Strategies For Small Business Owners To Switch Off

So often you hear small business owners talk about how the reality of small business is so different from what they expected.  Research by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources shows that small business owners and their employees are more likely to experience a mental health illness compared to the rest of the population.  

Even before the pandemic, 43% of business owners worked every weekend, with 85% of respondents admitting to regularly taking their work home with them. Today, high workloads, the availability-creep of working remotely, and cost of living pressures have created one of the most challenging environments in history to run a business. 

So, what can small business owners do?

Psychologist and Co-Founder of Transitioning Well, Justine Alter, say it’s about making conscious choices about how we want to integrate life and work for our unique situation. Here she shares her tips. 

1. Manage the transition between work and home life

We may not realise it, but we probably have transition rituals that provide a buffer between home life and work. Pre-pandemic, this might’ve been our commute to the office, but now it could be as simple as making a coffee before checking emails or scheduling a walk with a friend or your dogs to mark the end of the day. While these are small acts, such habits play an important psychological role in preparing us for the day ahead and winding down in the evening. 

As a business owner there is always work to do. You may wear many hats and feel the pressure to be ‘always on’  but no matter how much work gets done, there is always be more deliverables. It’s up to you to prioritise the demands on your time. Doing so will create a business that is more sustainable in the long run. 

2. Set realistic expectations

We often set standards for ourselves that we would never expect of anyone else. 

Step back and evaluate your business and personal responsibilities and ask yourself if they’re realistic when you take into account your time, values, needs and wants. Expectations that may have been reasonable before may not fit in with a changing work role, modified responsibilities, or your current personal responsibilities. 

3. Communicate your boundaries

Communicating consistent and clear messages to those around you will help you to set priorities and boundaries between work and personal time – people aren’t mind readers!

4. Know when to disconnect from work

While it is important that we remain connected with staff, family and our wider social networks, it can be equally valuable to ‘switch off’. You would never expect your mobile phone to keep working without the opportunity to recharge at the end of the day – and we need to intentionally re-charge ourselves too. You can only do today what you can do today. 

Set a clear work schedule and share this with your team. This will help compartmentalise your work and personal time and allow you to engage wholeheartedly in activities that are important. The people in your life will appreciate having your full attention. 

5. Prioritise sleep

Good-quality sleep is crucial for maintaining both physical and mental health.  We are all guilty of the phenomenon known as ‘Revenge Bedtime Procrastination’. You’ve just caught up on work emails, the dishwasher is stacked and you finally have a few quiet moments to yourself. Instead of going to sleep, you stay up late binge-watching one more episode despite needing to be up early the next morning. 

Small business owners are especially prone to this sleep procrastination with all the competing priorities they have to juggle. 

Being aware of this phenomenon is the first step to being able to change it! So, ditch the technology, reach for a book or include a relaxation activity like a hot bath to help wind down in the evening before bed. Your brain will thank you for it. 

6. Honour your values

When you ask people what they value most in life, they’ll often say it’s friends and family, yet we often let work priorities or our phones crowd out these intentions. 

Make sure you bring your values into your life and honour your highest priorities in practice, not just in theory. This may mean putting away your phone as soon as the workday ends or not checking emails between the hours of 6pm and 8am. 

Be conscious of how your business operations may be affecting those who work for you or your own family. Make steps to create a more sustainable business practices, prioritise connection and be more present with those who are important to you. 

7. Use technology to your advantage

It can be draining trying to remember every little detail of what you need to accomplish every day. Technology can take some of the weight off your mental load – for example, itemising purchases in an expenses app, setting staff priorities in Microsoft Teams or using a meditation app to help switch off at night. 

There are plenty of productivity and reminder apps that you can use to keep track of all the things you need to do and when. Research tells us that those who write a detailed to-do list and get it out of their brains fall asleep 15 minutes faster than those who don’t. 

Finally, be kind to yourself 

Don’t feel selfish for prioritising your basic physical and mental needs. In small business, we so often advocate for everyone else before ourselves. It is so important to ensure that we have fuel in our own tanks and our basic physical and mental health needs are met. As Libby Trickett, the famous Australian swimmer puts it best, ‘You can’t pour from an empty cup’. 

With high levels of burnout and workplace exhaustion across the globe, now is a great opportunity to test the temperature of your water so you can take stock to continue to live and work well.  

Access the following resources for information and advice on managing your stress and mental health.

FREE workplace mental health coaching

• Free coaching from a highly trained expert to help you create or fine tune your mentally healthy workplace.
• The coaching service is available to eligible business owners, leaders, and managers in NSW.
• To book: https://www.nsw.gov.au/mental-health-at-work/free-training-and-coaching/coaching

Mental health and wellbeing support services

• Ahead for Business – small business mental health advice.
• Small Business Mentoring Service – small business mentoring and events.
• Heads Up – small business mental health advice.

Crisis support services

• Lifeline – call 13 11 14 for 24-hour crisis support.
• Beyond Blue – call 1300 224 636 for 24-hour crisis suppo

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How to manage small business challenges

We recently spoke to Dr Tessa Bailey, psychologist and workplace mental health coach, to discuss her work and insights into the challenges faced by small business.

Before joining Transitioning Well, Dr Bailey gained expertise in human resource management, injury prevention, and injury management. During her tenure as a Research Fellow at UniSA, she contributed significantly to the Australian Workplace Barometer project, analysing data on working conditions, worker health, and productivity outcomes for more than 7000 employees across Australia. Driven by her PhD research on worker psychological health and safety, she actively advocates for psychological wellbeing in work environments. She is affiliated with the Opus Centre, which enhances workplace psychological safety through evidence-based approaches.

Outside of her professional commitments, Dr Bailey places great importance on quality time with her family and friends, the beach being her favourite place to unwind.

During our interview, Dr Bailey highlighted the top three challenges that small businesses commonly face and offered advice for each. Time, money, and good leadership were identified as significant factors. For SMEs, managing time and finances carefully is crucial for long-term sustainability. Balancing productivity with mental health is also essential; leaders play a key role in achieving this balance.

Invest in strong people skills

In the context of SMEs, leaders have multiple responsibilities, from recruitment and induction to safety, service delivery, resource allocation, and performance management. Dr Bailey stressed the importance of selecting leaders with strong people skills. As technology automates routine tasks, a business’s productivity now relies on people’s ability to interact effectively with systems and one another. Emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and effective people management are critical for future success. Organisations that manage work-related factors to ensure appropriate demands, adequate resources, and quality leadership support will attract, retain, and motivate their staff, ultimately leading to profitable outcomes.

Dr Bailey acknowledged that most SME leaders genuinely care about their workers’ mental health. However, they often need support in applying their empathy appropriately within the workplace while managing work-related factors. By engaging their people in a way that aligns with the business’s needs, SMEs can achieve a win-win situation where happy and healthy workers are also the most productive and loyal.

To conclude, Dr Bailey is a valued member of the dedicated Transitioning Well coaching team. We’re passionate about equipping business leaders with the tools to cultivate mentally healthy work environments. We take great pride in offering workplace mental health coaching services to businesses in NSW, with support and funding from the NSW Government.

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