The Unique Mental Health Stressors of Women Entrepreneurs

Personal and professional success are two sides of the same coin. After 25 years as a licensed psychotherapist and entrepreneur, I see, again and again, how unresolved mental health problems—such as trauma, low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression—sabotage professional and financial success.

Source: Carlos Barquero / Adobe Stock

During this time of unprecedented stress, chronic change and economic uncertainty, many are facing concerns about the future of their business as well as feelings of burnout. There is a powerful connection between mental and financial health: Financial stress contributes to mental distress: 16% of suicides are financially driven¹.

Conversely, unaddressed mental health issues can impair productivity, motivation, and self-esteem, negatively impacting business health and financial wellness. The cost of not taking care of our mental health could be losing our business, our loved ones and even our lives.

Women business owners have even more stressors, less support, and fewer privileges than their male counterparts, including:

• Wage gaps that lead to widening gaps in net worth over time, making it more difficult especially for single women to retire.
• Increased dependent-care responsibilities, negatively affecting earnings and triggering guilt about not being able to do it all.
• Professional time off for pregnancies, childbirth, and maternity leave that leads to career and financial setbacks.
• Sexism, discrimination, and marginalization in government, healthcare, business, banking, with microaggressions having a long and lasting impact.
• Tendencies to people-please, over-caretake, and struggle setting healthy boundaries as a response to how women are socialized.
• Fewer women heroes, role models, and mentors at the $250k+, 7- and 8-figure earnings levels.
• Struggles with self-esteem, due to systemic undervaluing, which contributes to imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear of failure and fear of success.
• Loneliness and isolation at the top without access to a community of other thriving women business leaders, especially women of color.

As evidenced in my 25 years of practice, the mental health implications for women business owners include increased:

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Substance Misuse
• Eating Disorders
• Relationship Conflict/Breakup/Divorce
• Suicidal Ideation/Suicide

As a licensed psychotherapist, behavioral economics expert, and entrepreneur, I recommend the following:

1. Embrace your worth by replacing the voice of the inner saboteur that constantly puts us down with a loving inner voice filled with self-compassion, self-care, self-forgiveness, and self-affirmation.
2. Take the reins of your life by shifting from blame to responsibility and choosing to become the author of your life and money story, rather than just the protagonist.
3. Practice mental fitness exercises and promote financial literacy to increase confidence, assertiveness, and empowerment.
4. Incorporate mindfulness practices in daily routine to cultivate presence, equanimity, and emotional intelligence so you can choose to respond consciously rather than react emotionally.
5. Cultivate healthy detachment, a mindfulness strategy useful for riding the waves of business ups and downs, cultivating risk tolerance, and developing mental and financial resilience.
6. Shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundant mindset rooted in self-worth, collaboration, creative problem solving, and openness to prosperity and resources.
7. Become mindful of your psychology of money, developing awareness of how family belief systems about money; your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors around money; and your boundaries in financial relationships impact your business and financial reality.
8. Assess and nurture your support network, identifying the support you need and deserve and asking the people who are capable of providing it for help.

Support systems are one of the most critical ingredients to success. Meghann Conter, founder of The Dames, a community of 6-, 7-, and 8-figure women business owners, observes, “Humans are wired to help each other, and women are wired to be in community. Once we feel the safety of belonging, we help each other endlessly, and mental health becomes less of a challenge.”,

She offers the following suggestions for women business owners:

1. Stand in your why or sense of purpose in life and work.
2. Paint a vivid vision of the world as you want it to be.
3. Create a company mission that explains how your unique gifts align with a need in the world.
4. Carve out your core values, those nifty nuggets you and your team will use as your north star for decision-making. Keep it simple and enjoyable, keep it smart, and, most important, keep it aligned.
5. Choose the correct business model. If you are feeling overwhelmed, it may be time to check your business model again. For the first 10 years in business, Conter says, "I was a marketing consultant. While I loved the work, I discovered this model would be challenging to scale. I closed that company and The Dames flourished because it was in alignment with me helping tens of thousands of women to thrive as high-caliber business owners while enjoying life, which is my purpose.
6. Hire team members and automate as soon as you can. Perhaps begin with a part-time virtual assistant and go from there. Delegate everything you can't or don't want to do yourself.
7. Join a community of women entrepreneurs who are dealing with the same challenges/celebrating the same wins. Make sure the community you choose teaches personal and professional growth and success and that you agree with the core philosophies of the community.
8. Actively participate in that community. What you put in, you get out.

Care enough about yourself to do your inner work and access the support you need to transform personally, professionally, and financially!