Spend 10 minutes on social media and you'll be convinced that everyone is an entrepreneur that is making more money, having more fun and enjoying a better lifestyle than you.

This is of course an unrealistic picture of reality.

In reality the vast majority of business owners find business to be an ongoing struggle.

This was the certainly the case for me in business one. I ended up so burnt out I closed that business with very little other than a strained relationship with my partner to show for it.

Since then through Better Happy I've been working with hundreds of business owners, leaders and managers seeing the same issues (many of the ones I struggled with) creating unnecessary struggle.

Here are the top 5 and what to do about them:

1) NOT HAVING A CLEAR VISION
Business owners are visionary minded. You conceptualise a better future, get excited by that vision then do the necessary work to make it happen. You are happy when making progress towards your vision. But in business there's the risk of getting so bogged down with the day to day that you lose sight of that vision and get stuck. Avoid this by making sure you have a concise vision statement and scheduled time every week for strategy. The Better Happy Strategy Planner and Proactivity Planners are great tools to help make this happen.

2) TRYING TO COMPETE ON PRICE AND QUALITY
You're either trying to be the cheapest or trying be the best. A mistake I made that I see many others doing is wanting to be the best but - due to lack of confidence with money - also trying to compete on price. When you don't charge enough you lower the perceived value of your service and limit your ability to create high quality in the long run. Do a price quality audit and see if the prices you currently charge will allow to provide the quality of service you want to provide in the long run.

3) I'LL LOOK AFTER MYSELF WHEN...
An unhealthy burnt out business owner is no use to anyone. It's your vision and vitality that brought your business into reality. It's your vision and vitality that will grow your business into the future. When you don't look after yourself for a few weeks the impact is minimal. When weeks turn into months and years your vitality dissipates... the worst part is that this happens slowly do you don't even notice how rubbish you feel. Set time daily and weekly and monthly to look after yourself. 

4) TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYONE
Through your business you'll need to please customer and a team. The better you are at pleasing your customers and team the better your business will be. But to please the right customers and the right team you're going to have to upset the wrong ones. Sometimes when a customer is upset you messed up but often they're just the wrong customer. The same goes with your team. Make peace with the fact that an essential part of your journey is upsetting some people along the way and hold true to your vision. 

5) NOT WANTING TO STRESS YOUR TEAM
Social media and modern societal messaging has painted a picture of stress as being bad. You're taught that disagreeing with people is bad and that offending an other person is the cardinal sin. For business owners and people leaders this creates difficulty because to achieve anything meaningful in life requires challenge (stress). Don't fall into the trap of not pushing your team to protect them from stress. It will damage your business and team. Instead focus on creating a culture where mistakes aren't bad and developing your team - especially your managers - in how to deal with stress and conflict in a positive way.