Self-care is a popular buzzword, and the acts of self-care are absolutely crucial for the success of entrepreneurs. I’m going to share five tips that I have developed over the years to help take care of myself and take care of my business at the same time. What I know for sure is when you take care of yourself, that helps you get to the money. I’m Dana James Small, and I am here to show you how to make bold branding moves in your business. If you like this content, please don’t forget to hit the like button, hit the notification bell to get notifications about this channel, and subscribe because I’m going to be here for a while. Here is my first self-care tip for entrepreneurs.
Self-Care Tip #1: Simplify Your Business
This is really more of a mindset that I have adopted over the years. So I want you to repeat after me: when I take care of my business, I take care of me. Now I’m going to go more specific into what I mean when I say take care of business. When I simplify my business model, I can take care of myself. So the first tip I have for you is to really think about simplifying your business. I can’t talk to you about self-care without talking about the process of uncomplicating your business. When your business model is simpler, simple to understand, it’s easier to deliver. When your business products or services are easier to deliver, you can go up on your prices. When you go up on your prices, you don’t have to take on as many clients. When you don’t take on as many clients, you’re not overworked. So you see here, all of that works together. The way you do business determines if you’re even going to have the time to invest in self-care. We cannot talk about self-care unless we talk about pricing your services correctly and simplifying your business. Make it a goal of yours to simplify your business model. If you need to cut back on some products and services, go back to the drawing board with a product or service that you have. Figure out how to make it even more simple and more effective, and go up on the price because more than likely you are underpriced. When you price for profit, then you can actually even plan for a healthy life.
Self-Care Tip #2: Theme Your Days
Number two is theme your days. Get out your calendar and theme your days according to what you want to get done on that day. Now here’s what I do with Mondays in my calendar. I have every day, every Monday marked off as busy. That means no one can book me in my appointment scheduler on Mondays. And the name of my Mondays is called “Refresh Mondays.” Refresh Mondays is when I take a look at everything in my business from a reverse eye view. I set my intentions for the week, for myself and my business, and how I want to show up as the leader in my business. I also set my goals, recalibrate, I take time to really prepare and focus, and also that’s a day of learning for me as well. A lot of entrepreneurs and even myself in the past have suffered from the Sunday evening blues. The Sunday evening blues really just consist of you dreading the thought of Monday coming, “Oh my gosh, work is going to hit me in the face and all these other things.” Your Monday doesn’t have to be that way. I look forward to my Mondays now because I get to control the rhythm of my Mondays. I don’t make project due dates on Mondays. I don’t take extensive client meetings on Mondays. I am taking care of myself, and I’m taking care of my business, and making sure that I’m staying on top of my goals.
Self-Care Tip #3: Implement a Content Curfew
Number three, I put myself on a content curfew or, in other words, I have a content cutoff time. So I consider myself to be an elder millennial. I was a teenager in the late ’90s, so I grew up with TGIF on ABC and the prime time lineup of shows that would come on on weeknights, especially Friday nights. And I just remember back then as a teenager just remembering that entertainment shut off around 10 o’clock at night, and we went to sleep, we woke up for Saturday morning cartoons. Well, with the way that content is available for us at every turn today, it’s like a never-ending drip of content, like a faucet that won’t stop running. The internet gives us access to so many things, which is great, but it can be overwhelming. You know, as a digital content creator, I’m someone that spends a considerable amount of time on the internet. It’s easy between all of the open tabs, the social media profiles, and even the educational content that I’m always in. Just, it’s very easy for me to become overstimulated by all of these images and the information that I see on screen and all of the ads that are coming at me and all of that. So I think back to those times when I was young and how content cut off. Well, now as an adult, it’s up to me to cut content off for myself. When I cut content off for myself, what I do is create an actual daily structure for myself. Content may not shut down, but I do.
Self-Care Tip #4: Prioritize Sleep and Relaxation
Number four is a big one. Sleep and relaxation must become a part of the entrepreneur’s self-care routine. It is a non-negotiable. Sleep should not be a luxury. We shouldn’t view eight hours of sleep as a luxury. In the early years of my business, I burned the midnight oil over and over and over and over for years in my 20s and early 30s. And now in my late 30s, I feel like I’m taking naps to make up for all those times. Here’s what I have noticed as I get older. And therapy has taught me to do this as well. As I get older, I study myself. I study my bodily sensations and reactions and how I feel when I hear, see, taste, and smell things. But what I know for sure is I’m a better person when I’ve had sleep. I’m able to retain information better when I’ve had sleep. As someone who is in branding, advertising, digital content creation, I have to keep up with tech a lot, which means I’m always in a constant state of learning. I’m always having to learn and update to a program or an app. Sometimes if I stay up too late, I won’t be able to digest the information that I’m studying. But if I get a full night’s rest, the next day, something that took me maybe several hours to get the day before, I get it just like that in an hour. That’s what sleep does. Sleep helps you to show up and be your best self. I also feel it’s important to look at sleep as part of your work process. Working is part of your work process, but also taking your eyes off the work and sleeping and resting is also part of the creative process. You can’t keep going. You have to rest. It’ll actually make what you’re working on even better.
Self-Care Tip #5: Reward Yourself for Accomplishments
Number five, this is my last tip. I treat myself for accomplishments, big and small. Whether it was I learned something that was previously difficult to learn, I got a new certification, or I landed a new client, or I hit my financial goals, I’ll take myself out to eat or even just go for a walk. I have to interrupt the day so that I can at least mentally acknowledge that I hit a milestone in my business. When you don’t acknowledge milestones, you end up getting into this mode of working on your business instead of being in the business. And before you know it, you don’t even realize how far you’ve come. What that ends up doing on the business side is when you don’t realize how far you’ve come, you still market yourself like you’re at point A when actually you’re at point D.
In conclusion…
I hope that you all see this circular pattern of how taking care of yourself gives to your business and how giving to your business takes. Make sure that you take care of yourself. That’s it. You made it to the end. Those are my five tips for self-care for entrepreneurs. Let me know in the comments what would you add to my list of self-care tips for business owners? Did I leave something out? What have you developed over the years that has worked for you? Let me know in the comments. Again, I’m Dana James Small, one-day award-winning brand and web consultant, here to help you make bold moves in your business. Thank you for watching.
