, and the endless worries that accompany running a business. It’s waking up tired, working tired, and going to bed even more tired. It’s not burnout, it’s the hamster wheel we navigate as we desperately await the respite promised to us post-pandemic.

Understanding the sources of this fatigue helps us to validate it, and in this context, there are five key pain points that most of us are navigating daily.

1. Financial Uncertainty: The tumultuous economic landscape makes planning and forecasting incredibly challenging. This uncertainty adds weight to our backpacks, affecting cash flow, revenue projections, and growth strategies.

2. People Management: The trend of “quiet quitting” – when employees disengage and reduce effort without formally resigning – is growing, adding to our leadership challenges. We are trying to motivate staff in an era of career cushioning, where ambition recession has taken over from previously high performing teams. It’s hard to promote productivity when we ourselves are grappling with the same personal challenge to ‘do more’.

3. Economic Disruptions: We are currently feeling the effects of the global shrapnel. From unexpected labor shortages to inflated prices, the disruption to supply chains all over the world have created a logistical nightmare for many businesses. These added complexities are forcing prices up leaving us no choice than to do the same or bear the brunt of nominal profit.

4. Digital Transformation: Rapidly changing technology is a double-edged sword. It offers opportunities for efficiency and growth, but requires adaptability, learning, and investment — the push for digital marketing, social media presence, and online advertising to stay competitive adds more weight to our already burdened shoulders. We don’t want to become the next Blockbuster or Blackberry, but the fast-paced world of cloud computing and AI can be overwhelming.

5. Mental Health: Caring for our own mental health and that of our team is a task we cannot ignore, even when we’re running on empty. It’s another item in our backpack, adding weight to the load, but vital for our collective wellbeing. Mental health struggles have become so normalised that an optimistic leader risks sounding insincere or guilty of toxic positivity.

Being a business owner today is complex and tough, marked by challenges that require us to be more adaptable, resilient, and innovative than ever before. Every day we are required to show up and carry our loaded backpacks with courage and determination.

But remember this, every time we lift our backpacks, we’re not just carrying responsibility — we’re also carrying dreams. Dreams of success, of creating impact, of building something meaningful. This is the true essence of leadership, and it’s why we picked up our backpacks in the first place.

We need to remain strong, courageous, and keep reminding ourselves that even the heaviest rain stops eventually. Every challenge we face and every obstacle we overcome is shaping us into better leaders, better problem solvers, and better dreamers.

What we do matters. The services we provide are essential and we’re making a difference in people’s lives. We are more than just business owners; we are a beacon of hope, comfort, and healing.

We know the value of preventative care. So, let’s apply this principle to our businesses. Let’s be proactive in addressing our challenges, innovative in overcoming them and be kind to ourselves along the way. Just as we help our clients regain their strength and resilience, let’s remember to do the same for ourselves and our teams.

Every time we buckle under the weight of our responsibilities, let’s remember to lean on each other. That’s the power of community, and that’s what will see us through.

Now, take a deep breath, straighten your back, and carry on. You’ve got this!

Bringing you my best,

Jade ‘cheering for you’ Scott. x

PS. If you’re looking for more leadership and business support, I’ve just opened registration for my next course LeadershipRx | EMERGE in November – use code VIP30 for 30% off.

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