By Libby Rothschild, CEO of Dietitian Boss; follow on LinkedIn.
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The Mayo Clinic offers a succinct (and scary) definition of burnout: According to their medical team, burnout is “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”
As if physical or emotional exhaustion itself wasn’t enough!
Burnout is common among registered dietitians who operate a private practice. For example, private practice owners often experience burnout because of all they have to do. Registered dietitians in private practice have to wear a wide variety of hats (think: marketing professional, accountant, content creator and more). Unfortunately, statistics also show stress and burnout tend to affect more women than men. According to the Commission on Dietetic Registration, more than 85% of registered dietitians identify as women. This can make the prospect of launching or leveraging a business as a female solopreneur quite daunting.
To scale our businesses without burning out, we need to work smart. You have the opportunity here to ignite something great instead of, well, letting your flame fizzle and sputter out, leaving you nothing but smoke and ashes instead of a profitable business.
Here’s what you need to know.
Admitting Your Burnout: The First Step Is The Hardest
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Let’s get real for a second: It’s tough to acknowledge your impending or existing burnout. Doing so can feel akin to failure. You may feel that you don’t have time to rest. You may have an idea that you need to put in your time to get where you want to be. You may be focused more on results and less on yourself. As a result, burnout gets put on the back burner.
That’s not how it works.
If you feel that:
• Your work never ends
• You’re operating with an incredible amount of stress
• Running your own business is far more difficult than you expected
• You’re consistently overwhelmed
…you’re likely burning out. It can be that simple.
The Psychological And Physical Costs Of Burnout
If you’re consistently operating in a state of burnout, your brain’s in a constant state of agitation. As a result of burnout, you may not be able to think clearly. You won’t be able to solve problems, and you won’t be able to move forward effectively.
(This is why self-diagnosing burnout can be so tricky. If your peers and fellow dietitian boss peers are telling you that you seem drained, listen to them!)
Burnout also comes with physiological repercussions. It’s a diagnosable condition that should be treated with the same seriousness as perhaps more traditional maladies. Being burned out can lead to nausea, tension, migraines, insomnia, joint pain and even long-term recurring symptoms.
Put another way: Nationally, burned-out employees have cost American employers as much as $190 billion per year in healthcare costs.
As much as you might not want to take a break to beat burnout, consider this: Your business can’t handle that type of financial strain (or even a tiny fraction of it). This may help convince you that you need to take this seriously.
Business-Savvy Steps Toward Mitigating And Moving Past Burnout
Aside from incorporating more self-care systems into your day-to-day, there are strategic actions you can take from a business perspective. For example:
Build recurring revenue and passive income. The goal here is to create systems that make you money without increased effort and thought on your part. Passive income and recurring revenue streams can be one way of doing this. For example, instead of offering 100% bespoke services, you could create one product (such as a workbook or a course) to provide most of your audience with the information and support they need. Clients who want more personalized service can still request it—for an additional fee.
Be extremely cautious about taking on new types of projects or lines of business. Diversifying your services is a great way to grow, but you need to tread carefully. Investing in a new type of business will require a lot of effort and extra cost from you, which can trigger burnout symptoms very quickly. If you’re dealing with burnout symptoms, it may be best to stick to what you know (for now).
Keep your business model as simple as possible. Along similar lines: Don’t hesitate to streamline your services. This may not feel like growth, but it is one way you can scale your dietitian private practice. Also, if you don’t keep things simple, your business model will look increasingly like a Jenga tower that’s just about to topple. Don’t do that to yourself (or your clients!).
Consider revenue streams that reduce financial stress. One common source of burnout is the cash flow crunch that comes with starting up a new initiative. To set up a new business or new offering, you need to invest a significant amount of time into content creation, ideating a business model, marketing, onboarding clients and more before you see any revenue. While some amount of hustle will always occur with a new venture, you can think strategically to establish less lag time between the peak of your efforts and when you see profits. For example, consider that it may be easier to sell a subscription with a low monthly fee than an individual, expensive program. Restructuring your offerings in this way can make your services more accessible priced and give you peace of mind.
At the end of the day, you need to remember that your mental health is paramount, not a second- (or third- or fourth-) tier concern. It’s also key that buckling down on burnout doesn’t lead to more burnout for you! Take some time to assess your health as objectively as you can. Running a business is time-consuming, but it doesn’t need to be all-consuming. By coming up with a few new ways to take pressure off yourself, you’ll be better able to serve your business and your clients long into the future.
