Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia 
Business burnout! You may not know you’re affected – until it’s too late! Commonly associated with the first stage of business growth and development – Core Business Development, business burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It slowly creeps into your business after an extended duration of the passionate pursuit of your entrepreneurial dream. Left to smolder, it can extinguish your small business dream.
Small business entrepreneurs have many fears in business. We fear success, and we fear failure. (That’s a little confusing, don’t you think?) We fear falling on our face and looking like an idiot. (Okay, I confess. This is my fear.) We fear the competition. We fear risk. We fear the unknown, yet we fear asking for help. Fear is gripping. It chokes our creativity and clouds our decision-making. Yet, we seem to engage in fear on a regular basis.
Every business – large or small – passes through four stages of business growth on its journey from core business development to organizational maturity. No matter what stage of business growth you strive to achieve for your small business, every small business owner must first overcome the common challenges – or “growing pains” – associated with the first stage of business growth.
Creating regular content for your small business blog can be challenging, stressful, and time consuming. This is particularly true for small business entrepreneurs – myself included – who are not professionally trained writers and bloggers. You want to communicate regularly with your blog readers but how does one continually write witty, captivating, useful content for your small business blog without it consuming so many brain cells – or time!
This time of year we dream of the yummy, rich, sweet chocolate Easter bunny. We envision, in excited anticipation, our first bite into that scrumptious, lip-smacking bunny ear made of solid chocolate….only to discover the bunny’s ear is hollow! How disappointing! Unfortunately, there are many small businesses much like the hollow chocolate Easter bunny. Let me explain.
You sit down at your desk with a big cup of your favorite beverage. You’re excited! You’re ready to craft a blog post for your small business blog. That would be great – if you only knew what you were going to write. You find yourself staring blankly at a stark-white word document willing brilliant words of wisdom to appear magically across the screen. Although the spirit is willing, the brain cells are wavering!
If Facebook were an employee, he* would be a bit of a slacker in my small business. He shows up every day for work in a rumbled plaid shirt he slept in. He slumps in his chair and clicks lazily here and there on Facebook. He scrolls up and down, down and up, with about as much interest as watching paint dry.
I’ve had my share of fear in business. I’m sure you have, too. It’s a horrible place to be. Fear in business can get on grip on your creativity and ingenuity that can be challenging to surmount.