One thing we hear often from business owners – and occasionally feel ourselves – is that owning your own business can sometimes be overwhelming.

Whether you have the “entrepreneurial gene” or not, clients, projects, accounting, maintaining (and even trying to grow) your own business – it all adds up to some big headaches sometimes.  Believe me, I know.

However, there are a few tips to keep in mind that at least help keep that beast (feelings of being overwhelmed) at bay.

Be Crystal Clear – and Realistic

Ever heard of “scope-creep?”  No, it’s not that weird guy that hangs out at the 7-11 parking lot.  This is a very real problem that plagues all of us from time to time.  Projects seems to get bigger and bigger as we get into them.  Clients have a way of adding “necessary” bits and pieces to projects.  But with some planning ahead of time – and to be honest, this takes some experience, too – you can outline carefully what is expected of all parties and stick to it.  And don’t oversell yourself.  Do what you do well, and don’t add to it to try to convince the client to use you.  Be clear and realistic with what you can, and are willing to do.  Those feelings of being overwhelmed will be a thing of the past if you stick to this little gem.

Know What You Don’t Know

Ok, admittedly, this is a bit of a problem.  The unexpected often happens, and it is very hard to plan for that.  But if you have built margin into each project (shoot, even each DAY), those things that come up that weren’t planned on don’t throw you for a loop.  I know that the times I have felt the most overwhelmed is when I feel under the gun, don’t understand things, and didn’t plan for that.  Usually, if I can take time to work through the problem and learn the things I didn’t know, the issue takes care of itself.  This only comes when there is margin in my life.  Plan it into every project.  And hey, if you don’t need it, you come out ahead of schedule!

Use Available Technology

Sometimes the fact that there is an upfront learning curve keeps us from using new technology that might, in the end, save us a lot of time and effort.  We live in a wonderful day- there is technology available for almost any scenario you might find yourself in.  Take the time to stay current on what is available in your industry.  For those of us who are in marketing, platforms like Hubspot and Infusionsoft are absolute life-savers when it comes to automating some of those time-demanding tasks.  A favorite of mine in the email marketing and list manager category is MailChimp.  Let technology take some of the stress off of you.  After all, you have better things to do with your day than deal with the feelings of being overwhelmed by the little tasks.

There are so many more ways that we can reduce those feelings of being overwhelmed, and I’d love for you to share your thoughts on this.  Share your thoughts and ideas – you just might keep someone from drowning in the Sea of Overwhelm!