WHEN THE STRESS GETS TOO MUCH

Having a small business can take a toll on your mental health. Here's how mom-and-pop owners manage it all.

- LIZ BRODY

If you own a small business, you'll probably relate to Tracy Klopfenstein.

“The first two years were the worst,” says Klopfenstein, who bought a homemade ice cream shop in Goshen, Indiana, called The Chief with her husband, Chad. “We worked all the time, and I suffered burnout. My mind would spiral at night, and I'd worry about everything. I had what I would call an absence of hope.”

Without a large staff to absorb the bumps in the road, mom-and-pop owners often feel like they're riding on the rims. This past June, the WSJ/Vistage Small Business Index showed that nearly 1 in 4 CEOs frequently felt burned out or emotionally exhausted over the past three months. In a separate survey by Startup Snapshot, 72% of founders reported that the grind affected their mental health.

Burnout is business as usual for entrepreneurs, according to clinical psychologist Chandler Chang, whose mental health platform, Therapy Lab, offers short-term treatment based on approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy.