from our community

THE LATEST ADVICE FROM EXPERTS

W E L L B E I N G I N D E X R E P O R T | 2 0 2 0

Wellbeinginsights & data

David KochLeanne Faulkner

Peter Strong

You’re the biggest asset to your business. You need to take care of you as you are your number 1 PRIORITY 

David Koch, Co-host Sunrise & Business owner of Pinstripe Media

When was the last time you checked in on you? As small business owners, we’re often our last priority. To-do lists, family commitments, sport, housework - all of these things come first, and often without us really realising it.

Together with Yellow Online, we decided to conduct our Wellbeing survey; and asked 300 of our Flying Solo community for their honest take on the health and wellbeing habits that make up an average week.

The results of the survey confirmed that while 75% of us are genuinely satisfied with our lot in life, our health definitely gets assigned to the ‘do it later’ basket.

Here’s a snapshot of other interesting things we discovered:

WELCOME NOTE • 60% of our community said while they’d love to try yoga or meditation to help manage stress, it’s not a part of their daily practice

• 60% spend at least two nights of the week winding down with an alcoholic drink

• 39% are constantly thinking about our business

• And 50% would jump at the chance to take a break with an annual holiday, but 50% say the fact that they can’t leave the business behind puts them off.

While it’s not all bad news, our results show that we have some work to do! And as the editor of this site and our brand new beWell hub, I am committed to creating some exciting and meaningful content designed to help you and your business to thrive.

Be well!

Lucy Kippist – Editor, Flying Solo

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Of all the things we could say about our community in light of this survey’s findings, I have to say, it’s the mindset that stands out the most. And it’s a good thing. Of the 360 respondents, 44% said they felt okay about the way their business was moving forward and 25% said they felt motivated every single day.

That feeling of contentment is a hugely powerful force. An incredible 74% said their love for what they do was the most important thing to them. Even beyond making big sales. And there is plenty of hope - with 80% saying they have plans to run their business well into the next five years. 

That being said, managing the sheer amount of work and stress that can come with running your own show can be a job in itself. Approximately 32% of us have seen a psychologist or counsellor in the past five years to discuss business-related-stress. Most of you say that talking about what’s going on is very helpful in lowering pressure overall.

Around 20% of our community have a regular yoga or meditation practice, while 40% say they really want to start. The good news is, we don’t need to set aside too much time to practice. 

Mindfulness coach Lisa Forrest told Flying Solo that the practise itself doesn’t need to be long. “Anything you do regularly can be used as an informal mindfulness practice: when walking from one space in the house, place your attention in the feel of your feet connecting with the ground. When washing or sanitising hands, attend to the feeling of hands, when eating anything, just eat and taste your food rather than scrolling through the news and ‘eating’ fear.”

You are the cornerstone of your business. How you feel about yourself and your life has a direct impact on the way your business operates day to day. 

MINDSET 44%feeling mostly okay about the state of business

48%routine is important to them

39%feel moderately happy

25%feeling motivated

46%are constantly thinking about their business

32%say they’d like to feel better 

82%given  themselves a day off from their business already this year

21%say they meditate regularly

41%say their business is a big part of the reason they feel happy at the moment

13%say it’s hard to do

40%say they’d really like to

80%have high hopes for the future and want to be running their business in the next 5 years

74%money is great but not their biggest motivator because they love what they do

54%say it really helps them to talk about the problems in their business

32%have seen a psychologist/counsellor to discuss business stress in the past 5 years

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When you work from home food is often on your mind! Luckily for us, according to the results of our survey, being mindful of healthy eating is something we are aware of; 30% of us use a health app to keep track of what we’re putting in our bodies throughout the day. Making the right food choices is crucial if we want to thrive, not just survive. Being home-based often means we have better access to making our own food, which saves on costs and time. But that doesn’t mean we always make the right choices! Planning is key to making the best choices we can for our health. 

Nutritionist and solo business owner, Susie Burell, told Flying Solo ‘what’ we choose to eat has a direct impact on our energy levels. Now depending on how close your home office is to the kitchen, eating right can present its own challenges for the solo business owner. It can be very easy to stand in front of the fridge or mindlessly munch on whatever we can find while we’re waiting for the kettle to boil.

Susie says if good nutrition is important to us, then we should be planning and packing all our meals and drinks in the same way we would if we worked in an office. Even using a lunchbox and portioning out yoghurt and snacks to ensure we are eating a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. 

“Packing your lunch and snacks the night before can really help you control portion sizes and plan ahead for meals,” says Susie. “Start your day with a protein rich breakfast and break for lunch early. Some people may even benefit from two small lunches, one taken around 11am and the other serve around 1:30-2pm.”

It’s also important to pay attention to what we drink. According to our survey, 41% of us don’t drink enough water every day, and we know it! Susie says the secret is to top up with herbal teas or add a slice of lemon to our water, to make it more enticing. In better news, we’re moderate drinkers of alcohol, with just 26% of us having a drink or two, twice a week. And the best news yet? We’re primarily a community of non-smokers, with 91% of us falling into the non-smoker category. Now that’s a statistic we can be proud of.

‘You are what you eat’ is a phrase familiar to us all. When you’re running a small business, your food choices have a direct impact on your energy levels, and how you feel at the beginning and end of each day. So choose wisely.

NUTRITION

Drink alcohol less than 1-2 times a week

Drink 1-2 times a week and have 1-2 drinks per session

Don’t smoke

Use a wellness app to track their healthy habits

100

75

50

25

0

5

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It’s too easy to confuse doing with thinking in small business, and that’s probably why, when our business causes us to feel anxious, it feels like working harder will ease the worry. That might provide relief in the short-term but eventually we risk ending up feeling stressed yet again.

However, self-care is often at the bottom of an entrepreneur’s to-do list when times are hectic. We’re a pragmatic bunch – if there’s no practical or immediate economic return we’re not likely to turn to upping our self-care when the business has become our stress trigger. I’ve been there. I get it.

Here are five tips that might help with your wellbeing and provide some practical business growth tips.

1. Learn about the thing that keeps you awake at night

Develop a list and write down the traits you admire in them so you can practice them yourself. Competence paired with confidence is a resilience builder that also delivers practical business results.

2. Establish an emergency savings account. Putting something aside regularly is another

confidence builder and reminder that your efforts are materialising.

FIVE TIPS TO HELP WITH YOUR WELLBEING AND BUSINESS GROWTH

3. Ask customers to pay their bills When I send an invoice out nowadays I have a

line on the bottom of my template that explains I am a small business and dependent on timely payment of invoices.

4. Make time to plan I don’t mean cumbersome business proposals

that gather dust in a drawer! I mean having a weekly dashboard that sets out your sales targets for the week, your receivables target and your social media activities.

5. Refresh, revisit, restart Feel stuck? Go for a walk. Feel lost? Talk

to someone. Feel discouraged? Turn off your electronics and take a break. Use your solopreneur time to your advantage – be your own boss!

Remember: One of the best things about running a small business is the flexibility! But we risk eroding that if the job becomes stressful. Times of high stress are often the best times to practice flexibility. Just make sure that means exchanging working hours – not extending them!

Leanne Faulkner runs Fortitude at Work, a consultancy that advocates for more mental health support services specifically for small business owners.

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Feeling time poor is one of our most common complaints when you have a busy working life. It’s easy to fall into the trap of commuting, working and coming home without making time for some regular exercise we could all benefit from. Yet one of the clear benefits of running your own business has to be the greater flexibility it provides to fit the most important parts of your life, around your work. In fact, this sense of greater control over our lives is one of the most common reasons soloists choose to start their own business. 

Take away a daily commute and we suddenly have the freedom to say, “Before I start work I’ll head to the gym, or walk the dog around the block for half an hour. Or do that yoga class I promised myself I’d start back in January.” 

The experts say if we get the balance right, this independence means we can lead a healthier and more active life. And that can only have a positive impact on the day to day functioning of our business. More energy means better sleep and better sleep means a happier, better performing business owner. 

As performance coach Julie Meek told Flying Solo,”The bonus prize is that research shows that we are more productive in the two hours after exercise with a 24-hour improvement overall. The best type of exercise is the one that you will actually do. It isn’t the one that your friends or next-door neighbour might try and entice you to do when you would rather poke a stick in your eye than actually do that particular type of exercise.” Great news then that the results of our survey show when it comes to moving our bodies, our

Looking for a quick wellbeing fix? Nothing improves your quality of life more than introducing regular exercise to your daily routine. It boosts your energy, metabolism and mental health. 

EXERCISE

Flying Solo community are an active bunch! According to our survey, 36% exercise 3 x a week habitually, while 24% commit to moving their bodies every single day. If that’s not incentive alone to run your own show, what is? The overall health benefits of that kind of commitment are clearly paying off too. Thanks to those exercise enhanced endorphins, a whopping 50% of our community say they find falling asleep is really easy, and 39% say they feel happy most of the time. What a bunch of (healthy) show-offs!

36%

24%

exercise 3 times a week habitually

commit to moving their bodies every single day

According to our survey

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Respondents turned to their

partners for support

Contacted close

Turned to professional

advice and support

Turned to a business

coach

We might be flying solo when it comes to running our business but when it comes to our close personal relationships we are anything but alone. Life partners and family support systems are essential to our emotional wellbeing. Our community of soloists rely heavily on those people nearest and dearest to them, to provide emotional support and clarity when we face tough times. And they say that this support is one of the biggest contributors to their overall happiness both in work and life in general. 

According to the results of our survey, 53% of respondents said they turned to their partners for support when things in the business got tough for reassurance and support. Close friends came second, with around 39% of us picking up the phone or meeting up with a close friend to share our business concern. While 10% of us turned to professional support like psychologists or counsellors to give us advice, 8% turned to a business coach. 

For overall support our extended family network brought around 38% soloists great comfort and helped us feel that we were on an even keel - even when business got challenging. Protecting these precious relationships then seems absolutely crucial. And that’s why  creating healthy boundaries for these relationships is absolutely imperative if we want our business and family life to survive and thrive.

Sophi Bruce, a learning designer, facilitator and social researcher, recommends being mindful of the ‘hat’ you’re wearing; if you want to show support to your partner. 

She told Flying Solo a simple way to do this is to ask: What do you need from me right now? Do you need a hug? Do you want me just to listen? Or would you like my opinion?” 

According to Sophi establishing these boundaries, especially during challenging times, will help keep your relationship a top priority and ensure what happens in the business doesn’t engulf your entire family life. And that’s just as important for good times as the challenging ones.

Running your own business is not always a walk in the park. When things get tough, we need the support of our partner, family and friends. Developing clear and strong boundaries will help us protect those important relationships.

RELATIONSHIPS

53%

39%

10%

8%

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We are running our solo businesses at one of the most exciting times in history. While we know that the vast majority of our community work from home, their online networks and vast social media communities are helping us feel and stay connected. According to our survey, 42% of our respondents use their online social networks every single day; to help promote and support the day to day running of their businesses and keep up to date with the news that impacts their industry or profession. 

But not everything happens online! The majority of our community are also out there in ‘real life’, regularly meeting customers and clients. According to our respondents, 33% of us interact with customers 1-2 times a week, while a whopping 29% have direct, face-to-face  interaction with their customer base every single day. Networking is a huge part of the success of the day to day running of our businesses too, with large and small events regularly occurring on our calendars as a way to stay connected. 

This face to face contact is essential for general wellbeing not to mention providing excellent opportunity for increasing networking and business opportunities and expanding your social skills. While we all love the comfort, convenience and focus that working from home can bring us, that regular face to face contact has many benefits for our business and personal lives. 

Fact: Working for yourself doesn’t have to be isolating. Thanks to online social networking and technology like Zoom or Slack, it’s never been easier to stay connected to the people and communities that matter the most to us.

COMMUNITY

The one surprise has to be our general disdain for coworking spaces. They seem to be popping up everywhere, yet our community is not inclined to use them. According to the results of our survey, 78% of our community have stepped inside a co-working space, while  25% reporting their experience was not enjoyable. So hooray for online businesses and online working communities - just like Flying Solo - where over 100K solo business owners are talking to each other every single day and sharing the secrets of their success.

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100K Solo business owners are a part of our community, let’s band together and beWell 

Lucy Kippist - Editor of Flying Solo

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We all know running your own small business means being multi-skilled, multi-tasking and sometimes taking multi-vitamins to keep you going, but by far the best medicine for a high performing small business owner is being fit and well.

Many a successful business is run by someone with health issues — they manage their condition and at the same time ensure they can run their business. The three main aspects of fitness are highly challenging for time poor business owners: getting enough sleep and down time, having a consistently good diet, and getting time to exercise regularly. For those with chronic or on-going conditions it is also about keeping up the right medication and medical regime.

Most business owners are the first to arrive and the last to leave work, or if they’re at home they are often alone with a high pile of work and the fridge for company. The hours aren’t regular, the demands are sometimes inconsistent, and the client’s needs come first. The cost of poor diet, sleep and exercise will eventually have a negative impact on personal performance. Then there is the issue of a person’s private life which is often tied up with their business. Whether it’s managing a family, acting as a carer or experiencing an important life event, we must still focus on our individual health and fitness needs.

The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA), of which I am CEO, has worked hard to get recognition for the plight of small

business owners, particularly mental health issues. We know that there is a focus on worker’s health from government agencies but often no real regard for the business owner’s health and overall well-being. Some government agencies totally forget that a self-employed person is a human being and that there are hundreds of thousands of workplaces in Australia that have only one person in it — the sole operator.

So, running the business is a high priority, yet to be successful a business owner’s personal fitness must be of equal or a higher priority. Anyone will do a better job and feel better when fit and well.

Having a good support team is also critically important. It could be close relatives (or not so close relatives) or good friends, but often the most important of all support will come from a good business network. Flying Solo is one such network and sole operators will frequently also have a small focused group within Flying Solo they can talk to online or meet with in local shops and cafes. Having business people care for each other is perhaps not a panacea but it will give everyone a lift.

Setting routines, incorporating exercise, a good diet and rest into the work situation has been proven to create increased productivity and well-being. If you’re on your own, setting up times to start, knock off, exercise and eat can really help set a rhythm of efficiency and minimise distractions.

Concentrating on your well-being will foster success.

Peter Strong is the CEO of the Council of Small Business of Australia and has been in this role since June 2010. The role requires advocacy for the Small Business community and representation of issues from members to politicians and government agencies. 

BEING SMALL BIZ FIT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE

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Running a small business is an experience like no other - for every challenge, there comes a reward. Yet for some reason putting our health and wellbeing first can often be a struggle. Even though we run our business, we don’t tend to consider ourselves as the most essential part of what we do. Yet here at Flying Solo, we believe the opposite to be true: like our owner, David Koch, says, “You’re the biggest asset to your business. You need to take care of you as the number 1 priority.”

We are 100% committed to helping our Flying Solo community do precisely that! That’s why we created our brand new beWell hub, a home for content that promotes simple ways to boost your health and wellness when you’re short on time and running the business of your dreams.

We’ve kicked things off with our wellbeing survey - 39 questions that looked at everything from your nutrition and exercise habits to how you manage your personal relationships. We even checked in on how you feel about interacting with our community both on and offline.

We were delighted with your response with 371 members of our community sharing their current habits when it comes to health and wellness as small business owners.

SUMMARY OF OUR FINDINGS FROM THE BeWELL INDEX SURVEY

Our 5 key pieces showed us some fascinating statistics, here’s a snapshot of what we found below:

• 37% of the audience are aged between 45-55

• 60% are female with children at home

• 91% have run their business for 0-5 years 

• 30% say they are ‘just getting by financially, they’re motivated by passion for their business and how it fits in with their life” 

• This stat reflects the fact that 70% started their business in the first place because they were seeking “greater autonomy” 

• 50% work more than 40 hours a week 

• 22% say they’re stressed most days 

• 71% say they drink at least 2 alcoholic drinks, at least twice a week

• 40% want to learn more mindfulness techniques to help them manage stress

• 91% of us are non-smokers

The best news of all is that so many of us remain happy with our decision to run our own business. Regardless of how many sales we make, or how much money comes in, 74% say being able to run their own business makes life better. A happy state of affairs that is reflected in the quality of sleep we’re getting - with 50% of us finding it very easy to fall asleep and stay asleep most nights.

With thanks again to our partner Yellow Online let’s hope together we can continue some positivity and support - remember to beWell.

For more insights and helpful tips head to our Flying Solo hub

www.flyingsolo.com.au/bewell#

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Stay connectedwith your customers.The Yellow Business Hub has a great range of free digital marketing resources and how to guides for small business.