Atlantic Canada’s small businesses are burning out from constant “pivoting”.

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the shared struggle many small business owners in Atlantic Canada face today. If you’re a small business owner in Atlantic Canada, you’ve likely grown weary of buzzwords like agile, pivot, adjust and transform. Meanwhile, you and your team are running on fumes.

Here’s the truth that often goes unspoken: The issue isn’t your or your team’s mindset. It’s the sheer volume of work that’s overwhelming. The reality is that human systems can’t operate in crisis mode indefinitely without reaching a breaking point. Recognizing this is the first step towards a solution.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

According to a 2024 Harris Poll, 67% of small-business leaders in Canada report burnout, with younger leaders being hit the hardest. Many respond by working even more, often turning down new business just to cope.

Globally, 89% of executives consider resilience strategically important, and still, most organizations operate without systems that sustain it.

In Atlantic Canada, those pressures multiply:

• 74% of small businesses face labour shortages
• 54% struggle to find qualified candidates
• 47% see a mismatch between applicant skills and job needs
• Nearly 45% don’t know provincial employment support programs exist
• More than half haven’t accessed available programs because eligibility rules are unclear

These aren’t abstract numbers; they represent real Atlantic businesses fighting to stay afloat in a sea of constant change.

Add rising costs and regulatory complexity, and you get resilience fatigue; the constant demand to adapt without time to recover.

The Real Problem With “Agility”

Atlantic Canada’s small-business community isn’t short on effort; it’s running low on endurance.

True agility isn’t about reacting faster to every crisis. That’s just reactionary chaos disguised as progress. Real agility is about expanding your capacity to respond with steadiness, making strategic decisions, and maintaining a long-term perspective.

Think lighthouse, not tugboat. A lighthouse doesn’t chase ships around the harbour. It stays grounded, shines consistently, and lets others navigate toward safety.

The Check 3 Approach to Sustainable Resilience

So, how can small businesses in Atlantic Canada maintain resilience without succumbing to burnout? The good news? It’s absolutely possible, and these three focus areas can help.

When you’re caught in endless crisis management or firefighting, that’s typically a signal to step back and check three critical areas: Control, Capacity, and Compassion. This shift will empower you to take control of your business’s future.

1. Control: Focus Your Energy Where It Matters
   Stop pouring energy into what you can’t control. You can’t fix the labour shortage overnight or rewrite interprovincial trade barriers.
   But you can decide:
   • How you respond instead of react
   • Which support programs you research and apply for
   • Where your team directs its focus
   • How much energy you invest in solutions versus complaints
2. Capacity: Protect Your Most Valuable Resource
   Track energy like you track cash flow. When labour becomes your bottleneck, make intentional choices:
   • Narrow offerings to what moves the needle
   • Pause low-impact projects that drain resources
   • Free your top performers for revenue-generating work
   • Use those employment-support programs you’re already funding through taxes

   Capacity is not just about having enough people. It’s having the right people doing the right work at the right time.

3. Compassion: Lead Without Losing Your People
   Compassion doesn’t dilute performance; it drives it. When your team sees you running on fumes, they start looking for exits. Replacing good people in a tight labour market kills your bottom line faster than any downturn.
   Compassionate leadership means acknowledging reality, protecting well-being alongside results, and celebrating small wins on the way to big ones.
   How to put compassion into practice:
   • Start meetings by checking in on how people are, not just what they’re doing.
   • Model boundaries, actually log off when you say you will.
   • Recognize effort as much as outcome.
   • Address burnout signals early instead of rewarding overextension.

From Survival to Sustainable Growth

The most successful business owners aren’t grinding themselves into the ground. They’re building operations designed to last.

Your tactical homework:

This week:

• Audit one area where you’re wasting energy on things you can’t control
• Identify one unused support program and apply
• Have an honest team conversation about current capacity

This month:

• Test one micro-experiment lasting no more than two weeks
• Schedule regular “Check-3” reviews (Control, Capacity, Compassion)
• Document what’s working so you can replicate it

The Anti-Hustle Reality

Small Business Week celebrates grit, and Atlantic entrepreneurs have plenty of it. But grit doesn’t mean grinding. It means choosing an intentional, devoted, directional effort at a sustainable pace.

The goal isn’t to bounce backward to where you were before the last crisis; it’s to build the strength to move forward without burning out your most valuable asset: your people.

Atlantic Canada doesn’t need more businesses that can pivot fast. We need small businesses that can endure the storms well.

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Terri-Ann Richards is the Founder and CEO of Lighthouse Leaders Group, a boutique firm helping leaders prevent burnout and build resilience. She’s the author of Success Takes Courage and host of The Happy Stack podcast, where she explores the science of happiness, grit, and sustainable performance.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terriannrichards/

Website: https://terriannrichards.com/

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