Why Starting a Business can impact your Mental Health in a negative way

Why Starting a Business can impact your Mental Health in a negative way

In today’s ultra-competitive business world, starting a business is full of challenges. Entrepreneurial issues are many and varied- taking control of your own finances, becoming a leader to run the one-person show, staffing and managing the employees, maintaining healthy balances between your work life and personal life, and whatnot! On top of that, the competition is vicious.

That is why it is common to find entrepreneurs being vulnerable to mental health problems. And if an entrepreneur is not mentally well, it will eventually translate into terrible business outcomes because a stressed and occupied mind might mess up things that would otherwise work properly. So along with having an entrepreneurial mindset, it is imperative for entrepreneurs to manage their mental health concerns.

Entrepreneurship or building a company is no mean feat

Building a business sounds exciting, but it includes a host of new things to handle. So if you are an entrepreneur thinking of starting a new business, before the ton of responsibility ends up weighing heavily on your mental health, let’s take a moment to address the areas that often make the path challenging.

You will be responsible for the company’s success and failure

The autonomy that comes with entrepreneurship can be both good and bad. There are no particular rules or checklists that will determine your success as an entrepreneur. Instead, it is your action that determines the faith of your business. From the marketing strategy to employee facilities, you need to make countless decisions. On top of that, being the bottleneck, you have the constant pressure to make the right decision, which can make you suffer from decision fatigue. And once the decision fatigue kicks in, it can lead to decisional paralysis and break your startup.

There will always be time pressure

As an entrepreneur, you just need to understand what tasks come first, or else time pressure can make you seem incompetent. For example, suppose when you have to deal with too many clients, you might end up missing one deadline for one client as you kept your mind occupied with another one. And in such a scenario, no wonder, the stress level will begin to skyrocket. And the guilt of knowing that there is not enough time can turn into a pattern of negative thinking while destroying your potential.

Imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome refers to that feeling that makes you believe yourself as a fraud in what you are doing. Being an entrepreneur, you have to constantly deal with the sense of worth, achievement, and self-esteem. When you are starting a new business and putting yourself in a new situation, it is normal to have self-doubt. As the road is filled with critiques and challenges, often you might feel like you don’t have the knowledge to succeed at what you are doing. And as a result, you might start discounting your success or avoid showing confidence where needed.

You will always find yourself multitasking

When you are starting from scratch to build your own company, a high workload and work intensity might make you jump from task to task. At a time, you will be performing the functions of identifying business opportunities, reducing business risk, networking, forecasting business changes and many more. And while dealing with a vast array of tasks, multitasking can take a toll on your mental health and add more stress. So at the end of the day, your performance can inevitably drop.

The presence of uncertainty

Business uncertainty is a natural part of any entrepreneur’s journey, which may lead to negative outcomes. For example, when you choose to be an entrepreneur, you need to take huge risks by leaving your job while there is no guaranteed monthly income and no guarantee of success. Also, entrepreneurship involves financial uncertainty, environmental risk, competitive risk, political uncertainty, market risk, and more. And here, when you cannot control the external output factors, it eventually leads to anxiety and impacts your mental health.

Dealing with financial risks and accounts is stressful

Entrepreneurial financial stress can be another reason that can impact your mental health. There will always be pressure to run and grow your business on a budget. For example, you can experience a sudden loss of merchandise before it was sold to customers or a high turnover rate due to your recent hiring. As a result, you could fall deep into depression.

However, overcoming all the mental stress is never an impossible task

The first and foremost thing you can do is to identify the leading cause that is contributing to your stress- that may be your financial uncertainty, fear of failure, or workload. Then, you should go for hiring outside help because even though you might be the most competent person in the room but you still need advice from experts.

For example, to keep your business on track, you can hire coaches under business and executive coaching. Because when it’s about mentoring, accountability, objectivity, strategic planning, and implementation, hiring a business coach is one of the best moves you can make. A coach can assist you in improving your mental resilience by providing personalised advice, boosting your confidence as you don’t need to shoulder the decision alone, and helping in overcoming challenges through their fresh perspective and positive outlook.

Also, to avoid uncomfortable emotions and self-doubt, you can participate in social activities where you can engage with others and participate in activities. You will gain inspiration as socialising can help you gather new ideas and encourages a positive attitude. Also, surrounding yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs will make you realise that you are not the only one who is struggling to pass the uncertain ride. And this will help you to accept both the highs and lows, successes and failures that the entrepreneurial journey brings.