What Keeps You Up at Night

What keeps you up at night? It seems like a cliché, doesn’t it, yet it is a very real thing, well, at least for me, and many of the other business-owners that I work with.

The reasons vary of course, but the result is the same, in that we’re starving for a good night’s sleep.

So, what keeps us up? I’ve asked my clients and my business contacts and here are the most common answers:

The number one is financial worries. Cash flow, managing finances, and profitability head the list with a second tier of financial worries that include obtaining financing, paying bills, and dealing with an unexpected expense.

After financial worries, it’s the full complement of issues that fall to the business owner, including staffing (an enormous problem these days), technology, competition, scaling and growth, uncertainty in the marketplace, and work quality and customer satisfaction.

Any one of those could prompt a sleepless night, yet for many of the businesspeople that I spoke with, it’s often the case that more than one issue will keep them awake.

Losing sleep leads to health issues, excess stress, and can even exacerbate the business challenges you’re facing. With that in mind, it makes good sense to consider the following:

Take action. Not doing anything to overcome or minimize the challenge is a sure bet that sleep will continue to elude you. Acknowledge the issue and then admit that the problem is not going to go away by itself. It seems easy enough, but many people try to “fool” themselves for a long time. It’s the most difficult part of getting to a solution (and restful sleep!), but once you get started, it gets easier.

Determine if you need to bring in an outside resource to assist you. Being a business owner doesn’t mean that you are a subject matter expert in every part of running a business. Finance, marketing, PR, and HR might not be in your wheelhouse, yet they are important for your company’s sustainability. Consider working with outside resources to help you where your personal skills or the competencies of your staff are lacking. Of course, be certain to screen the resources carefully.

If you decide that an outside resource isn’t quite what you need you may wish to consider hiring a full or part-time employee to assist in the areas that are challenging. Remember that hiring inhouse staff has its own set of financial considerations and responsibilities so be careful to factor that into your decision-making.

Make certain to gain clarity into the issues keeping you up at night and to do that you may wish to consider working with a business coach. With careful analysis you might find that what you “think” is bothering you isn’t the real cause of your sleeplessness, but another factor altogether.

As always, you can’t fix something until you know what the problem is. That’s certainly Step #1.

And if its financial issues keeping you up at night, please consider reaching out to us. That’s exactly the support we provide our clients who also found themselves tossing and turning in the wee hours of the night.