10 Self-Care Tips for Entrepreneurs

Sep 11

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As entrepreneurs, we can easily forget to appreciate the importance of self-care.

So why is it so important?

Well, without giving yourself the necessary attention that you need to thrive as a person, your business can quickly start to struggle as you feel the burnout of running your own business.

And it’s so easy to avoid with a little awareness and action.

So here are my favorite and most effective self-care tips to keep you staying refreshed, focused and successful for the long run of your business.

1. Make Sure Your Workstation is Ergonomic!

This is a lesson I learned recently when I got tendinitis in my shoulder because my keyboard and mouse were too high! I’m still healing from that and it definitely impacted my work. So make sure whatever your work space looks like, it is optimized for your body!

2. Movement

If you work at a desk all day, stop and stretch regularly. Take a dance break once an hour, even if it’s one song. Just get your blood flowing, take a break from that sitting position and move around as much as you can. It’s not only great for your body, but it’s also great for your mind and giving yourself a little creative pick-me-up!

3. Take Regular (weekly!) Time Off

As entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to work day, night, and weekends!

While we feel like everything has got to get done and there’s no time for a break, if you burn out, you won’t have the energy to keep going anyway. So number three is to make sure you take off one day every week. Like, a whole day!

I know, it sounds crazy, but your body, your mind, your family, and your business will thank you for it.

4. Take Time to Decompress After Work Each Day

While we’re talking about working days, nights, and weekends, the fourth tip is to make sure you give yourself time to decompress between work and bedtime.

If you’re anything like me, you get wrapped up in what you’re doing and the next thing you know, it’s midnight and you have an early meeting, so you hop up and go right to bed. Your brain and body NEED time to decompress.

Force a stopping point for yourself and then move your body, read a book, do anything else that does not involve a computer, phone or tablet screen, for at least an hour before bed.

5. Eat Your Meals Away From Your Desk

Number five is on the same path here, do everything you can to make sure you eat your lunch away from your desk. It’s a forced break in your work day that I know you’ll start to love once you get used to it.

And then praise yourself for giving yourself that dedicated time.

6. Be Social

The next one is a big one, especially for those of us that work at home: Be social! Entrepreneurs can often end up working alone everyday and have very little social interaction.

If you can find a friend or two to co-work with, do that. But no matter what, make sure you make time to be social in a fun way that is unrelated to work as well - at least once a week!

7. Do Something Nice for Yourself Once a Month.

Treat yourself to a mani/pedi, a relaxing massage, a nice lunch out with a friend, that sort of thing. You’re working so hard on your business that you can forget to pamper yourself a little, feel like you’re not existing just to run your business. Put yourself in a situation that allows you to unwind!

8. Don’t Say “Yes” to Everything!

This one can be hard for many entrepreneurs. Sometimes we don’t know when our next client or payment is coming so we say yes to everyone and every project.

How does this fall in the self-care category? Because when we do that, we often end up taking on too much and getting overwhelmed, and then we work until bedtime, don’t take days off, don’t get up and move our bodies...I think you see where we’re going here.

But also, this can lead to you taking a project you don’t love or working with someone that you knew was going to be a little difficult, but you did it anyway. Trust your instincts, and don’t jump at every opportunity.

9. Value Your Own Time and Products/Services

Another challenge of the entrepreneur, especially the new entrepreneur is, make sure you value yourself and your skills, services, or products!

I think we’ve all been there, we’ve gone back and forth debating what we should charge and when we tell someone our price they don’t blink an eye, and we think, “Oh! I wonder if I could have charged more?” And we wonder that, not because we want to take advantage, but because the price we gave them was way under what we knew our service or product was worth.

I learned this early on and am still working on practicing it; set the price you feel is fair and will actually turn a profit for yourself and stick to it.

There will be people who will not pay that amount, they are not your people.

There will be people who will see all the value in your skills, service, or product, and happily pay you accordingly. By doing this, I promise you will find your confidence will grow not only in your business, but also in all aspects of your life.

10. Take Vacations

And last, but not least, plan for and take a vacation just as you would if you were working for someone else (and maybe even more than that)!

I know this seems hard sometimes, but the world won’t end if you take a week off to relax, renew, and take care of yourself! You will come back to your business with a fresh pair of eyes and your business will feel it!

And there you have it! Those are my top 10 self-care tips! I know some of them might not seem so obviously connected to self-care, but they all are.