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Whenever some asks what it is like to be an entrepreneur I think of the Tiktok/Instagram Reel sound that says “Sometimes maybe good? Sometimes maybe shit?”. While my business hasn’t always looked the same, I am celebrating three years of actual IRS recognition in July. (Whether right or wrong, I registered with the IRS before I made a dollar in my business, so I use the date on that letter as my entreprenuer-versary.)

Having three years of entrepreneurial anxiety under my belt by no means makes me an expert, but, the biggest lesson I’ve actually learned is that no on is truly an expert in everything. They may have specialties or, more appropriately, know more than you do, but we are all somewhere between knowing what we’re doing and just figuring it out as we go along. However, three years plus being a generally anxious person does give me some perspective on what things actually work to help ease entrepreneurial anxiety and make entrepreneurship more fun.

Reflecting back, these are three of the things that have made the biggest difference on how anxious I feel and have helped me lessen some of the effects of the emotional rollercoaster that is owning your own business.

Reduce Entrepreneurial Anxiety – Lean Into What’s Fun

There are a range of quotes out there about the illusion of entrepreneurship. I’ve seen one that’s about wanting more flexibility so you decided to become an entrepreneur and now you work 24/7. Another about how entrepreneurship is 90% doing stuff other than the thing you are passionate about. And the list goes on and on.

One thing I am trying to be better at is identifying the fun aspects of some of the necessary tasks and figuring out how I can lean into what’s fun. One of the tasks that constantly haunts me is social media and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I would spend so much time creating and scheduling posts, only to have them seemingly disappear into the Instagram feed in mere seconds. It was getting to the point that, not only was I dreading planning social media, but I was dangerously close to just not doing it. Something had to change.

And then along came Reels. I initially was totally anti-Reel because I don’t like being on camera. It just seemed like an invitation to feel super awkward and also criticize myself. However, a new trend in reels has emerged where you pair a small video clip with a bunch of photos. I already have a ton of photos that I want to post, so all I had to remember was to get a short behind the scenes clip at a session. Suddenly social media became fun again. I love finding new audios and getting the photos to align with the song. It sounds silly, but it became a small way to make social media fun again.

Once I started doing Reels, I basically stopped doing static posts and found myself feeling guilty. As if static posts were some requirement that I was avoiding. Or, as if something has to be hard in order to be worth it. If you feel like me, let me give you permission to let that go. You do not have to do something the harder way. Harder is not always better or more effective.

Interested in how those Reels work? Check out my IG feed below.

Reduce Entrepreneurial Anxiety – Set Boundaries

Before I get any further into this, I just want to issue a caveat. There are a million boundaries you could set and you should set what feels good for you. These are two simple ones that I have found to be especially useful.

The first boundary is that I don’t do Facebook. I own the ‘Dylan in the Details’ Facebook page (so don’t get any ideas), but I don’t use it. I found it created a lot of doom scrolling and anxiety and time wasting. People also seem to feel particularly emboldened to share all of their opinions on there and, honestly, I don’t care that much. I can’t handle that much input. It is worth noting that I am on Instagram, which is actually worse than Facebook for some people. My advice is to choose whatever social media platform feels good and go with that.

The second boundary is that I check my email once a day. This is a fairly new decision, so I don’t want to pretend that I’ve always been good at this. However, I’ve seen a huge difference in my overall mood and headspace.

Reduce Entrepreneurial Anxiety – Keeping Everything in One Spot

I was super skeptical about getting any sort of customer or project management platform. After all, I was already giving up a percentage to use Paypal and I couldn’t imagine taking that hit on another platform that I also had to pay for. Finally, after the second or third client couldn’t sign the Adobe form I sent over, I decided that there had to be a better way than printed paper contracts or fussing with tech support.

Now, after almost a year with Honeybook, I have no idea how I would do business without it.

Honeybook allows me to send contracts, invoices, and automatically adds things to a calendar that is housed right on the app. It also allows me to create one ‘project’ per client so I can keep all of their paperwork and payments in one place, even if they are a repeat client. I can just add new files, email them over, and update their new session date. All inside the app. Even the emails.

Recently I had a moment where I thought I had forgotten about a session. Thankfully, all I had to do was pull up Honeybook on my phone, look at the calendar, and saw, to my relief, that the session was the following weekend.

Note: The link for Honeybook is a referral link. It will get you 20% off your first year and gets me referral credit. My use of Honeybook isn’t dependent on anyone else using my link, but if I can offer you a discount, why not?!

Reduce Entrepreneurial Anxiety – Conclusion

It is worth repeating that these are three things that have worked for me over the past three years. Will they work for you? I hope so. If not, I hope you can take the ideas and tweak them. While there are so many amazing resources out there for entrepreneurs, I am always reminding myself that we all also have different experiences. All you can do is take what worked for someone else and try it out. If nothing else, I hope this blog post was a reminder that we all face some form of entrepreneurial anxiety and you are most certainly not alone.