Overcome Exhaustion – Eight Ways to Beat Retail Burnout
Burnout. It’s a bummer. And we all experience it occasionally.
Burnout can come at different times in your work life. For some, burnout rears its ugly head soon after you’ve started that new business or taken that new job. The situation is overwhelming and the workload, never-ending.
For others, it arrives after many, many, MANY years of doing the same thing over, and over, and OVER.
Try some, or all, of these 8 retail tips to help you beat burnout…
- Manage your work more effectively.
One of the biggest factors contributing to burnout is the feeling that there is so much to do and not enough time to get it all done. Sometimes the problem is how effectively you’re managing time.
- Figure out what’s important.
Make a list of everything you have to do. Now figure out which things are REALLY important. Be ruthless. Cross everything else off the list.
- Develop an interest outside of work.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Even to himself. Go ahead and join the choir, take a knitting class, build a boat from scratch, learn Italian, start a book club, renovate a ‘64 Corvette, or do whatever it is that gets your engine going. It will rejuvenate your personal life, and your work life, too. - Delegate more often.
Decide which tasks you no longer enjoy or just don’t have time for and delegate them. Let go, be free! If you don’t have a staff, hire out some work. Get a bookkeeper, hire a cleaning service, or find someone to do your window displays. The work may not be done precisely the way you would have done it, but it will be done!
- Ask for help.
Confer with a colleague. Talk to an expert. Trying to re-invent everything about your business can be exhausting. You can be sure that if you are doing it, it has been done before. Let someone else show you the easy way to get it done.
- Try something new.
Have you been doing the same things the same way for too long? Done the same Easter promotion for the past twelve years? Played the same sales games with your staff for months on end? Shake it up. Try new things. Or do the same old things in an entirely new way. Be a little crazy. - Go to the Retail Success Summit!
It’s incredibly helpful to get away from the hurry-scurry day-to-day of your business and get in a room with TONS of retailers just like you. It’s a sure fire way to banish burnout.
- Get out.
If nothing else seems to help, try something really, really new. Like a new job or a new industry. Sell your business and move on! Remember, it’s your life and your happiness that’s most important. Work to live, don’t live to work.
Wishing you great sales and lots of fun,
