So many of my clients are stressed and feeling burned out when we start working together. It’s a feeling like no other, and so many can’t fully and truly understand because they’ve never experienced it. However, I have and can understand. Feeling burned out is one of the first issues we address together.
When I created Violette Business Services in 2008, I was a newbie to entrepreneurship.
Earlier, I had taken a job as a production clerk for a top oil and gas company right after business school to get my foot in the door. I spent the next nearly 30 years working as an employee climbing the business ladder in various industries. Sheer determination pushed me to accomplish success through working in small to medium-sized businesses and then to corporate.
During the recession in 2008, I lost my corporate gig due to high-level corporate reorganizations that left many talented people searching for jobs and new careers. Previously, I had never pined to be an entrepreneur, and now that option was on the table.
In the beginning years, I worked non-stop developing my online business. That sheer determination that helped me accomplish so much as an employee for so many years beore was the only way I knew to make progress and create success.
Here I was, striving to create something new for me and my family while making a difference in the lives of those I served. However, transferring business and operations management skills from an employee structure into a new entrepreneurial structure took time. I breathed, ate, and slept (well, a lot of sleepless nights) my new creation.
I Was Feeling Burned Out
Before I realized it, like that proverbial frog in the pot that is slowly coming to a boil, I was frustrated, stressed, and feeling burned out.
Frankly, I thought of giving up. I was working long hours, working on weekends and holidays, and sacrificing family, personal time and health. The whole weight of my new creation was on my shoulders, but the business wasn’t growing in proportion to my efforts.
However, as frustrated and stressed as I was, I knew giving up was not an option. That's just the way I'm wired. Many of you reading this will be able to relate.
As time went on, I came to the harsh realization that my sheer determination was only going to get me so far.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.
In the end, I learned to direct my energies in new and different ways. These ways were sometimes counter to the ways I had always gone about accomplishing big goals in my personal and business life. Learning these new ways was counterintuitive and took me out of my comfort zoneThen, I Had a Breakthrough!
Finally, I realized I could not get out of this "boiling pot" on my own. I needed help.
As a high Factfinder on the Kolbe index (7-8-2-3), I began gathering the information I needed to make the appropriate changes in my approach to business ownership and management. For example, I asked myself how other successful women entrepreneurs managed.
Along the way, I learned they struggle with the same issues of burnout and hitting the ceiling in business growth. I realized almost every successful entrepreneur does at some point, and this research led me to get coaching to create new skills and habits.
Today, I have the freedom to serve my clients happily and effectively without giving up my life. My business has grown, and I've grown as a solopreneur, leader, manager, and partner in my clients’ business growth.
I learned from my experience to...
My Main Takeaway and How You Can Stop Feeling Burned Out
Looking back, I learned I couldn’t do everything alone, and I’ll never try that again. I needed the right support to turn things around. I needed to get the right people in the right seats of my organization to create true sustainable success. And I needed to learn from successful women business owners who walked the entrepreneurial path before me.
If I could teach one thing to every visionary entrepreneur who’s feeling burned out, it is that you can’t carry the full burden of running a growing business alone. There WILL come a time in the growth of your business where you will not have the capacity to keep all the balls in the air on your own without burning out. You simply can’t grow and scale when you’re the only one buried and running every aspect of your organization.
Don’t Wait Too Long
Many times, when a future client schedules a call with me to discuss Fractional Integrator services, their energy resources are already spent. The passion they once felt for their business (their creation) is quickly dwindling.
They know that continuing to drive the business forward on sheer determination alone is no longer the key to their success. Plus, they are keenly aware that misuse of energy will be their undoing.
My clients are passionate women visionary entrepreneurs running million-dollar online companies serving and changing the lives of others.
When they contacted me, it was time for them to pivot their energies by stepping out of the day-to-day nuts and bolts of running a business. They needed time and creative Visionary energy to focus on the genius they bring to the table to lead and grow their company into the future.
In addition, they need a second-in-command to sit in the Integrator seat of the organization to ensure that plans are being executed, profits are increasing, the organization is running smoothly and efficiently, and everyone is rowing in the same direction.Is This You?
Do you feel you may be at that burnout stage? Maybe you’ve thought of just giving up. Don’t give up. Just do business differently.
I am a Fractional Integrator. If you're familiar with the book Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters, you'll recognize the roles of Visionary and Integrator, commonly called the V/I Duo.
If this post resonated with you, let’s chat.