Vitamins for you and your business

Sleepless nights, missed meals, fatigue and stress can cause illness and weaken your body. With so many people and an entire business relying on you as an entrepreneur, you need to take care of your health. To keep diseases away, taking vitamins regularly can boost your body. As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure.”

These vitamins can be sourced through food in your diet or supplements that carry these essential compounds. But apart from its health benefits, vitamins can also bring you some business insights that can contribute to the longevity of your venture.

Vitamin A for good vision

Sourced from milk, dairy products, fish and eggs, Vitamin A is needed for good eyesight, healthy skin and strong immune system. Lack of Vitamin A may lead to night blindness. If you apply this in the business perspective, you need something that can help you stay focused on your vision. It can be a poster on your wall reminding you of your end goal for your venture or a regular activity with your team to help you see clearly what you want to achieve in the short, medium and long term.

Vitamin B for energy

There are six other types of Vitamin B, namely B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12. These vitamins help boost metabolism and energy. Grains, cereals, meat, green leafy vegetables and eggs are among the sources of Vitamin B. What pumps energy to your business? Is it positive cash flow? Good corporate culture? Awards and recognition? Find what brings positivity in your workplace and overall outlook of your enterprise.

Vitamin C for immunity and healing

Ascorbic acid, which is found in citrus fruits and some vegetables, helps in strengthening the immune system of the body and healing of wounds. Mistakes are inevitable throughout the entrepreneurial journey. But you have to come up with alternatives and safety nets to help you recover from failures and avoid bigger ones in the future.

Vitamin D for strong bones

Vitamin D is needed to help absorb calcium from milk, eggs and fish to keep bones and teeth strong. It can also be sourced from sunlight. Our skeletal system is the core and foundation of our body. You have to keep the core of your organisation always healthy through effective human relations program. Retain good people that bring your business forward.

Vitamin E for defence

These are anti-oxidants found in oils, nuts, eggs, seeds and cereals. Vitamin E is a kind of anti-oxidant that builds your muscles and red blood cells, helping your body defend itself from diseases. As you grow your business, you have to make sure that you cover all bases and fill in all the gaps to keep your venture from threats and other unforeseen circumstances. Quality control, proactive plans, and other security measures help protect your business from unfavourable situations.

Vitamin K for blood coagulation

Broccoli, spinach and other green vegetables are rich in Vitamin K that supports blood coagulation. Without it, your body may suffer internal bleeding. Your assets and resources, including your people, are like the bloodline of your enterprise. To keep them intact, you have to continually build your internal and external relations and have regular monitoring and evaluation to ensure its improvement and development.

As the calendar year ends, take a good look of your business and find any deficiency that needs to be addressed. Build up your strengths, address your weaknesses, and plan on how you can take advantage of opportunities and protect your venture from threats. Know what kind of vitamins your organisation needs to aid its growth and progress.

Short office exercises for busy people

When your day is spent sitting in front of your computer, and the only break you get is attending meetings left and right, your body slacks off, while it absorbs all the tension at work. With so many tasks, responsibilities and people vying for your attention, you may inadvertently skip your gym sessions or never be able to fit exercise in your busy schedule.

The danger this poses is that the pressure of running a business and the lack of activity by your body may lead to certain illnesses or harm to your health. If you can barely leave the confines of your office due to piles of workload, you can try some short exercises within your workstation that can help circulate your blood, ease the strain on your muscles and clear your mind.

You may exercise a part of your body every hour or so, if time and space are limited. Below are some recommended activities for various parts of the body that you can do in your office or work area.

Neck and shoulders

Some exercises you can do are neck stretch, neck twist, head roll, shoulder shrug, and shoulder roll. Bring your head from side to side, whether by stretching your neck or twisting it left to right and vice versa. Do head rolls by putting your chin towards your chest and rolling your head clockwise and counterclockwise. If you have neck pains, you can do shoulder shrugs standing up, with an option to doing it with weights. For shoulder pains, do shoulder rolls forward, down, back, up and reverse direction.

Arms and hands

Spending your time tapping on your keyboard and using your mouse the whole day can cause strain on your arms, wrists and fingers. Hand flaps, arm circles, wrist stretches, hand stretches, water bottle weights, chair dips and chair plank can work out your hands and arms. Shake your hands and arms every now and then. To relieve your hand of discomfort, extend one hand in front of you with the fingers pointing upward and palm facing away. Using the other hand, pull your fingers towards you and hold it for 5 to 10 seconds. Do the same with the other hand

Torso, core and back

Prolonged seating and slouching often lead to back pains and poor posture that constricts nerves and blood vessels. Dong abdominal, long spinal and lower back stretches, chest openers, wall sits, crunches, and waist rotations can help restore alignments and eliminate backaches. One exercise you can perform on your seat is sitting upright with feet firmly flat on the ground and legs spread apart, then slowly bending forward, sliding your hands from your legs to your feet until they touch the floor. With your hands between your feet, press your fingers and your palm flat on the floor (or as far as you can reach) and hold for 30 seconds.

Hips, glutes and feet

Spending a sedentary day bound on your chair can be more damaging than relaxing. It is best that you move your glutes, legs, feet and hips every so often to exercise your muscles in the lower body. Suggested movements include seated hip stretch, inner thigh stretch, leg planks, food drill, chair squats, calf raises and toe raises. Even while working you can simply stand beside your desk or chair and raise your heels while keeping your toes on the floor, which you can do repeatedly.

The better options are to walk around your office, take the stairs, and go outside and walk a block for a few minutes. The best way still is to hit the gym or enrol in a fitness program. You can be focused on your business without sacrificing your health. These small exercises may be the beginning of your road to health and wellness.

Endurance activities and Entrepreneurship

It is inevitable for entrepreneurs to feel exhaustion, fatigue, discouragement, frustration and despair in the course of the business journey. But in true entrepreneurial spirit, they bounce back and march again with more determination. Hence, a little bit of mental and emotional stretching is needed to build stamina, face challenges head-on and keep going towards the goal.

Several options are in store for entrepreneurs on how they can re-energize themselves and fire up the embers of their passion before it totally diminishes. One resolution that some business owners choose is getting into endurance sports and activities.

What are endurance activities?

There are various types of sports and exercises for the body. Some are geared towards developing one’s flexibility while others are to build balance. Some sports are for improving strength while others are to increase endurance.

Endurance or aerobic exercises and sports are done to keep your cardiovascular, respiratory and circulatory system in top shape. Such activities intensify breathing and heart rate of the body. Examples are biking, running, jogging, walking, swimming, dancing and sports that involve these exercises.

Benefits of endurance activities to entrepreneurs

More and more entrepreneurs find great benefit from doing endurance activities. A number of these advantages are listed as follows:

Motivation and energy. When it seems that the responsibilities are too overwhelming that it causes you to lose interest in your work, endurance sports can wake up your senses and get your adrenaline rushing. They can pump up energy into your system, especially when you do it in the morning, and motivate you to channel that energy to your business. Joining marathons and competitions can make you feel competitive and determined.

Mood booster and stress-reliever. The stress and demands of running a business can sometimes make you grumpy, irritated and angsty. What’s worse, you take these negative vibes at home and areas outside of work. Endurance exercises can help you release the tension in your body and make you think more clearly afterwards. It keeps your physical, emotional and mental well-being in good health.

Focus and staying on track. Those who get into endurance sports, especially in triathlons and races, have a goal in mind. Being focused on those goals can also extend to your work habits. Running or biking in open spaces allow you to clear your mind and zero in on the most important things to do.

Discipline and responsibility. The difference in endurance sports like biking, running or swimming is that you must rely solely on yourself from beginning to end of a competition or marathon, unlike in team sports where others can make or break the game. Training is important to prepare for a race. Having the right discipline and sense of responsibility can take you towards the finish line.

Similarities between endurance sports and entrepreneurship

Endurance sports do not only keep you healthy in body, mind and heart but they also teach you inspiring thoughts that you can apply in your entrepreneurial journey.

• Aiming for a goal. Like in a race or marathon, the entrepreneurial journey is more fulfilling when you have a goal in mind. You work towards that goal, which is not actually the end but the beginning of more races to come. If running and biking competitions have a route, owning a business is also a journey that will take you through twists and turns and ups and downs.

• Challenges at every stage. From training to racing to sustaining your good performance, the challenge and hardships are always present. The same goes in running a business. Difficulties are part of the equation from founding your enterprise to startup to growing it and bringing it beyond the five-year mark. The challenges may differ at every stage, but they are sure to come.

• Risks and anxiety of not meeting the target. Although you run for yourself and by yourself, competition is a given in a race or in the business space. There is always the danger of not reaching your goal or dropping out midway, despite the effort and investment you have put in this endeavour. You’ll experience frustrations and self-doubt at times, both in endurance sports and in entrepreneurship.

• Skill and work discipline go hand-in-hand. You train to discipline your body and acquire skills that will be helpful to your sport. In business, constant learning is important to expand your knowledge as an entrepreneur and, at the same time, grow your business. Having the right skills set and work ethics in running a venture is key to its success.

• Success does not come overnight. What we see is an athlete that bagged a medal after a few hours of running. We also pay attention to business owners when they hit the headlines. But before they got to that point, there are many sacrifices that were made. They devote their time, energy and resources to the sport or their business before they become successful. Before they even reap the fruits of their labours, the adversities they experience during the planting part are sometimes not visible to us.

In the end, such sports or activities develop an important thing among entrepreneurs – endurance. The strength and determination to persevere and endure increases over time that as you gain more experience, the hardships become bearable. They no longer serve as hurdles but as an opportunity to stretch one’s willpower to keep pressing on until the ultimate goal is achieved.

The importance of sleep to entrepreneurs

One of the things that most entrepreneurs give up whenever they enter the business world is sleep. Late nights and early mornings are devoted to checking e-mails and worrying over several business matters. Entrepreneurs have too many tasks and responsibilities that they have to sacrifice slumber so that they can bring their venture towards its goal. However, the amount of sleep lost is never a measure of success. It’s time to break that chain of thought and shift on the need for entrepreneurs to value sleep.

Sleep is a natural state of our mind and body where our physiological make-up goes into processes that restore our body systems. Studies show that normal adults need around 7 to 9 hours of sleep. There are instances when you don’t get enough forty winks, and you still feel fine. But when it becomes a habit or recurring event, your body will feel the ill effects of not snoozing the way it is supposed to do.

What happens when you are sleep-deprived?

Too much stress and anxiety at work can affect your body’s performance. Some of the ill effects are insomnia or sleep disorders. For many entrepreneurs, sleep is a luxury that they cannot enjoy very often, which can later become a cause for worry.

Having an ongoing or prolonged case of sleep deficiency can lead to serious health problems. It can weaken the immune system and cause cardiovascular diseases. When you have stayed awake for long hours and denied your body of slumber, it may result in low concentration levels, weak judgment and poor creativity. There is even the danger of accidents when you drive or losing your balance when you walk. Inadequate sleep may distort your mood, leading to irritability and crankiness, which may unsettle work conditions in your business.

Why the need for good sleep?

Getting enough rest is not only based on the number of hours you spend shutting your eyes. It is also about how deep the slumber that your mind and body were able to achieve. Sleep reconditions the vital organs of your body and processes your immune system and memory bank. A healthy dose of sleep can help you become more productive and creative because your brain had a well-deserved break from the rigorous functions it does all day long. Good sleep can clear your mind and focus, which are needed when you conceptualise, strategise, compute, analyse and make decisions.

How do you achieve quality sleep?

Managing your time and disciplining your mind are key tools to attaining quality sleep. However, it is easier said than done. You can consider a few tips below on how you can gradually bring snoozing into your daily routine.

• Create daily checklists and routine. One of the main reasons entrepreneurs stay up late is because of the endless things to do and the feeling of not achieving anything. But if you break them down day-by-day and put order into your routine, you can insert enough sleep into your schedule. A checklist can help you organise your timeline as well as give you a concrete way of seeing your daily achievements. Allow time to check your emails and browse your phone, then take a break from it at night.

• Listen to your body. If your body feels tired, don’t push it to the limit. Some entrepreneurs are attuned to power naps, while others prefer continuous sleep of 6 to 9 hours. Adjust your routine according to your need.

• Meditate. You can do yoga, breathing exercises, prayer, or a quiet activity that can calm your mind and body. Listen to soft music or nature’s sound as you do this. Read books, if you like. It can slow down the processes in your brain and induce drowsiness.

• Exercise. Allow your body to sweat. Jog, run, hike or do some vigorous exercises that will help you stretch your muscles. Not only is this healthy, but it can also improve your sleeping patterns as the body responds to exercise in a way that encourages rest. 

• Watch your food intake. Consuming caffeine and food with similar ingredients can affect your body because they can keep you awake for a longer time. Avoid this kind of drinks, take in healthy nourishment and have your meals according to schedule. Watch your food and beverage intake, especially at night, and opt for sustenance that promotes sleep.

• Get a massage and apply essential oils. Allow your body to relax through massage or aromatherapy. It can relieve you with stress and help you doze off at night.

• Maintain a good sleeping environment. Make your bed and bedroom clean and orderly so that it can induce drowsiness and promote a good night’s sleep. Choose pillows and beddings that will make lying down relaxing.

Now, it’s time to relax and get into good sleeping habits for a healthier you, which can lead to a healthier business. If sleep is too scant for you, consult with a physician or sleep expert. Remember that as an entrepreneur, your mood and physical well-being is instrumental in pushing the venture forward. Take good care of yourself so that you can better care for your team and the enterprise you have built.

How to become a successful entrepreneur in the medical field

Getting a medical degree does not automatically makes one work in hospitals or pharmaceutical companies. It may be a specialised field, but there’s plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurship in this business space. There is a door in this industry that can lead you to the entrepreneurial journey.

There’s no denying that the medical and healthcare industry is becoming a popular arena for startups because of technology, specialisations and people’s increasing consciousness to their well-being. Even if you do not have the expertise in business, you can still dip your feet into the water and establish a venture in this field.

Armed with your medical know-how, you can prepare yourself for the journey and survey the playing field before you embark on starting a business. Then work your way towards improving your craft, expanding your business and caring more for patients who need your services.

Maximise your skills and capabilities

Your medical background is already an asset to the business. Add to that your hands-on experience and training. Look at your strengths and let them work to your advantage.

Identify the need

The reason most businesses thrive is that they provide a solution to a problem. Consider the gaps in your industry and the need of your target market or patients. Keeping in mind the need of the people you serve will make you stay true to your purpose and balance profit with purpose. Do market research and reach out to your prospects and clients regularly.

Work on your limitations

Define your weaknesses and work on addressing them by getting partners, investors, consultants or third-party service providers to help you out. Bring an edge to your venture that will make it stand out from the competition.

Create your team

Put together your dream team who can embody your corporate values and culture. Be discerning in selecting those with potential, efficient in retaining the good ones and fast in letting go of those that do not fit in your standard. Hire people that can help you with administration, finances and operations. Remember that your team are your hands, feet, eyes, ears and mouth. They are an extension of yourself, so you need to preserve the trust and harmony when you work as a group.

Keep learning

Look for a group that can help nurture your business sense. Join organisations like EO and surround yourself with like-minded individuals. Learn from other entrepreneurs who have experienced the journey ahead of you. Listen to experts and nurture your business knowledge through books, podcasts and other resources that can hone your skills. Be mindful of trends and disruption, especially in the use of technology in business and medicine.

With commitment, passion and proper guidance, you can take a step towards becoming a successful entrepreneur. More importantly, don’t lose sight of your vision as it will motivate you to keep going amidst the challenges and hardships that the journey may bring.

Your diet, your business and you

The holiday parties may have you binging on food that it’s time to shed the unwanted fats and get into shape. The new year calls for a new you – a better and healthier version of yourself. You may want to hit the gym, do some physical activities, or watch your diet. But it’s always good to do some research before you decide the right course for you, as a particular activity or diet may pose risks to your health.

Let us take a peek at the different kinds of diets to orient ourselves with how they affect our body. People go on a diet for various motives, may it be for weight loss, lifestyle change, or medical reasons. Should you decide to choose a particular path, remember that it is something you are bent on doing for the long haul. Like in business, opting for particular food intake is a commitment to achieve the expected results. We can also get some ideas from the types of diet on how we can improve on running our business.

Paleo diet

As the name suggests, the Paleo diet is eating foods taken by our ancestors during the Paleolithic Era. The premise is that farming, agriculture and processed foods are a mismatch to our body. Mimicking the sustenance that cavemen consumed in the early days meant eating food that is high in fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals.

There may be skills or people that are a mismatch to a certain role or position. Having regular team building or skills audit will help you determine how to hone your team and assign the right people with the right skills to the job that fits them in your organisation.

Ketogenic diet

The term “ketogenic” comes from the word “ketones”, the tiny fuel molecules produced when the liver breaks down fats in the body. Ketosis happens when the body is low in glucose, so the brain shifts to ketones to keep the body going. This diet involves ingesting low-carb, high-fat food.

Often in business, we tend to concentrate only on the “glucose” or the biggest thing that keeps us going. Always have alternatives. Have a plan B, C or D in place. Do not put everything in one basket. Diversify the sources of income. Do not limit yourself with only a handful of clients or offerings. Come up with succession planning in your structure.

Atkins diet

Dr Robert Atkins is a cardiologist that introduced the Atkins diet. It also works based on the principle of ketosis. There are four phases in this diet where intake of carbohydrates is cut down while consuming protein. The last phase reintroduces carbohydrates, but in controlled portions and select types only.

A healthy dose of everything is also a good lesson in business. Look at your books and see where you spend the most. You can manage your finances by taking measures to infuse change until you get a steady flow of your income and expenses.

The Zone

Balancing one’s diet is the principle behind the Zone where a plate is composed of a bigger portion of low-glycemic carbohydrates, smaller portion of lean protein and a bit of monounsaturated fat. It’s objective is to reduce inflammation in the body.

Some business owners tend to spend the majority of their time on their ventures. Even outside of work, they still think about it and rarely switches off. While passion and dedication are important, too much focus on work may also result in burnout and illnesses. Take time to enjoy the other aspects of life.

Blood-type diet

Created by Dr Peter D’Adamo, this kind of diet works on the premise that there are food types that react differently depending on the blood type. According to him, the lectins or protein components of food tend to bind with antigens on our blood cells that result in agglutination. To counter this, he has a recommended list of foods to eat and to avoid for various blood types.

Every business, market and industry has varying dynamics at any given time and space. There is no single clear-cut formula for success because certain methods may work differently in various situations and characteristics. Thus, it is important to test and research which ones may work for your business.

In the end, it is always best to consult with an expert, whether it’s for your body’s health or your business’ well-being. If you are bent on going on a strict diet, a nutritionist or a physician can shed more light on the best method to go forward. You may also find clubs composed of people who are already in the process of dieting, and they can be your support group. As to entrepreneurship, a mentor or an organisation of like-minded business people can help you look after your growth and that of your enterprise. Joining groups like EO Melbourne can be a great venue for you to learn and increase your business knowledge.

Whatever path you want to take, it’s good to have people to be with you on your journey. With the right company, you can meet the challenges ahead and continue towards your goal because you have fellow travellers who walk with you.

How busy entrepreneurs can stay healthy

Entrepreneurs are busy people who have so many things going on in their day-to-day schedules. More often, they devote a lot of time and effort into their business that they tend to push health into the background unintentionally.

Every business person may have a different lifestyle and stress management method, but many of them share a common ground – they absorb a lot of pressure from various directions. Because of their enthusiasm and passion for work, they end up doing more than they can manage, sitting in meetings or on their desk all day working on ideas or challenges, skipping meals or distorting their eating routine, and losing sleep along the way. All these may result in poor health conditions.

But with people depending on them, such as their families, staff, and clients, business owners cannot afford to be sick. A sudden change in lifestyle may be drastic. However, they can take small steps and simple actions that can lead to a healthier way of life.

1.) Exercise your body

When you’re in front of your computer for most of the day, or even if you’re on a plane or travelling for business, you can still do some exercises wherever you are. You can stretch your muscles, take short walks, or change your position every hour or so. The internet is a rich resource of simple exercises that you can do at home or in your office. Choose exercises that you find suitable for you and follow them. Once you inject this in your daily routine, allot some time to hit the gym or jog in the morning.

2.) Take a break – short ones and a vacation

Don’t forget to take short breaks from work every day. Have one in the morning and another in the afternoon, not counting your lunch time. If you spend too much time cooped inside your office or workstation, allow some time to open and look out the window or go outside for some air. It does not only do good to your respiratory system, but it can also clear your mind and help you focus.

And every year, reward yourself with a vacation, where you can recharge and rejuvenate. It’s good to take some time away from work once in a while. The change of environment can do some wonders, especially if you spend it with people you love.

3.) Eat right and on schedule

You’re in a rush, so you skipped breakfast and went straight to work. There are plenty of documents to review, meetings to attend, and decisions to make. Before you know it, you missed your lunch. Or, you ate dinner very late at night. To be effective at work, you have to nourish your body. Eat the right kind of food and have a balanced diet. Also, keep a regular schedule for your meals.

4.) Sleep right

Too much excitement or worry can often cause sleepless nights. With a lack of rest or sleep, it can affect one’s body adversely. Effective time management will allow you to allocate six to eight hours for sleep each day, keeping you alert and energetic for the rest of the day. When your body clamours that it’s too tired, take a nap or simply take some rest.

5.) Interact with friends and loved ones

Have a friendly chat with your teammates at work, go out with friends after office, join organisations like EO Melbourne, or spend time with people who make you happy. Studies and researches were conducted indicating that social interaction has positive effects on one’s health. Surround yourself with people who can enhance your creativity, positivity and energy so that you can channel these back to your life and your business.

6.) Do something you enjoy

Go to a spa, get a massage, join a marathon, play your favourite sport, play with your kids, read a book, listen to music, cook a meal, take a swim, or learn a new hobby. Do an activity that will not only boost your energy but will also bring joy to yourself. When you enjoy what you do, you will be keen to make it part of your regular habit, and you look forward to doing it more often.

As the year comes to a close and a new year is about to begin, it is best to review your lifestyle and plan how to steer it towards healthier living. Put wellness as an important part of your life and entrepreneurial journey. Most of all, do it with people you love to motivate you to keep going.

Jason Scher’s energy boosters for entrepreneurs

Speaking from experience, VÖOST co-Founder and Orange & Green Director Jason Scher affirmed that there are many difficulties that business owners encounter along the entrepreneurial journey. “Every single day, you're going to be challenged with something that will make you think, ‘I'm not good enough. It is not working.’ Then, you start to have those thoughts of quitting,” he said. It takes a lot of effort, time, resources and inspiration to start a business and see it through.

“Anyone that hasn't started a business or managed a business entirely has a different perception. It's like the swan analogy where it all looks graceful above the surface, but under the water, the legs are paddling furiously. Some of my friends see our products in different supermarkets and outlets, and they think it must mean everything's going well. But there's a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours, and a lot of stressful moments that people don't see,” described Jason.

To stay consistently on track, he has shared several insights which can be vitamins or energy boosters for entrepreneurs that can help them last longer on the journey.

Inspiring stories and positive feedback

To begin with, Jason got the idea for his business when he was standing in a pharmacy in Germany. “I noticed that the Germans had a full range and dedicated category of effervescent tablets, tablets that dissolve when you put into water, as opposed to the traditional tablets in Australia where you have to swallow them. And I don't like swallowing tablets. I realised that in Australia, there's a huge gap in the market for this type of format for all your vitamin and mineral needs,” Jason narrated. That incident and realisation gave birth to VÖOST.

Starting with five products sold in only 200 shops, it has grown to more than 40 product lines in around 2,500 stores in Australia’s leading pharmacies and supermarkets and now internationally. “Today, we're in South Africa, Hong Kong, China and the UK. The business has been growing steadily over the last five years,” according to Jason. As the business has expanded, he has encountered random instances wherein people, including total strangers, recommend the VÖOST products to him, not knowing that VÖOST is his business.

“It's nice when you see consumers enjoy the VÖOST range. It’s the same when people take time to write to us to tell us how good they find VÖOST and thank us for that. For them to take time out of their busy day and share that appreciation, it is inspiring. It makes me want to do more,” Jason confessed.

Persistence, passion, and other qualities

These qualities of an entrepreneur are like multi-vitamins that provide a healthy dose of energy to business owners and people around them. When thoughts of giving up are on the horizon, Jason’s recommendation is this, “You need to persevere. You must persist and go past those thoughts because it's worth it.”

It’s filled with various ingredients, such as honesty, creativity, discipline, which make the journey not only enjoyable but also fulfilling. “We take our business seriously. We're very professional, and we care. But you need to have a passion. You must love what you do. If you don't love what you do and not passionate about it, you'll never be able to have the success that you might dream of. For me, it's about having fun. It's about enjoying the journey,” he remarked.

People to bounce ideas off

“The challenge is that you sometimes feel a little bit isolated when it comes to not having other people to bounce ideas off. I think that's where EO Melbourne has become an amazing forum because it allows you to have that confidential platform to have those discussions that are relevant to you,” Jason said.

“EO Melbourne reminded me that there are many others that have had financial pressures, staffing pressures, customer and supplier issues, etc. Discussing ways to handle those pressures and situations become incredibly valuable. That feeling of isolation can quickly diminish purely from this forum platform, and it’s a bonus when you can learn from your peers’ experiences regarding the pressures they face,” he added.

Exercise and meditation

To release the tension and stress of running a business, Jason keeps his body and mind healthy and fit. “I feel that the more I exercise, the more energy I have. The times when I feel a little bit anxious and stressed or worried, I would always try and put half an hour aside and go for a run. Exercise, I feel like it's quite therapeutic. Mindfulness is also very important. I started meditating two-and-a-half years ago. It helped me not only recharge mentally but also feel a more centred, a little bit more focused. So, between physical exercise and meditation, it keeps me switched on and ready for what the day brings,” he professed.

A sense of purpose

The main thing that gives Jason energy is the knowledge that he has made a difference to countless of lives that have benefitted from VÖOST. “It's not about money. It's not about turnover. It's not about profit. It's not about the number of employees or the building. If you're inspired only by such superficial measures, then you're not going to have a strong foundation. There needs to be a little bit more substance to it. It's the knowledge that you've helped somebody or could help somebody new. That's quite powerful,” he imparted.

As he continues with his entrepreneurial journey, he hopes to grow his business and keep helping people by allowing them to feel better every day. He also wants to establish his businesses more firmly where he can have more time with his wife and kids. For Jason, “I want to explore the world with them. In five or six years’ time, I want to still be inspired, to have that drive to keep VÖOST on pleasing its consumer base.”

Know more about Jason Scher through his LinkedIn profile. Read on VÖOST at http://www.voost.com.au/.