Mental Health Awareness Month: Prioritizing Your Mental Health for Business Owners

Owning a small business can be stressful and exhausting. Having to manage inventory, finances, employees, and legal documents can really take a toll on someone. Not only that, but business owners face stressors outside of owning their business.

Mental health, like physical health, is fundamental to one’s overall well-being. To close out Mental Health Awareness Month, we have tips to support business owners in prioritizing their mental health.

1. Create a positive mental-health environment

   1. Make a comfortable atmosphere for your employees to talk about their mental health. Acknowledging and expressing one’s state of well-being is a healthy practice. Inviting your employees to be open gives you the opportunity to be open, too.

2. Connect with your staff

   1. Make an effort to understand the pressures your employees face in the workplace. Alleviating their stress by better understanding and improving your workflow will alleviate your stress as a business owner. Being receptive to the needs of your employees will benefit not only your mental health, but your business overall.

3. Network in the small business community

   1. Create a community with other small businesses and small business owners. Having a system that you can rely on is invaluable and finding this community doesn’t need to be strictly professional. You can find your space on social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit.

4. Set boundaries

   1. Being a small business owner can feel like a 24/7 job, but it doesn’t have to be. Make an effort to separate work from your personal life. Turn your email notifications off, stop accepting work calls outside of business hours, and learn to say “no.”

5. Consider using mindfulness tools

   1. There are many apps that help with wellbeing and mental health. They often include the ability to: adapt based on your goals, track daily progress, access professional help and mood-boosting activities, and are often developed by mental health professionals. There’s a wide variety of options that you can browse to find the one that best suits your needs.

For more small business owner mental health resources:

• Mental Health Tips For Small Business Owners — The Launch Hive

• Business Owners Mental Health & Addiction Support | Live Another Day

• Mental Health Support For Small Business Owners | Everymind (everymindatwork.com)

• How Small Business Owners Take Care of Their Mental Health (thehartford.com)

For more help, contact togetherforla@isdus.org or call (833) 473-2020.

Click here to read this information in Spanish.

“Prioritizing Mental Health for Small Business Owners” Infographic

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