Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’. The featured article by Troy White is titled “Cures For Entrepreneurial Burnout”. [Article]


Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’.

The featured article:

Cures For Entrepreneurial Burnout

by Troy Whit

Fellow Business-Builder,

Tired?

Fed Up?

Too bad – suck it up, princess!

Monday morning after a busy weekend doing stuff around the yard, maybe enjoying in a few cold ones to celebrate the weather.

You didn’t sleep well.

You have a million things you know need to be done this coming week.

Distractions abound.

You work for yourself so you are the only one to hold yourself accountable.

After your exercise, breakfast and coffee (the morning ritual of champions), it’s time to get BUSY.

Or is it?

Emails piled up over the weekend. Cool news stories are starting to show up on the blogs and newswires.

It is supposed to be another 75 degree day outside.

ARGH! What to do?

It would be sooooo easy to blow it all off and enjoy another day off.

Back when you worked for others, you may have even called in sick.

No, not this time.

You now work for yourself.

While you could do all that … You won’t. Because you know that your income depends on your ability to suck it up and get productive in the least motivated of times.

It’s times like this that you just need to hunker down and get busy.

Start doing something – anything. Get a plan of attack into your calendar. And think productive thoughts.

[HINT: One technique that has worked incredibly well for me for creating content and knocking off a to-do item or two. Whenever I am feeling tired, burnt out, pissed off, excited, or any one of 15 different emotions … I put pen to paper. I use my emotions to drive my writing. Feeling unmotivated? Write about it. Feeling excited about something happening? Write about it. The key is to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard AS SOON as the emotion is at its peak. Emotional writing is extremely powerful … so grab on to it before it escapes on you. Try this. Any time you are feeling worked up about something (good or bad, work related or not) write for 15 minutes about it. Those are 15 minutes that you would have wasted on email anyhow … instead you just created content and built your business further]

Think about how great it will feel to finish all your to-do items for the day … early.

Make it a plan to finish up at 3:00 so you can play for a couple hours.

You just have to do it though.

Procrastination is for princesses.

Which you are not.

You are a profit-seeking strong willed entrepreneur.

And you realize that it is no one else’s fault but your own if you do or don’t make money today.

No one EVER told you that being an entrepreneur was for thin-skinned folk … did they?

It takes a rare type of person to do what you and I do.

… Even more rare to find one who can stick it out through thick and thin, good times and bad.

9 years now I have been outside of the corporate world. I have worked FAR more hours than I ever would have in the employed world. I gave up a decent six figure paying sales job. I rebuilt that over time. It didn’t happen overnight. It was painful. We had lots of majorly broke times. But I stuck with it and did what I had to do.

Nothing wrong with blowing off an afternoon – even a day …

… Consider it a mini-celebration of all the hard work you put in.

Holidays are a MUST for your entrepreneurial spirit.

The bigger the break – the more motivated you will be.

There were lots of times where I couldn’t afford to take a week or two off – but had to. My sanity depended on it. And the world didn’t collapse while I was gone (my inbox near imploded, but that’s another story).

Funny thing was …I got more productive and profitable things done in the week I was back from time off than I would of if I hadn’t gone away.

Some of the best advice I ever heard about this challenge us entrepreneurs face:

Work your ASS off for 4-6 weeks.
Take an extended weekend or week off.
Rinse wash and repeat.
It works.

It’s beautiful in its simplicity.

And it will make you more money.

Time off helps you find new ideas, helps you rejuvenate your soul, and helps you get back the fire within that drove you to start your own business.

In the meantime … get back to work!

And schedule (right now, in your calendar), your next break.

Something else I HIGHLY recommend you do … find a project manager.

I have written before about outsourcing and the positive impact it can have on your business.

It certainly has for me … especially lately.

If you are anything like me, you have FAR too many projects on your plate. Not only that, you have tried to create the concept, manage the launch, write the copy, organize the graphics and website, put together a blog, and so on.

How’s that working out for you?

Right.

It is the FASTEST way to burn yourself out and destroy your business.

Most entrepreneurs are highly creative and love the concept creation – but fall apart on the miniscule details involved in a proper rollout.

So, you can do what I did and completely trash the mess you created.

Give it ALL to someone else to manage for you.

Not easy to do, not easy at all.

But highly recommended.

I had personally reached a level of frustration and stress in my business I had never felt before.

So I had a good talk with my assistant and got her to agree to a MASSIVE MAKEOVER.

Instead of me managing it all … she now does.

Now I do what I love to do best … create and write. Both of which I wasn’t doing enough of, as I was spending far too much of my time managing project details.

A serious shift in the way I run my business … one I HIGHLY recommend you do as well.

How do you start?

First, find yourself a project manager!

I found my fabulous assistant through odesk.com (one of the outsourcing firms I recommend).

Fortunately for me, she was a trained paralegal, so very organized and meticulous.

After she got familiar with my business, I documented the process I go through with my clients.

From initial contact, to proposal, to deliverables.

Once she understood that, I used my trusty basecamphq.com account to lay out all the different projects I had on the go, along with where things are at and what was needed in each.

Trust me … what followed was not easy.

I stepped away.

She was now in control.

She was responsible to look after the details of each account and the subsequent deliverables management for each.

Now that I am used to it … hallelujah!

What a weight off my shoulders.

Now I can do what I love, and let her deal with the things that were sucking my days dry and leaving me feeling drained of any passion I once had for my business.

You MUST try this.

Maybe you already have this in place.

Maybe you don’t.

My main point in today’s article is to get you thinking more about your own well being.

Try taking more time off.

Try using your most emotional moments as driving forces behind your writing.

And try letting someone else deal with the ‘stuff’ you don’t enjoy dealing with.

It can bring back the fire you once had …

… which in turn will relate to a much more enjoyable and profitable business.

To your success,

Troy White

Editor, Small Business Mastery

Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Troy White is a top marketing coach, consultant & direct response copywriter based in Calgary, Canada. He has a powerful approach to growing small businesses and entrepreneurial run ventures on a budget. His FREE Cash Flow Surges newsletter shares tons of great strategies.

He also publishes the incredibly powerful Cash Flow Calendar system that gives you daily, weekly and monthly marketing ideas to promote your business and stand out from the crowd. Click here to get your free tips for growing your business!

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.