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Being in business is not for the faint hearted. It requires steely determination, forceful drive, long nights of planning and big leaps of faith. Often overlooked but equally important is the ability to manage and reduce stress, so that you can get up day after day and do it all over again, while maintaining your quality of life. So, we’ve compiled some easy ways to deal with the stress of running your business, because helping yourself is helping your business.

 

Eat, Sleep, Stay Healthy, Repeat.

You are the engine driving your business. You wouldn’t neglect the health of your business so why would you neglect yourself? Business owners too often opt to live on coffee and a poor diet, being too distracted on delivering the day to day. Recognizing that your body and your mind need quality nutrition and decent rest to not only function but put on a top performance will  drive your stress down and health up.

 

Establish good boundaries.

Any business owner will agree that  you have to give 100% effort and commitment; that they worked 24/7, especially in the first year. Be wary of giving any venture your absolute all – burn out is a bona fide risk – one of the greatest risks facing every business owner. So establish good boundaries and carve out a regular routine that is reserved for your own personal relaxation time and guard it, not with your life but for your life. You need time for you.

 

Don’t take shortcuts, make smart moves.

Shortcuts nearly always end up costing you more money, more time and more stress in the long run. If you are not an experienced expert in a particular field, you don’t need the hassle of trying to master every single skill involved in running a business successfully. If accounts make your head spin, look to providers such as Big Red Cloud to make accounting a fulfilling, rather than a chilling, activity. Make smart moves and make your money work productively for you.

 

Celebrate Wins and Learn from Failures

Having your own business is a journey, not a destination. Along that journey there’ll be times when you are giving your all, overcoming huge challenges, and success is hard won. Celebrating these wins is central to keeping you and your team’s satisfaction levels high and your stress levels low. Likewise adopting a policy of learning from failures helps you accept them and avoid the same situation recurring, keeping your stress down along the way.

 

Stay objective, not subjective

This may well be the hardest stress reliever to master, since it’s your business and your livelihood. Staying analytical in times of trouble will help you overcome obstacles easier as you’ll have clarity on the real issues instead of getting caught up in the blame game. Resisting the urge to react and taking time to listen will pay dividends not just for your business but for your stress levels too.

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)

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