Will Fed Rate Hikes Fuel Business Owner Burnout?

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Heads up to business owners. The recent Federal Reserve short-term interest rate hike was the 15th consecutive increase since June 2004 and the first since Ben Bernanke took over as chairman of the central bank in February.

The Fed indicated that even more rate hikes may be necessary in the next few months. “Some further policy firming may be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance,” the Fed said in its statement.

Translation: more rate hikes ahead, let’s hope it doesn’t hurt the economy and your business.

The target for the federal funds rate is now 4.75 percent, the highest it has been in five years. This overnight bank lending rate affects the amount of interest business owners pay for various types of debt, including credit cards and business lines of credit.

Just one more thing for a business owner on the edge to worry about. The long hours and constant demands of building a business can take a heavy toll on a business owner. Physical or emotional exhaustion as a result of long-term stress often leads to burnout.

* Dealing with government policies, regulations and red tape
* Paying the high costs of taxes and insurance
* Meeting rising health care costs
* Stalling or coping with unionization
* Finding available and qualified labor
* Fighting ruthless competition
* Coping with changing markets
* Getting bored with the day-to-day
* Lacking a challenge after obtaining goals
* Desiring a change in objectives

Often business owners eat, sleep, and breathe and their businesses. They spend every day (and many sleep deprived nights) managing people, tracking finances, and monitoring the myriad tasks of running a business. As time marches on, pressures build, and an owner can quickly display signs of burnout.

While burnout can occur in any kind of job, for business owners the symptoms can seem overwhelming.

Even worse, the effects of the business owner being depressed and burned out trickle down — to staff, suppliers and business partners, to name a few. The suffering can also extend beyond the business into the lives of the entrepreneurs’ family and friends.

Burnout can come with a business that’s successful as well as one that’s failing to grow. The right time to exit is before the situation becomes a threat to the effective management of a business.

According to the University of Missouri , physical symptoms of burnout can include exhaustion, depression, headaches, stomach problems, and sexual dysfunction. Burnout can also manifest itself through frustration, apathy, negativism, depression and boredom. Unless they are acted upon, the symptoms of burnout can transform into behavioral changes such as outbursts of anger, loss of enthusiasm, family problems and increased use of alcohol or drugs.

What should you do if you are feeling burnt out? Whatever you do, don’t fight the feeling alone. First, take care of yourself and get the rest, exercise and nutrition you know should get. Next, manage your time. Poor time management and a lack of delegation leads to burnout. Consider bringing in a mentor to reset your goals, objectives and plans for the business.

But what if you can’t overcome burnout? Then by all means sell the business. As someone who for 23 years has helped owners of privately owned businesses sell their business, I know the transfer of ownership is both good for the burnt out business owner and also good for their employees.

When a business is sold, the fact of the matter is that virtually all employees fare better in the future because a high percentage of new owners come in with additional capital and a desire to grow their new business. This growth typically spells opportunity for employees who want to grow their careers and who welcome working with a new owner.

Meanwhile, the former owner of a business typically either buys and grows a new business or invests for retirement and those invested funds and savings are recycled into to new loans and additional capital expansion through the banks, savings and loans and other investment vehicles typically used by retirees.

About the Author

As president of Acquisition Services Group, a San Diego business brokers based firm, Steve Fitzgerald has extensive consulting and merger & acquisition experience with an emphasis on the sale of manufacturing, service, and distribution firms.

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