Don’t Sacrifice Mental Health for Business: 4 Sources of eCommerce Support to Improve Your Life

Your alarm goes off and before you can do so much as open your eyes, your mind starts racing with the things you need to do that day. Go through the piles of documents you left on your desk the other day. Call suppliers. Meet with investors. Resume research on the best selling products on Amazon.

Perhaps when you get home, you go straight to your workspace instead of propping your feet up and enjoying your favorite TV show. And instead of settling in for rest and relaxation, you brace yourself for another long night of paperwork and crunching numbers.

Are these scenarios all too familiar?

Entrepreneurial Loneliness: Real – But Unnecessary

The entrepreneurial life can be a lonely life. The more business people find themselves in situations where they need to solve problems or face criticisms on their own, the deeper they will be pushed into isolation.

Mind, a UK-based mental health organization, reported that depression, stress, and anxiety are common health issues among entrepreneurs. Another research revealed that small business owners suffer more bouts of loneliness and worry compared to regular workers. At times dubbed as entrepreneurial loneliness, this epidemic that plagues the business community is too critical to ignore.

Of course, this isn’t to say that business-minded people have traded in their happiness and well-being for the pursuit of their dreams.

It’s just that entrepreneurs are natural-born leaders and are therefore wired to initiate action and assume responsibilities – even if these entail walking a solitary path where they end up drained. In fact, author Nassir Ghaemi theorizes that there is a link between leadership and mental health issues in his book First-Rate Madness.

Thankfully, going after your entrepreneurial ambition need not be done at the expense of your mental health.

Finding the Best eCommerce Support

Just because you chose to build and lead your own company doesn’t mean you have to accept entrepreneurial loneliness as part of life. If your way of running a business is taking a toll on your mental health, it’s time to step back and find better reinforcements. After all, the right kind of eCommerce support will boost both your productivity and life quality.

E-commerce support isn’t limited to a set of apps or tools that smooth out business technicalities and operations. It can come from a community that helps entrepreneurs find better versions of themselves. It can also be found from resources which aren’t necessarily or exclusively associated with commerce.

Trump entrepreneurial loneliness and burnout with these 4 sources of e-commerce support:

1.    A Support System of Entrepreneurs

The unique struggles of running a business can make one feel alienated even when among friends. Still, finding people with whom you can vent out is a cathartic, if not vital, experience.

That’s why it’s important to find peers in your line of industry. Being among people who are tackling the same fight – or have already won it – can take a huge load off your shoulders.

To build a close support system, pick entrepreneur friends who share the same values or similar vision as you. Spend more time with them by scheduling regular meetups or creating online forums. Registering to local business communities can also expand your network to like-minded people. If you are a virtual business owner, there are plenty of social media groups for online sellers that you can join.  

Whichever way you build a support system of entrepreneurs, make sure to communicate regularly to nurture the relationship. If schedule variances prevent you from meeting up, wishing your peers a good day or sending them helpful business articles can go a long way.

2.    The Most Suitable Business Mentor

Two heads may be better than one – but what makes it even higher is working with someone who knows far more than you do. Having a business coach or mentor helps entrepreneurs find professional assistance, legal advice, and managerial strategy. When you work with a mentor, you enjoy a collaborative relationship with a trusted expert whose main goal is to help you grow.

Still, learning how to find a business coach can be confusing for many people. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Determine your pain points. Think about the specific areas you need help improving. Do you need professional marketing assistance? Are you grappling with the financial side of the business? Choose a mentor whose expertise is in the field you are struggling with the most.
• Consider your resources. The safest way to find a business coach is through personal recommendations. Ask your peers if they can refer to a trusted mentor who has personally helped them in the past. You can also look from online directories that link people to the most suitable counsel. MyCoachMatch can help you search for coaches by State, LifeCoachHub lets you select mentors according to your budget and desired coaching hours, and TrustedCoachDirectory can connect you to either local or remote mentors.
• Size up your prospects. Contact a list of prospective mentors and evaluate their capacity to help you. Does their approach resonate with your values or personality? Are they invested in helping you reach your goals? Zero in on the person who has expressed both know-how and commitment to get you from Point A to Point B.

3.    Industry Leaders

Often, too much pressure can make you lose sight of your purpose and goals. Learning from people who lived your mission or have triumphed over your present struggles can keep you grounded and give you a fresh perspective.

Think about the person who has inspired you to go after your dreams of starting an online business. Recall a story that helped you through a rough patch. There is nothing more motivating than hearing stories of people who rose from adversity or else trudged their way through it. These stories often wrought the business landscape and made a social impact in the world over.

TED Talks offers a myriad of discourses from leaders and key players of different industries. Besides being a resource of motivation and industry insight, TED Talks can help you remember why you started in the first place.

Tune in to these TED discourses while driving to the office or when you’re just having an off day:

• Nicaila Matthews Okome and The Side Hustle Revolution. Okome discusses how people today seek out different income streams and as a result, become more pliable to the entrepreneurial life. While previous generations settle with the same job or company for decades, the current workforce proves its capacity for multiple pursuits as backed by technology. People who make money from home while keeping their day job will find this talk highly useful.
• Dana Kanza and Why Women Get Less Business Funding. Today, entrepreneurs enjoy more funding resources than they did many years ago. Unfortunately, women only receive 2% of financing assistance despite having founded 39% of US companies. Having studied this gender bias, Kanza proposes how female entrepreneurs can finetune their business pitch by knowing how to spot investor questions. It’s also a call to rally investors into equal startup assessment to get better returns.
• Julia Dhar and The Necessity of Productive Disagreement. Conflict in your personal and professional relationships can put you under a lot of strain. Being an international debater and debate mentor, Dhar exhumes the possibility and workability of productive disagreement. She discusses how having a shared reality and intellectual humility can help people diffuse conflict, advance ideas, and collaborate with anyone. This talk can help you improve your managerial skills, write stronger client proposals, and enjoy happier relationships.

4.    A Competent Virtual Staff

List down the tasks that take up much of your time and energy. Chances are, these are tasks that you can very well afford to delegate. Of course for many entrepreneurs, task allocation isn’t so much about their willingness to let go than their financial capacity to do so.

This is how remote staffing poses the most ideal solution.

Remote staffing increases your productivity without compromising any of the tasks that you relieve. You’re even likelier to get enhanced results when you hand them over to specialists.

But while most entrepreneurs already know the virtual assistant services they require, the issue of where to hire a virtual assistant (VA) is often left unclear.

Direct Hire VS Staffing Company

A VA can either be a direct hire (Freelancer) or come from a staffing company company (Independent Contractor). Learn which VA is most suitable for your company:

While it is important to be hands-on in the recruitment, training, and supervision of your VA, remember that working with one should provide you relief, not extra work. Being mainly responsible for the legwork and regulation of VAs, staffing companies are therefore more helpful for burned-out entrepreneurs.

Running a business is never enough reason to compromise your health and peace of mind. There is a better, healthier side to being an entrepreneur: one that isn’t wracked with loneliness and constant stress. Find fellowship, motivation, and assistance by tapping on these 4 sources of e-commerce support.