Stress among Small Business Owners

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has conducted a study showing that the stress resulting from late payments adversely affects the mental health of owners of these small businesses.

It turns out that in Australia, more than 40% of invoices are paid late. 28% of respondents report that 60% of their invoices are paid late, and these are not small amounts

y-at least half of the respondents say the backlog amounts to approx. 20,000 Australian dollars.

Three-fourths of the respondents stated that they had suffered serious mental health effects from having to ask for their money - it is worth noting that in large organizations this is handled by entire departments, while in a Small Business everything is handled by the owner, possibly one more person assisting him/her. Why are business owners' mental health disorders being noticed? First of all, the Small Busieness owner is alone. It's not uncommon to feel isolated and under pressure. This is an emotionally very similar situation to one in which a single parent is caring for a family. Stephanie Thompson, a psychologist and founder of Insight Matters, says that many times clients reach her in crisis and in an anxiety attack, and the main manifestations are physiological symptoms. These can include exhaustion, sleep disturbances, lowered mood, anxiety, loss of appetite, pains, high blood pressure and others. Sometimes the level of suffering resulting from stress is so great that patients cannot realistically function. Stephanie Thompson recalls a patient who got "hung up" - the part of the brain responsible for making logical decisions "cut off" due to an overload in the "fight-or-flight" (fight-or-flight) area, which led to the decision-making process getting "stuck" in a random position, and the patient was unable to solve a problem related to his business.

by Dr. Wiktor Buczek