ENTREPRENEURIAL STRESS : IS IT UNABATED ?

V Vasavi
Lecturer-in-Commerce
Govt. Degree College
Nagari, Chittoor (dt)
Andhrapradesh.
Mobile no.9441209500

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Introduction:

Stress is evident in jobs that require innovation and involve complex work
tasks etc,. Nowadays, Entrepreneurship is becoming an increasingly popular career choice
and is generally accepted as an area where stress can be expected .Since, Entrepreneurship is
considered as a synonymous with Risk taking, an attempt has been made in this paper to
study the causes for Entrepreneurial stress and the ways to overcome the stress.

Stress is the physical, mental and emotional human response to a particular stimulus,
otherwise called as’ Stressor’. As long as something demands for our efforts or pushes us to
work on it, it can be considered as an agent or stimulus that causes stress. Stress is the
mismatch between the perceived obstacle and the perceived availability of resources for
coping with the demands of the obstacle.

Stress can be negative or positive, depending on the level of our response to the stressors,
that we encounter. when we are exposed to mild or moderate stress, we are actually able to
experience the good side of stress, such as improvement in creativity, learning, efficiency at
work and eventually a higher level of esteem. All these help us to withstand a higher stress
levels in the future.

Anything that poses a challenge or a threat to our well-being is a stress and the stress which
is beyond one’s control is considered as Negative Stress. It has bad impact on the individuals
and is manifested through the mental and physical signs and symptoms.

Definition:

It is difficult to define stress because it is so different for each of us. The term ‘Stress’ as it is
used currently was coined by Hans Selya in 1936 and he defined it as the non-specific
response of the body to any demand for change.

Stress is inescapable and Entrepreneurs also not exception to that. Certainly stress haunts
them down, but how one deals with the stress determines how well one’s business flourishes.
Great entrepreneurs don’t suffer from stress because they invite it. Though this sounds odd, it
is true that the things that cause mental stress to other people are just wonderful new puzzles
to an entrepreneur, why because they search for new opportunities in such situations only.

Stress is both natural and normal. What is not normal is being stressed for prolonged periods
of time. Particularly, Entrepreneurs frequently struggle with chronic, excessive stress which
may be caused by the fear of failure or loss of finances and so on.

Entrepreneurial stress is a very real thing and should not be ignored or pushed aside.
Therefore, Entrepreneurs must know how to deal with the stress and how to overcome it.

Objectives of the paper: This paper is of conceptual nature and the various objectives are:

*To review the concept of Stress and its nature in general.

* To examine the various stressors that cause stress to entrepreneurs.

* To suggest the remedies for the stress faced by the entrepreneurs.

Methodology of the study: This article Entrepreneurial Stress is a conceptual paper and is
based on the secondary data collected from various books, journals, websites etc,.

Review of the Literature: Available literature on this topic is limited.

Holly Buttner , in his published research study states that Role conflict or ambiguity, job
versus non-job conflict, concern for quality ,role overload and responsibility pressure are the
various sources of stress to the entrepreneurs.

Bronwyn Eager Agse and Alex Maritz Agse in their article namely ’Entrepreneurial stress: A
conceptual Model’ opined that Venture and the entrepreneur should not be considered as
exclusive of each other. Due to the nature of the entrepreneurial operating environment ,the
personalities of entrepreneurs are more likely to play a role in impacting the success or failure
of the venture.

Dr. R Ganapathi, the author of the article entitled as ‘Impact of Stress on professional women
Entrepreneurs’ is of the view that by sharing the responsibilities the women entrepreneurs can
reduce their work and they have to attend the workshops, seminars etc., conducted by the
Entrepreneurial Development institutes to improve their skill and gain experience .All this
will boosts up the confidence of the women entrepreneurs and thereby the growth of their
business.

Causes of stress for entrepreneurs: when we look at the things such as setting up of own
timings & schedule, creating of own rules to work and building up the business organization
to one’s own whims and fancies, we feel that the job of an entrepreneur is very Glamorous .
Yet, there is a dark side for being an entrepreneur. The Entrepreneurial role and the
Entrepreneur’s operating environment which differs from the others cause more stress. The
stress experienced by entrepreneurs has many root causes, most of which are self-induced.
1.Competition: To a very large extent the major cause of stress for most entrepreneurs is
competition. No one can be in control of what the competitors do but at best what can one do
is to understand the competition and focus on one’s own action.

Solution lies in focusing on competition but not on the competitors.

2. Unrealistic goals: usually entrepreneurs get stressed up while struggling to achieve the
goals that are unrealistic. when the goal requires more skills, energy, knowledge, time and
other resources than the entrepreneur possess, it is an unrealistic goal.

Solution lies in setting the realistic goals, which does not mean that the goal must be small,
but must be realistic with available resources.

3. Limited capital: One of the reasons for the failure of business is underestimation of
capital requirements. Shortage of capital leads to many unwanted financial problems that
result in stress.

Solution is to set aside more money than what is considered as required startup capital. That
buffer money helps the entrepreneurs to face out not only financial emergencies but also
relieves him out of the fear of shortfall of funds and thus from stress.

4. Meeting expectations: Everyone takes up the business activity only with profit motive.
Entrepreneur is the one who has great aspiration and expectation to succeed, but when this
does not happen, naturally it leads to stress .Entrepreneurs face a lot of stress in meeting the
expectations of self as well as others such as family, friends, community etc,.

Solution lies in working hard to succeed, but not to satisfy anyone.

5. The Solomaniac: Many entrepreneurs get stressed up in trying to do all the things alone.
Some times with lack of confidence in the ability of others and sometimes with over
confidence of self capabilities entrepreneurs start to involve themselves in all the activities
and finally due to physical limitations, they soon breakdown in stress.

Solution lies in adopting one of the principles of management i.e., Division of labour. Art of
assembling the right team and learning to delegate tasks is crucial for an entrepreneur, to
become successful.

6. Growth and expansion: While trying to pursue the growth and expansion of the business
in faster mode than the business can cope with, the entrepreneur has to face lots of stress.

Solution is to contemplate and take up the growth or expansion proposals only when
there is preparedness and ability to cope up with.

7. Change and challenges: One of the inevitable things in life and business is change. The
entrepreneur must be always ready to accept the change. coping up with the change is always
a great challenge and causes stress to the entrepreneur.

Solution lies in accepting and inviting the change and move with it.
 Entrepreneur has to understand where the stress is coming from .Identifying the source
of stress is very crucial in stress management and that knowledge will definitely helps the
entrepreneur to battle (i.e to reduce or eliminate) with the stress.

Conclusion:

Entrepreneurship plays a key role as a catalyst in the economic development of any

country. But the success rate of entrepreneurs is very meager when compared with the
success rate in other fields. One of the reasons for this situation is high levels of uncertainity
and risk faced by the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have to admit the reality that Stress is
inevitable for them and their acumen lies in adopting the stress management techniques.
Certainly, the Government which is trying to promote entrepreneurial skills and attitude
among the unemployed through organizing the Entrepreneurship Development
Programmes etc., should also contemplate of providing stress management training to the
entrepreneurs.

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References:

1.Bronwyn Eager:Agse, Alex Maritz:Agse, “Entrepreneurial Stress:A conceptual model.”

2.Dr.R Ganapathi(2014), “ Impact of Stress on professional women Entrepreneurs”, Journal

of Management Research and Analysis.

3. E.Holly Buttner (1992),”Entrepreneurial Stress;Is it hazardous to your health?”, Journal of

Managerial Issues.

4. Various websites.