The Real Cost of Business Owner Burnout
Business owner burnout is an occupational phenomenon for people who run a solo operation, or with a small team. It might seem like an ordinary thing that happens to everyone (it is), but burnout isn’t just about feeling tired. It’s that bone-deep emotional and intellectual exhaustion where even small tasks feel impossible. If you’ve ever stared at your to-do list and felt your brain short-circuit, you know what I’m talking about.
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are especially vulnerable because we wear every hat. One day you’re handling marketing, the next you’re fixing the printer or replying to customers at midnight. It’s no wonder so many of us hit a wall.
The additional pressure of having everything point back to you can force us to stay aware and focused on a single goal for extremely long periods of time without relief can cause you to make mistakes that cost you more than just money. It’s dangerous to drive a vehicle for long periods of time for this reason, and while your life may not necessarily be on the line if you lose focus or make a mistake while running your business, it has a ripple effect throughout your personal life and the lives of everyone connected to your business.
Defining The Problem
But here’s the thing—burnout in business owners doesn’t have to be the inevitable price of success. The key isn’t working harder or pushing through. It’s about working smarter through iterative testing: making small, consistent tweaks to how you work until your workflow supports you instead of draining you.
In Agile, we have a concept called “existential overhead”. In his book Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life, author Jim Benson says,
“Work we have yet to complete, or any aspect of our life that distracts us, creates existential overhead. As existential overhead mounts, our effectiveness diminishes. Visualizing work reduces the distractions of existential overhead by transforming fuzzy concepts into tangible objects that your brain can easily grasp and prioritize.”
If, like much of our audience, you’re a member of (or running) a coworking space, think about how shared resources—like a receptionist, tech support, or even a stocked coffee station—lighten your load. You don’t have to think about fixing the printer or stocking up on office supplies. That’s existential overhead you no longer carry.
Existential overhead can feel like the weight of the world is hovering over your head, waiting to crush you as soon as your attention drops. The constant effort of trying to stay on top of everything you’re trying to keep in your head, from personal errands to vital emails to answer, phone calls, reviewing contracts, fielding client requests, and so much more, often leads to risk of burnout, mistakes, and unavoidably unpleasant consequences.
A Post-Mortem Business Case Study
Let me tell you about a friend of mine—let’s call her Sarah. Sarah ran a small graphic design studio. Perpetually in “beta”, short on cash and time, she was saying yes to every client, working 70-hour weeks, and still feeling like she wasn’t doing enough.
Sarah got to the point where she felt she needed help and she hired an assistant. Not only did she have to raise prices to cover the cost of her assistant, but she also had the extra work of onboarding a new employee into her back-office procedures, which were mostly contained in her head. Instead of relief, her workload tripled, her clients complained (and some bailed), and then she was in deeper trouble than ever before.
Her real issue here was a lack of professional accountability, and she attempted to plug this gap by hiring help. Isolation fuels burnout, and at some level she instinctively knew this and was reaching out for the help she needed.
If you’re working alone, it’s easy to spiral into feeling like you have to solve every problem yourself. Some environments can help with this. Coworking spaces, for example, naturally create accountability. Even casual chats in the lounge can lead to problem-solving moments or remind you that you’re not in this alone. But none of this will solve a problem that starts with having insufficient processes to capture what comes in, so you don’t have to remember and try to focus on everything all at once.
Not long after her assistant was hired, one of Sarah’s new clients expanded the scope of a project significantly but refused to increase the cost of the extra work. They even threatened to cancel payment on the deposit they’d paid for the project. Already at her working maximum, it felt like there was no way out of the financial quagmire she’d found herself in. The standoff was the final straw, and she decided to close up shop, cut her losses, and change careers.
But it didn’t stop there.
Her feelings of incapability resulting from losing her dream job, being her own boss, and interacting with interesting, creative clients took more than five years to resolve until she felt she was capable of running a business again.
Sarah didn’t burn out because she was lazy. She burned out because she wasn’t committing her existential overhead to a system of capture which would have kept her mind free to field incoming requests. She burned out because she kept the entire business in her head. She burned out because she kept doing everything the way she did it the week before, and because she just couldn’t onboard anything new or different without losing her cool.
She needed a system of capture. She needed to implement iterative testing to keep her workflow clocking along smoothly. She needed professional accountability and relief from the pressure of keeping her eyes open 24/7.
Create a System of Capture
In David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system, he describes a system of capture as method of recording tasks and ideas in an external system. This can be a notebook or diary, post-its on a whiteboard, a Kanban Board, a Scrum Board, or any other number of things. Use what works best for you and your team.
You probably have some version of this going already, and it may or may not work for you. But that’s the subject for another post. For now, let’s look at iterative testing.
What is Iterative Testing?
Iterative testing sounds technical, but it’s really just about experimenting with small changes over a set time period to see what works. Think of it like taste-testing while cooking. You don’t dump in all the salt at once—you add a little, taste, and adjust.
One of the underrated perks of coworking is that it’s the perfect place to test small changes. Want to try time-blocking your day? Post it on the community board and invite others to join you for accountability. Testing a new service? Get feedback from fellow members over coffee. Coworking lets you experiment in a low-risk, supportive environment.
In our Community Builder Cohorts, the following is the first system I teach to help people begin using iterative testing to make incremental changes to their business workflow. We begin with implementing:
- Two-week work sprints with a specific goal and a clear definition of “done”.
- Daily team stand-up meetings lasting no more than fifteen minutes where each team member answers 3 key questions.
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- What did I do yesterday?
- What do I need to do today?
- What’s in my way?
- Team review meetings at the end of each sprint to evaluate the work done and determine changes moving forward.
- Sprint planning session to define the next sprint.
- Regular retrospective meetings with team members and stakeholders to keep communication open.
Once you get into the groove of new events and work rituals, it becomes easier and easier to see where you are spending too much time without sufficient results, how you can optimize your resources, and communicate better with your team than ever before.
Depending on your needs, you may often need to make changes to suit the way workflows have changed in your business. This is normal. It means you’ve become flexible enough to change with market conditions, the needs of your team and yourself, and increase work/life balance dramatically. I even apply these systems at home during busy holiday months when we have a lot of activities to juggle.
“Iterative processes foster continuous improvement, preventing burnout by avoiding drastic changes.” — Parabol
Why Iterative Testing Works for Sustainable Habits
Big, sweeping changes are exciting in theory but exhausting in practice. That’s why New Year’s resolutions fail. But small, steady adjustments? Those stick.
Many coworking spaces run weekly goal-setting sessions or work sprints. These are perfect opportunities to layer in iterative testing. You could start by committing to one sprint a week, then adjust based on how much focus time you need. Small changes like this compound over time.
When Sarah (my designer friend) started using iterative testing in her new business, she didn’t overhaul her entire business. She began by blocking out two hours a day for client work—no emails, no meetings. After a month, she was delivering projects faster and feeling less overwhelmed. The following month, she tested a new task management platform. Then, she began documenting all her procedures so her business wouldn’t stall out if she got sick and needed someone else to cover her work for a week or two.
Small changes build momentum over time. And momentum keeps you going when motivation fades.
Applying Iterative Testing to Your Workflow
Here’s how to start:
- Pick one small pain point. Maybe it’s how you manage your inbox or how meetings eat your day.
- Make a tiny change. Block off one hour for deep work. Turn off notifications. Skip one unnecessary meeting.
- Test it for a week. Did it help? If not, tweak it.
- Track your progress on an attractive scoreboard.
- Repeat. Celebrate small wins and don’t take it personally if it doesn’t work. Learn from it, and move on.
If meetings are eating up your day, why not book a soundproof booth at your coworking space to limit interruptions? Or join a coworking accountability group to test new productivity habits. These shared spaces are built to help you focus, connect, and grow.
“Micro-goals break down overwhelming projects into manageable steps, creating momentum and reducing burnout risk.” — AllWork.Space
Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, and it won’t disappear overnight either. But small, intentional changes can build the habits that protect your energy and keep you moving forward.
Don’t overhaul your life. Just start small. Pick one thing to adjust, test it, and build from there.
Need some help getting it going?
Ready to build sustainable work habits and avoid feelings of burnout? Join our Third Place Works Community Builder Cohorts and connect with coworking professionals who understand the ups and downs of solo business life. Let’s build momentum together—one small step at a time.