If you are running a store and begin to experience retail burnout, it can have a significant impact on your business, as well as your emotional, physical, and mental health.
At the same time, it’s not uncommon.
Running a successful retail store can be stressful – it’s not terribly surprising to feel stressed, exhausted, unmotivated, and disillusioned.
But despite the prevalence of burnout, there are measures you can take and plans you can implement to help manage your stress.
Following these practices can help you avoid experiencing retail burnout and keep your store running efficiently.
There are many challenges to running a business, and we’re here to work with you.
At Silverman Consulting and Retail Services, we’re experts at all things retail.
And in fact, if you came to this retail blog after Googling us, you might have done so because you feel like you’re ready to close up your business.
But are you really ready to hire a retail retirement sales consultant, or are you just feeling burnt out?
We’re here to help either way, of course.
Let’s take a closer look at what retail burnout is and what measures you can take to avoid experiencing it.
What Is Retail Burnout?
Burnout is a state in which you feel physically and emotionally exhausted from chronic workplace stress.
It can happen in many different industries – lawyer burnout, sales burnout, private practice healthcare burnout, and social worker burnout are some of the most common ones.
So is retail.
Retail burnout can especially affect founders of a retail business.
After all, you’re in charge of so many different daily tasks, as well as the ongoing growth and success of your business.
How do you create an eye catching window display that gets people to keep coming into your store?
And how do you convert them into paying customers?
How do you deal with consumer spending downturns?
How do you deter shoplifters, manage your inventory, and move your store’s old stock?
You have all this to worry about, as well as the day to day operations of your store.
No wonder you’re exhausted!
Retail burnout is often caused by various aspects of work related stress.
These stressors can include disruption of work life balance, daily stress and responsibilities, and financial concerns.
Experiencing burnout can leave you feeling exhausted, unmotivated or detached, and feeling ineffective at your job.
There’s a fine line between feeling very tired and being too exhausted to function properly.
When burnout sets in, it can negatively impact your health, business, and relationships.
How To Tell If You’re Burnt Out
Burnout can affect you physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Burnout affects everyone differently, however there are signs and symptoms that may indicate its presence.
It’s important to keep in mind that many of the signs and symptoms may mirror symptoms of other mental health conditions, like depression.
However, experiencing burnout is directly caused by work.
One of the main symptoms of burnout is fatigue.
Fatigue can have a significant impact on your life by leaving you sleepy and unable to focus on simple tasks.
Another common physical symptom of burnout is having tension headaches.
Burnout can also disrupt your daily habits.
Changes in sleep and diet are good indications that something, like burnout, may be affecting you.
You may also experience persistent feelings of apathy or dissatisfaction with your work.
These feelings can cause a sense of detachment from work as well as reduced motivation to maintain your work standards and goals.
This especially affects business owners, since you are in charge of the growth and success of your business.
This can result in a lot of ongoing stress.
Burnout can also leave you feeling impatient with staff or cause you to be frustrated and short tempered, which in turn can cause them stress.
Burnout can make you feel exhausted, unmotivated, defeated, and have a sense of being stuck in an ongoing pattern of stress.
How Can Retail Burnout Affect You As A Business Owner?
It can be difficult when experiencing burnout as a business owner.
When you feel burnt out as a business owner you can lose direction in your work and struggle to communicate effectively.
This can cause issues with productivity and the daily operations of your business.
And people will notice.
From a business perspective, this includes your employees and customers.
Pushing yourself when you feel burnt out to alleviate work related stress can further aggravate the problem, and potentially create a stressful environment for everyone.
Trying to outperform your job stress, sell more product, and work longer hours can make you want to quit altogether.
Burnout can lead you to have a defeated attitude at work which can impact relationships and productivity.
It can also push you to unhealthy outlets, like substances, which can disrupt your routine and health.
Allowing your stress to build up inside without proper outlets can result in you wanting to walk away from your business.
Perhaps at this point, you’re ready to hire a retail store selling consultant or someone to plan and run a going out of business sale for you.
And that can make sense in some cases.
After all, one of the things that can lead to burnout is being in a financially difficult situation.
If your business just isn’t doing as well as it used to, it can make sense to want to get out.
How To Avoid Feeling Burnt Out When Running Your Store
As a business owner, it’s important to avoid burnout in order to focus on maintaining your business’ operations and reaching your goals.
If you begin to feel the onset of burnout symptoms, there are preventive measures and plans you can put in place.
Let’s look at some of the strategies you can implement in order to avoid feeling burnt out.
1. Find Ways To Manage Your Stress
As a business owner you may tend to feel that you have to consistently grind out work tasks without rest.
Many retail environments, like shopping malls, are 7 day a week operations.
This can build up persistent stress that can eventually lead to burnout.
There are many strategies you can use to help manage your work related stress.
It’s a good idea to take breaks and step away from sources of stress to assess yourself and look after your mental well being.
Plan activities you enjoy on your schedule.
If you need to be in every day maybe look at a mid day get away, like 9 holes of golf, or if more relaxation is a goal maybe book a mid day massage.
If you can not find relief, talking to a healthcare professional about your stress and how to manage it may be beneficial.
It’s also important to establish work life boundaries.
Allow yourself to disconnect from work and focus on other aspects of your life that are fun and relaxing.
Finding ways to manage your stress can help prevent it from accumulating to the point that you feel burnt out.
2. Tend To Your Physical Health
Taking time to prioritize your physical health can help reduce stress and alleviate symptoms of burnout.
Consider activities like physical exercise, meditation, or yoga.
Taking a break and engaging in activities that are enjoyable and relaxing can positively impact your mood and mentality.
Regular exercise also provides a lot of health benefits that can keep you happy and energized.
3. Stay Organized
Staying organized can help keep you from becoming overwhelmed or forgetting important tasks.
Employ organizational methods to reduce stress and give you more control over your business, time, and work life balance.
Decluttering and streamlining information and tasks can help reduce the stress and responsibility you feel as an owner.
Centralizing information and assigned roles can make your business more efficient and organized.
You can also delegate tasks in order to avoid feeling chronically exhausted and overworked.
Staying organized allows you to manage your time and effort and can help you avoid feeling stressed or burnt out.
4. Keep Your Eye On The Bigger Picture
Another strategy to avoid burnout is to focus on the big picture of your business and career.
Establishing realistic goals can keep you motivated towards the continued growth and success of your business.
Running a business involves many day to day responsibilities and stresses.
Focusing on the end goal of the business and recognizing what you have accomplished can keep you hopeful for the future.
5. Recognize When It’s Time To Move On
Ultimately, with persistent work related stress, the best course of action is to take a break and distance yourself from the job.
Consider how much stress and anxiety running your business is causing you.
Does it outweigh the reward of your entrepreneurial endeavour?
Running any business will cause stress.
However, if you’re experiencing increasingly diminished returns, it may be time to consider closing your store and moving on.
If that’s the case, you’ll need an exit strategy.
At Silverman Consulting & Retail Services we can help you manage your store closing and liquidation of assets.
Contact Silverman Consulting And Retail Services Today
Making the decision to close your store and move on with the next stage of your life can be difficult.
At Silverman Consulting & Retail Services we’re here to help you.
We’ll work with you to help manage your store closing sale and liquidation of assets, helping reach your goals and reduce your stress.
Contact Silverman Consulting And Retail Services today.
Silverman Consulting & Retail Services229 Yonge St suite 400,
Toronto, ON M5B 1N9, Canada
1 (888) 955-1069