How to Deal With Loss & Anxiety as a Business Owner

Business owners face surmountable mental challenges during their entrepreneurial journey. One of the harshest mental challenges is dealing with a sense of financial loss and experiencing ongoing anxiety.

Research by Dr Michael Freeman stated that 72% of entrepreneurs reported having mental health concerns and suggested that founders are two times more likely to have suicidal thoughts.

Here are four types of loss and anxiety that business owners face from time to time.

  • Type 1 loss: Feeling miserable losing a major contract (Client)
  • Type 2 loss: Ongoing anxiety caused by an unprofitable (or outdated) business model.
  • Type 3 loss: Losing a family home or investment property due to business failure.
  • Type 4 loss: Losing Everything: wealth, health, spouse, & family.

Depending on the level of loss you are experiencing, here are four solutions to manage them.

*If you find yourself experiencing anxiety at a life-threatening level, it is essential to seek professional help immediately to receive the appropriate care and treatment. This article does not replace professional paid services. 

Dealing With Type 1 Losses:

Type 1 loss is the misery of losing a significant client, contract, or Corporate account.

Often these accounts (clients) can contribute up to 60- 70% of your revenue base, and a loss of major clients would mean letting go of staff members and deactivating supporting systems and software you built to service your major clients. It also means that all the investments spent on client customisation would go down the drain.

The best solution is not to fall into this position in the first place. And the best mindset to adopt is that Everything in life (and business) Is Transient, which can include your customers, clients, and corporate accounts.

Business, and very much everything in life, is impermanent. Acknowledge the unhappiness, and move on gradually.

Work towards building your Lead Generation System. Be less complacent when everything is working well with your major clients, and be prepared that they can drop you like a hat when a better deal comes along.

Dealing With Type 2 Losses

Type 2 losses occur when a business owner experiences anxiety due to an unprofitable business model.

When you experience an ongoing inability to pay your debtors and expenses, it can impact your self-worth. It can also significantly heighten your stress level when debt collectors send Letters of Demand and threaten that you reimburse them for their time and legal costs. Ultimately, you develop an agonising feeling of an impending path towards liquidation or bankruptcy if your financial circumstances remain stagnant.

Take note that Not all businesses are profitable; the stats below are evident as follows: –

To manage Type 2 – you may need to sell your business since there might be some VALUE remaining in your business, such as:

    • Customer database, leads, and pending sales.
    • Location, Lease terms, Stocks, and Goodwill
    • Fit-outs (depreciation report’s remaining value)
    • Digital assets: websites, software rights, sales funnel, lead generation & email system, and much more.

Consider engaging the service of an accountant or business valuation specialist to produce a certified valuation report. 

This report will strengthen your asking price and empower your Business Broker to champion for you rather than talking down on your asking price to get a quick sale.

Other ways to manage Type 2 are cost-cutting exercises through: –

    • Downsizing
    • Letting go of staff, software subscriptions and plans
    • Cutting down irrelevant anything costs.

However, the best way to minimise type 2 is to have an Exit Planning strategy session with your Business Consultant before and during your business journey.

Exit Planning is a 12–24-month journey where we help you build systems to attain revenue and net profit growth to maximise your highest selling price. For more information, click here.

business owner anxiety, How to Deal With Loss & Anxiety as a Business Owner

Dealing with Type 3 Losses

Type 3 is a loss of a family home due to business failure.

Suppose a business owner failed to exit their business successfully. In that case, foreclosure is next on the menu, as most companies have loans attached to their house as collateral for the banks.

In the event of foreclosure due to business failure, the stress and pain are unbearable and can lead to an elevated risk of suicide.

For any thoughts of self-harm, one should see a qualified clinician, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or your Lifeline in your Country of origin.

But if the thoughts are mild and fleeting, get help and see a psychologist, psychiatrist, or any psychotherapist to work it out.

Remember the Law of Impermanence.

In Buddhist philosophy, the Law of Impermanence is the teaching that Everything in material or relative existence is impermanent. That is, Everything has a beginning, a middle, and, most definitively, an ending.

“Buddhism views impermanence (Anicca or Anitya) as one of their essential doctrines that posits ‘Everything changes and nothing lasts forever. “

This law of impermanence encompasses your Profit, your Porche, Business, Wealth, Health, Physique, and your family House.

Everything we possess materialistically is considered as leasehold from god (the Universe or the Creator).

Nothing belongs to you in the long term; it was simply your Turn, and now it is their Turn to have it.

BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE

GRATITUDE IS THE KEY TO ABUNDANCE

AND ABUNDANCE IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR LOSS

Every morning, start the day with Gratitude. Check out this Post on Gratitude and Morning recitation.

Dealing with Type 4 Losses

Type 4 is losing everything you have emotionally invested in the entities and people.

The feeling of losing can emotionally cripple a business owner: the loss of net wealth, health, spouse, custody of the kids, and belongings.

It is the bottomless pit of emotional hell.

One can eventuate into unemployment, seeing negative digits in the bank, and bankruptcy, followed by the spouse filing for divorce and taking full custody of the kids, and leaving pennies to fight in the Family Court.

However, there is hope. To manage Type 4, here are four reminders.

    1. Start Your Day With Gratitude.

    2. You still possess your Entrepreneurial Intelligence.

    3. You can make more money, but You cannot make more Time. Use your precious time to resolve issues and start again. Every day is a new reincarnation; you don’t have to wait until 80+ years old to look forward to the next reincarnation.

    4. It is easy to get employment as most business owners are eager to employ someone with entrepreneurial talent, acumen, and insight to bring to the table: in sales, systemise their business, deal with demanding customers, and become their thought partner.

The beauty of losing “everything” is that You still have time on your side to work on your health, mind, and re-train your body to get that endorphin pumping.

A healthy body free from pain and gluttony gives you a healthy mind.

Life was not designed to be perfect, it is meant to challenge you. The more challenge you conquer, the more unbreakable you become, and the more you can accept the Universe within you.

ACTION PLAN

If you are experiencing Type 1 loss, brush it off and move on. The Universe has released you from old energy sources so that you can accept new challenges and opportunities with a better outlook in Life. You can refresh your business strategies by attending the Business Growth Workshop.

If you are going through Type 2, speak to a business consultant and plan for your exit strategy before it worsens. Get 1:1 help from us.

If you are at Type 3, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or get help from a psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychotherapist. Most of your negative thoughts, anxiety, and stress are abstract and just a construct of your mind.

Pay more attention to all the luck, blessing, and opportunities that you have had up to present, and focus on living a Life with a purpose, that is beyond you.

For those experiencing Type 4 loss, you are going through a spiritual journey in a human experience. Cultivate living in the present, focusing on one step at a time, think like a Monk, live like a Monk until your Ego dies from its self-importance and you’ll experience the resurrection of a new you.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Victor Kon

Victor Kon is a “business builder” entrepreneur, trusted business advisor, and catalyst to your success. He helps entrepreneurs optimise, automate, and grow businesses that can run without heavily relying on sweat equity. With over a decade of experience running successful businesses in a multitude of sectors, Mr. Kon now utilises the expertise he garnered in those endeavours to help others achieve the same success in their ventures. Read More.

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Victor Kon​

Victor Kon is a "business builder" entrepreneur with over a decade of business experience. He is a Certified Business Advisor and a Certified Practising Marketer. He helps business owners optimise, market, and grow their businesses that can run without relying on sweat equity

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