Owning your own business comes with a set of stressors and anxiety-producing moments — that’s an inescapable fact. What is also fact is that there are ways to handle those moments of stress and anxiety and perhaps even to reduce them. Our March 2026 Threads of Change podcast featured therapist Kevin DeBruyn, who detailed some ways to combat stress and anxiety. Here are some additional ideas for being a more relaxed and less stressed entrepreneur.

Try These Stress Management Tips

One way to combat stress and anxiety is to ask yourself, “How real is this risk?” Yes, your building could catch fire, all your machines could fail, and your five biggest customers could all pull their business on the same day, but how realistic is that?

Take a moment to figure out rank your worries and fears from least to most realistic. Then, concentrate on figuring out how to negate the impact of the most realistic ones. Having a plan can help you be prepared should something happen and also reduces stress and fear about what might happen.

Another way to combat stress and anxiety is to quiet your mind. For some people, meditation, sitting quietly and allowing thoughts to pass through your mind, or counting your breaths is the key. For others, a walk or something involving movement works better. Listening to music, knitting, or drawing can also be meditation. Find the thing that quiets your mind and do that for a set period of time on a regular basis.

It’s also as important to focus on the body as it is on the mind. Taking care of yourself doesn’t just mean meditating or working to get your mind right. It also means focusing on your physical needs.

Make sure you eat properly, get enough sleep, and tend to important relationships in your life. People who are starving, sleep deprived, and lonely are not people equipped to make good decisions. Even if time is at a premium, don’t make the mistake of trying to find extra time by neglecting yourself. You’ll end up paying for that in the long run.

Building a support system is an important part of being a healthy entrepreneur. Find groups, in person or online, that are filled with people facing the same challenges that you are. It might be a chamber of commerce group in your town. It could be a group for entrepreneurs that has been built on a social media platform. What matters is that you can form connections and relationships that will offer support when you need it. These groups can also be a great source of ideas and information, so they’re well worth cultivating.

It’s also important to remember that you don’t always have to look at the big picture. Entrepreneurs tend to be big-picture thinkers, but sometimes that can get overwhelming and even scary. Focusing on one area of that big picture can be a way to reduce anxiety and make things feel less overwhelming. The big picture can be exciting, but it can also be a deluge of tasks and needs and stress.

Reducing your focus and zeroing in on tasks that can be accomplished quickly and easily can help reduce overwhelm and give you a sense of control and accomplishment. Sometimes just ticking a task off the list is enough to slow a heartbeat and a brain that’s spiraling out of control.

Whether you’re looking at the big picture or the small one, it’s important to remember to trust yourself.  Anxiety is often caused by fear: of failure, of not being good enough, that you won’t know what to do to move your business forward. You had the intelligence to start your business and build it into what it currently is, so trust that you’ll be able to take it to where you want it to be.

Trusting in yourself is easy when things are going well, and not so easy when your business is facing a tough time. However, that trust is a vital part of running a successful business. Trust that you’ve got this and that you’ll make the proper decisions in the proper time.

A Final Thought

Finally, remember that no one is required to do everything on their own. Running a business comes with built-in worries and stress, which can become overwhelming at times. If you find yourself spiraling, having sleepless nights, or avoiding steps you know you need to take because you’re fearful, then it might be time to seek professional help.

There’s no shame in seeing a therapist for help in discovering some strategies or medications that will help you deal with stress or anxiety. Professionals are able to suggest tools and strategies that can help you navigate stress and anxiety and manage them in a positive way. The only way stress and anxiety win is if they’re allowed to get the best of you. Using these tips and seeking professional help, if necessary, can make sure that doesn’t happen.