Let’s face it. Running a business is hard. Some days it can be draining and other times downright exhausting. As a result, most business owners go through periods of time when they feel tired, frustrated and uninspired.

Sometimes it’s due to a dip in business. Other times it’s simply the result of a way-too-busy schedule. Or, maybe it’s something else entirely.

Whatever the reason, business owner burnout can lead to everything from physical and emotional exhaustion to depression and detachment to stress, anxiety, lack of sleep and more. Whether you’re currently struggling with feelings of burnout or you’re trying to head them off at the pass, here are a few recommendations to keep in mind.

Define Your Goals

One of the biggest reasons a business owner will experience burnout is feeling as though they’re not accomplishing anything. If your goals are way too broad or worse, nonexistent, you’re adding fuel to the fire. Sit down and define your goals, and then segment those into smaller, more achievable objectives. As you accomplish those smaller goals, you’ll get that little jolt of happy endorphins that will help you counteract negative emotions.

Celebrate Victories

You don’t have to wait until you’ve achieved something major to celebrate your hard work. In fact, taking a few moments to pat yourself on the back even for the little things can help keep your attitude more positive. Give credit where credit is due and don’t feel guilty for celebrating your victories. It’s all of those little things that will eventually add up to something great.

Shave Your Schedule

As an entrepreneur, you have no choice but to wear many hats. Unfortunately, some of those tasks on your to-do list are things you simply don’t enjoy. Having to continuously participate in activities that don’t fulfill you can easily lead to depression and burnout. So, whenever possible, delegate as many of those unpleasant tasks as you can. For instance, if you feel like social media marketing is a waste of your precious time, outsource that task to a freelancer. This will enable you to focus on your strengths and passions, which will lead to a much more positive outlook.

Take Time Off

This can be difficult for some business owners because it’s hard to step away from what’s consumed every waking (and sometimes even sleeping) moment of your days for as long as you can remember. But taking time off is absolutely essential to your mental and physical well-being. Not only will a break every now and again allow you to decompress and recharge your batteries, but the fresher, happier you will be better for your business in the long run. Listen to your mind and your body. If you need a break, take one. You deserve it.

Business owner burnout is no fun, but it’s something almost all entrepreneurs experience at some point in their careers. The good news is, with the right attitude and a proactive approach, it’s entirely possible to recover from it – or even better, avoid it altogether.

It’s easier than ever to run a business from your home, but if you’re hiring employees or meeting with a lot of clients, it may be time to wave goodbye to the dining room table that doubles as a desk and invest in office space.

Whether you rent or buy your office space, choosing it is a big commitment. Fortunately, many communities offer plenty of great options –and well-trained pros ready to help you make the right call. Here are three strategies to simplify the process.

Opt for the minimum viable office space.  

It’s tempting to splurge on office space that will dazzle both your clients and new hires, but before you do, make sure it’s (a) necessary to the success of your business and (b) priced at a level you will be able to afford even if your sales get slow.

Unless you work in a field such as financial services, where prospects may view a luxurious office as a sign of your success, you can probably get by with more modest surroundings. By opting for a well-situated, clean and comfortable but un-fancy office, you can preserve the cash you need to invest in other areas of the business.

One way to save a bundle on office space is by operating from a co-working space or business incubator. These flexible workspaces used to be hard to find outside of major cities and college towns, but now they are getting more common in smaller cities and the suburbs, too. Global Workspace Association has a free tool called “Find a shared workspace” that you can use to find space in your area.

One advantage of choosing flexible space is it is often possible to rent exactly the amount of space you need—even if that’s just two or three desks—and scale up as you add team members.  In many such spaces, you’ll have access to shared amenities, such as a conference room and kitchen, too. And you won’t have to sign a long-term lease, which some traditional office-space providers might require.

As a side benefit, you’ll be working alongside other small business owners. That can lead to new business connections and cross-pollination of ideas that will help your company grow.

Find a great broker.  

What if you need more elbow room than you can find in a coworking space or incubator—or are ready to commit to more permanent space? That’s when it can be very helpful to work with a commercial real estate broker with expertise in the office-space market in your area.

Ask other business owners in your industry for a referral to a broker who knows your community well. The best brokers will want to become a trusted resource whom you will work with for as long as you are in business and can be a great source of advice.

When taking out a lease, consider both your present and future need for space. You may only have three employees now, but if, for instance, you are raising capital and plan to hire 20 people in the next year or two, you’ll need to plan accordingly. It’s no fun to move into a new space and find it’s bursting at the seams six months later. If you have to lease a little more space than you need at the moment, consider renting out a few offices to professionals in your community who are looking for flexible space to offset the costs.

Get a second opinion.

Your staff will be spending a lot of time in your new office so ask for feedback on any space you choose before signing the lease. Be sure to ask about how it will affect their commute. If you select a space that adds 30 minutes to key team members’ driving time, it could lead to lateness to work or childcare challenges, so it’s best to discuss potential issues like this early. Seemingly small factors—like easy access to several lunch options and not just one—can make a big difference in your employees’ happiness in your company’s new home.

Don’t skimp on attorney’s fees.  

Real estate leases can be complicated, especially if you’ve never looked at one before. No matter how much you like and trust your potential landlord, put any agreements you’ve made in writing and have an attorney who is experienced in real estate transactions review your lease carefully before you sign. Hopefully the roof won’t spring a leak and the A/C won’t stop working in the next heat wave, but if something like this happens, you want to be clear on how it’ll be handled. Similarly, you’ll want to know what happens if you need to end the lease before the term is up, as you may need to negotiate on this.

Nailing the details of any office lease can take a little time, but don’t rush the process. If you’ve chosen well, you could be working from your new space for a long time!

An artisanal cheese vendor and a tech entrepreneur may not have much in common, but it’s likely that both are stressed. According to the spring 2017 Bank of America Business Advantage Small Business Owner Report, 41 percent of respondents identified their business as their top source of personal stress.

While it’s often a labor of love, if the anxiety of running your own venture is beating out exercising, juggling finances, maintaining relationships and even raising children, you’re already caught up in the grind. When you’re consumed by entrepreneurial endeavors 24/7, you lose sight of self-care and other important things. You may not realize how rapidly you’re burning out, and this can have innumerable long-term repercussions.

When work-related stress becomes overwhelming, it’s time to take a step back and recharge. You have to be at the top of your game to run a successful business.

Read Jonathan’s full article on SUCCESS.

Early entrepreneurs and founders tend to be catch-all employees: they do marketing, product management, customer service, social media, office administration, field research, sales and anything else necessary to get their business off the ground.

But after a certain point, successful founders will rightly focus more of their time to working on the business (Strategic) vs in the business (Tactical). The truth is, as a founder, in order to scale your businesses and operations you have to learn to let go of the small stuff.

Now that doesn’t mean that the small stuff shouldn’t get done, it just means founders shouldn’t be spending the limited time they have on productivity-sucking tasks and projects that could be delegated to others to run with.

The stuff that shouldn’t be on your plate is actually perfect for outsourcing. Startups are especially ripe for this model: while you may not have the funds to hire full-time staff to knock out these initiatives, hourly and outsourced employees can fill roles quickly, efficiently and deliver a lot of bang for your buck. The best place to get started with outsourcing your projects and tasks is to turn to virtual-assistant sites like Zirtual or freelancer sites like UpWork or even Fiverr, depending on the gig.

If you’re wondering what projects and tasks you should let go of, here are the top 6 productivity-sucking tasks that you need to outsource today.

Social Media Management

It goes without saying that modern digital marketing relies on social media. But why should you learn the ins and outs of Instagram yourself? Why should you spend hours researching the right hashtags, following people who are likely to follow you back, creating a posting calendar, replying to comments and providing the right images? Moreover, why should you do that for every social channel you want to penetrate?

Understanding social media is critical, sure, but the beast is so huge, you can and should leave it to professionals. If your goals are too daunting or your budget tight, you can even handle it piecemeal: if you have a voice you like to write in, you can write the copy and outsource the scheduling and research. Or vice versa: work with a content writer (see below) and schedule the posts yourself after they’re supplied to you. Regardless of what route you take, consistency is key—you need to post and engage daily to see real growth. All the more reason to find someone to help.

Content Marketing

Not everyone is a writer, but it’s easy to find them. Freelance farms can lead you to writers of all levels, from bargain-basement scribes (whose quality of work will show) to high-profile professionals, and working with one or more is an excellent idea if your business model includes blogging—and, by extension, search engine marketing, guest posting for publicity and authority building.

A good ghostwriter is like having a secret best friend. You can always rely on them, and the longer you stick with them, the better their work becomes—they get to know your voice, your business needs, your subject and your style. They can grow to become an invaluable team member whose loyalty only strengthens their work.

Presentation Preparation

Let’s face it: very few founders enjoy spending their time putting together pitch decks and PowerPoint slides. But there are people out there who actually do enjoy it—and who can whip up a presentation for you, or spruce up a pre-existing one, in no time at all.

Investing in one stellar PowerPoint presentation can provide value far beyond that one moment, too. You will likely use that file as a template and tweak parts only when necessary. Combine this with having someone help you with researching your pitches and subjects, and you’re saving a tremendous amount of time for a modest fee that will provide exponential benefits.

Administrative Tasks

Virtual assistants have been in vogue for years now. There is no reason why you need to worry about everyday office tasks like payroll, bookkeeping, employee scheduling, fielding generic phone calls, ordering new office supplies or organizing company events.

You can free up a tremendous amount of hours in a day by not worrying about these. Hire someone who can handle it all quickly and remotely through one of the various websites that specialize in finding exactly these kinds of people. As with other roles, the person you hire will become an invaluable team member, especially the longer they stay onboard.

Search Engine Marketing

The world of search-engine marketing is obtuse and difficult to navigate, especially if you don’t have weeks to spend researching it. Keyword research, while critical, is one of the most time-consuming endeavors digital marketers take on, with larger companies devoting entire teams to exclusive specialization in the field and the opportunity for low-cost leads an exponential reality.

It’s just as easy to reap the benefits by outsourcing. And while some founders might turn to agencies for this, outsourcing it to an individual specialist is just as effective—arguably more so. The person can feel like an extended team member, while still bringing the knowledge of a diverse client range to the table.

Customer Support

In the beginning, handling customer support as a founder can be a big benefit to getting instant feedback on your product or service. It’s confirmation that people are responding to your product or idea, and you get to inform them as to the best ways to engage with it while feeling good about providing awesome, intimate customer support.

But after a while, as many startups in that situation can attest, the feeling wears off. The calls keep coming in—more each week (if you’re growing)—but the time and energy you can devote to each will wane.

Outsourcing customer support to remote workers, either through chat forms or call-in numbers, will save you and your team several hours of work each week while improving the response times and consistency of your customer support. There are companies that specialize in connecting businesses with support staff, and you can find people who have the time and people skills necessary to work the job right.

In the end the success or failure of your business is squarely on the shoulders of you as a founder. But that doesn’t mean that everything needs to be on your plate. Start by outsourcing these 6, simple tasks so you can get out of the trenches and spend more of your time on the big picture items-like scaling your business.