Bypass Burnout with These Tips for Machine Shop Owners

Running your own machine shop is a dream come true for many machinists, designers, managers, and people who simply love working with tools and hydraulic presses. Once an owner, they are faced with the constant ups and downs that come with running a small to medium size business.

Owning a business means handling workflow, marketing, customer service, finances, employees, delivery, hydraulic presses and equipment. You are now the ultimate decision maker for everything in your shop.

Not surprisingly, burnout rates for machine shop owners are high. People who have experienced the condition say it can break your health and your business, and put an end to your dreams of business ownership.

But they also say you can prevent burnout by following a few simple steps. Here is a look at how to spot burnout and ways to stop it before it gets a grip.
 

Exhaustion and Overwhelm

You may not realize you are suffering from burnout. It’s more likely that your family members, friends and employees will see changes that are slowly killing you and your business ability. That’s because you’re too busy dealing with all the urgent tasks and responding to the squeaky wheels in your business life to notice.

• Exhaustion is the first sign of burnout. You find you can barely make it out of bed, even if you were there for 8 hours. You probably tossed and turned all night instead of actually sleeping. Because you are exhausted all through the day, you have less and less motivation. It seems like the more you put tasks on your to do list, the harder you drive yourself, you accomplish less.
• Overwhelm is your body’s natural response. You can’t decide even simply matters, your attention span gets shorter and shorter, and you lose the confidence to make even easy decisions. You start to put off decisions and action. This procrastination makes life even harder.

Your body’s all too natural response is an anxiety attack. You can’t get your breath and might even feel like you’re having a heart attack. This is the flight-or-flight response in extreme form.
 

Prioritize and Self-Care to Prevent Burnout

The most important step in avoiding burnout is a commitment to self-care. If you don’t take care of yourself and your body, you can’t take care of your business.
 

Successful business owners say you should:

• Eat healthy foods.
• Eat regularly. If you miss meals, your brain doesn’t have the fuel to make decisions, and your body won’t stay healthy.
• Exercise.
• Get plenty of sleep.
• Schedule downtime.
• Spend time with family and friends.
• Work set hours. Decide on a schedule and stick to it.
• Take vacations.
• Take weekends off.
• Turn off your tablets, computer, and business phone when you leave work.

The second essential is prioritizing. You are wasting valuable mental and physical energy when you put out fires all day. You can’t spend time planning the long-range health of your business, like finding better jobs and customers.

Set goals for your business and decide on a plan to reach them. Spend as much of your day as possible on these tasks, not the urgent tasks that can eat up your day.

To get the time and energy to spend on priorities, delegate routine work and customer service tasks to your staff. If you’re a one-man shop, outsource as much of the work as possible. Consider hiring someone part time.
 

RK Machinery Is Here to Help

RK Machinery has the hydraulic presses you need to keep your machine shop running dependably. Our presses are reliable and versatile, and designed with worker safety in mind.

If something goes wrong, parts are available throughout North America. That means minimal downtime and happier customers.

Call RK Machinery today to find out how our line of hydraulic presses and equipment can keep your machine shop running smoothly.