How to Grow your Business with Simple Self-Care Tips

Ever feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around? In this episode, we will share invaluable insights into how prioritizing self-care can transform both your personal well-being and business success. With over 20 years of my own entrepreneurial experience to draw from, this episode uncovers the harsh realities of neglecting self-care—burnout, poor customer service, and missed opportunities. Learn actionable strategies for integrating self-care into your daily routine, like scheduling regular breaks, staying active, and more. By making self-care a non-negotiable part of your schedule, you’ll be better equipped to maintain your physical, mental, and emotional health, ultimately driving your business towards sustainable growth.


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Chapters

• 0:45 Prioritizing Self-Care in Business Growth
• 10:03 Managing Stress and Self-Care in Business
• 15:54 Mindfulness and Boundaries in Business

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:46

Running an online business can be incredibly rewarding, but let's be honest, it can also be very stressful. You're juggling responsibilities, you're pushing towards growth and you're often wearing many different hats. And in the midst of it all, it's easy to neglect one crucial thing self-care. I know I have done this before in the over 20 years of running this business, so this is top of mind right now, because I've been really focusing on self-care to make sure that I am at my best so I can help my business grow. So today we're going to dive into what self-care is. What are some ways that we can really work this into our busy day? Because, let's be honest, we all are really busy and how can we practically put this in our day? So join me as we dive deep into this and find some great solutions. Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, ke Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old. My main goal to help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry, and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place. So sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the podcast.

Carrie Saunders: 2:09

Today's episode is a little bit different from our usual business growth, as we're going to be talking about self-care. However, self-care is very much related to business growth. If we are not taking care of ourselves, it is very easy to head towards a burnout which is going to really directly affect your business. So let's dive into how we can prevent this and what we can do. So, first off, we all probably know that self care is important to our business growth and when you're running a business, you are the driving force for the business. And if you're not physically at your best or mentally at your best, or even emotionally, it's going to affect your productivity, creativity and decision making. You're going to get potentially into what is called decision fatigue. I know I get that sometimes and I try to work purposely to make sure I don't get into that situation. And burnout is very real and it can happen to the best of us. I know it's happened to me a few times in running this business and I've found ways to get through that and really make sure that I am getting the joy back into running the business, because it is something I do truly love to do. Also, when you get burnout and aren't taking care of yourself, it can also lead to poor customer service, missed opportunities and health problems. I know I run into health problems too when I get totally burnt out and I'm trying to work too hard and it makes it hard for you.

Carrie Saunders: 3:37

Then progress in your business, which is what you're really trying to do. So we want to make sure that we are prioritizing self-care and, if you're one of those people like me, put it on your schedule. So we're going to be talking about some ways that you can improve and help your self-care, but make sure you put it on your calendar. If it's not on my calendar, I forget about it and I don't do it. So that's one key tip is make sure, as we're going through these and you decide what you're going to do to help yourself with self-care, put it on your calendar, all right. So, first off, we want to make sure we're scheduling breaks in our day, and I really, actually truly mean this. Make sure you're scheduling breaks.

Carrie Saunders: 4:18

A lot of people try to work nonstop and really push through and it really causes their mental ability to make decisions and produce creative work really slow down. So you want to make sure, make sure you're taking that lunch break, make sure you're getting up once an hour to move around, even if you don't need to go to the bathroom, even if you don't need more water or don't need more snacks. Make sure you're getting up once an hour at minimum and take a little five minute walk around either your office or if you work from home you know working from home make sure you maybe take the dog outside or just do something to move your body. Make sure wherever you need to refill your water is farther away. When we were shut down during COVID, I purposely went to the bathroom in my house that was the farthest away from where I worked just to make sure that I moved myself more than taking the bathroom. It was a little bit, actually a lot shorter walk. So no matter how you can do it, make sure you have those little tiny movements very frequently in your day. It's going to really make a big difference. It doesn't seem like a lot but it really does. And they say that if we take our eyes off our computer screens at least once an hour and look at a farther away distance and just kind of let our mind wander. Then it's going to really help not only our mental function but also our vision and, just you know, our happiness too. So make sure you're doing that.

Carrie Saunders: 5:55

And then number two is get moving. Now, this is different than the moving on, the getting taking little breaks. I'm talking actually some physical exercise. I know for me, I am not a big fan of exercising. Until I really get into it, I'm really not a big fan. I don't like to start a new exercise routine or anything like that. So I want you to pick something you enjoy. What do you really enjoy doing? Do you like walking out in nature? Do you like going for a bike ride? Do you like to talk to friends while you're taking a walk? Maybe that's what you like to do. Do you have a dog? Can you use that, as you're moving every day? So they want you.

Carrie Saunders: 6:33

You know studies show that we should be moving 20 to 30 minutes per day. Now, I know that I am not up to this 20 to 30 minutes per day myself. It is something I am working on. I'm currently working. It is something I am working on. I'm currently working moving every Sunday for an hour. I'm doing yoga right now. It's a wonderful yoga class, by the way, but I'm doing yoga and that is my one day a week. I'm doing yoga, which is strength training and stretching, and then I've recently added in a bike ride once a week. Now both of those are an hour long, so it's kind of up to you whether you want to count that as two times for the week. You know each. As far as your 20 to 30 minutes, I think in my brain I kind of do, because they're pretty tough workouts. I do make them pretty tough, but we also don't want to be slacking off.

Carrie Saunders: 7:20

I'm adding in some more workouts throughout the week as my next goals. Don't do too much too. This is something. I'll sometimes just go all in on working out or setting up a new workout routine or exercise or some sort of movement type of routine, and then I get burnout. So I'm slowly adding this. I first added yoga and I've been doing that for a few months now, and now I'm adding bike riding and I've been doing that for a couple weeks as of this recording, and then next I'm going to be working in either some running or some hill walking, because hill walking is pretty darn effective at getting, you know your cardiovascular system pretty healthy. So make sure you put this on your calendar and, like I said, don't burn out doing it either. That's what we're all trying to prevent here. So if you're not already doing some movement routines during the week, add one and then wait a few weeks and then, when you're ready, add another one. But make sure you're purposeful about this. It's really important to be physically fit so that we can do our best mentally and creatively. Okay.

Carrie Saunders: 8:21

So the number three is prioritizing sleep. This is something I know I definitely do, because you don't want to be around me. If I haven't slept enough, you can ask family and friends and they'll be like oh yeah, and they'll even say don't talk to her in the morning because I am not a morning person. But I do prioritize my sleep. I make sure I get a minimum seven hours, and they recommend seven to eight and I know for my body I need in the seven to eight hour range. So I make sure I get a minimum of seven hours. Now when I say a minimum of seven hours of sleep for me, I will pad it in there with about a half an hour of falling asleep and waking up. I take a little bit more time to fall asleep and I take a little bit more time to wake up. It's just who I am. It's who I've always been. So when you are making sure you're prioritizing your sleep, kind of factor that in, because we actually want the seven to eight hours to be actual sleep time, not the falling to sleep time and not the waking up time.

Carrie Saunders: 9:20

And another thing that's really good before you go to sleep that I've been practicing for a bit now is really, you know, being thankful and having gratitude and having thankful thoughts before you go to sleep. It can really help calm your mind and your brain so that you're not, you know, running off in nowhere in your brain trying to figure out how you solve this problem or that problem or what if this happens, you know. So really try to calm your mind, think about all the good things that have happened to you in that day, um, and really focus on grace and gratitude before you go to sleep, and you're going to have a much better sleep cycle whenever you do that. Okay and then. So number four is practicing mindfulness. Now.

Carrie Saunders: 10:03

Running a business comes with a lot of stress. Sometimes it's great and it's roses, and sometimes it's pretty stressful. So we want to make sure we're practicing mindfulness so that we can manage the stress. It can be as simple as taking a few deep breaths when you feel overwhelmed, or spend five to ten minutes a day meditating overwhelmed or spend five to 10 minutes a day meditating. This is something I've been doing. Even more out of the past few months is when I'm sitting here working and I start feeling like stress and I feel my shoulders kind of raising up by my ears. I'm sure you felt that before. Right, I know my mind's gone into this fear or stress state, so I will take a moment If needed. This fear or stress state. So I will take a moment If needed. I will close my eyes and I'll start thinking grateful thoughts in my head. I will start getting my mind focused on, you know, good things and how I want things to turn out, not the fear of what if they turned out this way. And that's a really great way to really calm your mind and you're going to be able to find that you can make better decisions and you're going to be a much happier person whenever you realize what you're doing and sit back and do this so regularly throughout the day.

Carrie Saunders: 11:14

I'll do kind of like a body check on myself. How am I holding myself? Are my shoulders tense? That's where I tend to have my tension. My shoulders get tense. Are my shoulders tense? Is my neck? I tend to have my tension. My shoulders get tense. Are my shoulders tense? Is my neck tense? I tend to have it in my upper body. Check yourself. You could have it in your lower back or your lower torso and your body and your stomach area. Figure out where is your physical stress, where does it manifest, and be conscious of that and pay attention to that. Maybe even if you need to set an alarm a few times a day, that's just a check-in, just check-in, physical stress alarm, and then it'll go off and you'll be like, okay, do I feel stressed? If I do, then I'm going to take a few deep breaths, I'm going to think of positive things, wonderful things that have happened to me, things I've accomplished recently, and I'm going to take some more deep breaths and then move on with my day. And you can do that a few times a day if you need to. It's a really great way to just check in and see where you are physically, because that helps you see where you are mentally.

Carrie Saunders: 12:21

And then number five is setting boundaries. So this is one of the hardest things that I had to do when I was first running the business because I ran it from home. Back before it was normal to run a business from home, I was running BCS engineering from home. I would get up in the morning. I would start work about nine o'clock, after the kids went to school or after I got them breakfast. This was before they were even in school. They were too young for that. I would work. I would take a lunch break. I would work till about dinnertime, till my husband came home from work. I would play with the kids, do the bedtime routine and then I would go back to work about 9 pm until midnight. I was working so much.

Carrie Saunders: 13:02

Once I set boundaries on when I worked I became much happier, less stressed and I was a lot more effective. So I started setting boundaries that I only work from this time to this time. Now I will work in the evenings if a client does have an emergency. I completely understand businesses need to keep going, but that's generally a rarity. It is not a normality, so it's something that might happen every few months. Maybe once every four or five months. I might need to do a little bit of work in the evening because somebody's website went down. They need help and I will do that. But in general, I do not work in the evenings. It's pretty rare if I do, and I'm a much healthier, happier person and I'm much more effective at work. So if you are one of those that because nowadays it's pretty darn normal to work from home set those time boundaries, even if it's a couple of different blocks during the day. So maybe you work from like nine to 11 and then you take a break from 11 to 1 and then you work from 1 to 5 and then maybe you take a few hour break and then you want to get one more hour in later at night because your brain works well at night. That's fine, but make sure you have that set up so you're not working all day. We need to make sure we have boundaries around that.

Carrie Saunders: 14:20

And then, last but not least, do something you enjoy daily, every day work some fun into your life, whether it's five or 10 minutes of it. Work some fun into your life. It could be as simple as listening to your favorite music. It could be as simple as taking a walk with your best friend, and that's going to actually solve one of the other things that we pointed out too, which is moving daily. So you can do some of these things in conjunction to save yourself time and kind of compound on the effectiveness of them. You could be, maybe, cooking your favorite meal. What do you really enjoy? Talking to your best friend, talking to your spouse, telling them about your day, playing a game, maybe building Legos. We love Legos in our house. I'm not sure about you, but we love Legos in our house. So find something you enjoy and make sure you're doing that every day, and it's going to really help refresh yourself and just feel more centered and grounded. So even if you only have 10 minutes, like I said, make sure you're scheduling something every day that you really enjoy.

Carrie Saunders: 15:20

Okay, so let's recap this week's episode. First, we talked about self-care and why it's important and how it's going to increase your revenue Because if we don't take care of ourselves, who's going to be driving and running our business right? And then some steps to do that is to schedule some breaks into your day. Make sure you get moving every day, if you can, 20 to 30 minutes. Prioritize your sleep. Make sure you're getting the ideal amount of sleep hours that you need Some people need seven, some people need eight, some people even need nine and then make sure you're practicing mindfulness as you're going about your day.

Carrie Saunders: 15:54

Do you feel stressed? Is your body tense? Do you need to like take a breather and really kind of calm your mind down? So practice some mindfulness. Make sure you're setting boundaries, make sure you're setting time boundaries as to when you do and when you don't work and, finally, make sure you do something fun each and every day. All right, so that's it for this week's episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. I hope this was super helpful to you. I know for me, it's great to remind myself of all the things I need to be doing too, because we're all a work in progress all the time. Right, and if you have any questions, you're welcome to drop us an email at podcast at bcsengeineeringcom. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, whether you're listening on a traditional podcast app or on our YouTube channel, and we will see you next week.