Power up your personal resilience
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Resilience has become a buzzword
When Covid came along and turned our world upside down, researchers became more interested in resilience than ever before, as a way of future-proofing against other crises and unforeseen disasters.
As weeks of lockdowns and restrictions turned into months and even years, people from all walks of life and in every type of business had to dig deep and stay strong, whilst a huge pile of pressure was heaped on us, both at work and at home.
But - not every person, nor every business, struggled. In fact, some positively thrived. One of the characteristics they share is that they had resilient leaders and resilient teams.
Together with Smarta, we're working on more free resources to help your business develop what’s called ‘organisational resilience,’ plus examples of companies we know who took off during the pandemic.
Like this pair of pilots who started a campervan rental business thanks to their Start Up Loan.
For now though, let’s stick to resilience for individuals.
Your personal resilience is of critical importance, whether you’re a sole trader or a small business. Team Smarta want to help strengthen the UK’s small business community, and that starts with helping you take care of you.
So what does personal resilience mean?
A person is resilient if they are able to cope with, adapt to, and recover from stress and adversity. In this article, we described resilience as “bounce-back-ability” - a term originally coined in the early 2000s by footballer Iain Dowie.
Importantly, resilient people have effective strategies that enable them to maintain positive mental health, even when things start falling apart around them.
We all have to take responsibility for looking after our own wellbeing, but that doesn’t mean you have to go through tough times alone.
If you’re part of a team, try these five ways to boost workplace mental health.
How can I become more resilient?
We develop resilience by learning skills and strategies for managing stress, and finding new ways of thinking about the challenges life throws at us.
Had to close your shop due to a drastic drop in footfall since the pandemic? Take your business online and get stuck into our Digital Marketing course.
Dealing with debt? Grab the bull by the horns and start learning how to manage your cash better as a small business.
It helps to keep an open mind and think ahead about who and when to ask for help. And remember, you can’t know what you don’t know! So check out these training courses which will equip you with the skills you need to succeed.
What makes a resilient entrepreneur?
There are certain traits and behaviours that you can learn to do more often, building your personal resilience up as you go. We’ve chosen to focus on:
Learning (‘cos we love it)
Problem-solving
Self-care for entrepreneurs
1.You keep learning
Following an internal debate amongst our team as to whether “failing forwards” or “failing upwards” makes most sense, we’ve decided to phrase it this way instead:
Whatever you do, no matter how right or wrong it goes, keep learning!
In business, resilience is closely related to agility. Being agile means that you can move quickly in response to changing situations and circumstances.
Current external factors include the rising cost of living, the energy crisis and other destabilising economic and political factors.
But changes in your personal circumstances matter too - if it’s affecting you, it’s probably affecting your business.
The most innovative businesses use “agile experimentation” to generate value-maximising products and services.
Using this approach, small businesses like yours can grow in spite of the economic conditions. How? By trying new things (experimenting), and if they don’t work you move on quickly and try something else. You learn something from every experiment and apply what you found out, such as which methods of cross-selling and upselling work best for your customers.
2.You're a problem solver
Planning and organisation are important skills for every entrepreneur, particularly in the early days when you’re doing literally everything yourself.
But problem-solving doesn’t mean locking yourself away until you think up a solution.
Resilient people know that outsourcing when under pressure achieves results quicker and is more effective than trying to do everything on your own.
That’s where we can help.
Sign up here to get free resources, access to coaches, plus discounts and offers from our partners.
You can also join our business directory for free.
3.You look after number one
When it comes to being your own boss, it’s worth reviewing some basic self-care strategies. We know you know this stuff. But we all need reminding sometimes.
It’s hard enough to keep on hustling when customers are scared to part with their cash and the UK market looks like it’s tanked. Let’s not make the day-to-day stuff more difficult by burning the candle at both ends.
Getting enough sleep makes it easier to concentrate and helps keep overwhelm at bay.
Look at your diet and exercise habits and make healthy choices to take care of your body. Brains need fuel and they also need breaks. If you’re working on a laptop for most of the day (and some of the night), remember to allow time to switch off mentally before you go to bed. And beware the blue light! We love this free this guide on how to sleep better.
We understand you want to pour your heart and soul into your business, but remember to invest in your social connections too. It can help to be part of a community of people going through similar challenges and on a similar journey to you.
Smarta is part of the Transmit Startups family and was created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
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