How Founders Can Prevent Burnout:
Lessons From Tamryn Dicks
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Audio Title: How founders can prevent burnout: lessons from Tamryn Dicks
Description: Founding a business feels like freedom until it doesn’t. Drawing on a long conversation with Tamryn Dicks, who started Pharsyde Accounting in 2007, below are clear, practical steps founders can use to prevent (or recover from) burnout.
Founding a business feels like freedom until it doesn’t.
Drawing on a long conversation with Tamryn Dicks, who started Pharsyde Accounting in 2007, below are clear, practical steps founders can use to prevent (or recover from) burnout.
“I think most people do this, because I’ve obviously dealt with a lot of clients since then. So, I think it’s this idea that being your own boss will come with a higher income and more freedom.
“We have a tendency to sit in an office and we see a boss maybe come in later, maybe leave earlier, maybe every time you walk into the office they’re going to seem to be particularly “unstressed” while you’re dealing with a workload. And we look at these things and we know that they’re being paid more than us.
“And it’s very easy to look at that from the employee’s perspective without seeing the other side of it and assuming that you’re kind of being used. I think when you’re in an employment position, you feel like you’re being used in some way.”
Tamryn Dicks
Time to just, BREATHE. That’s all you need| I help you create time to rest AND make more money at the same time
The three-part recipe for burnout
Burnout has three causes: “It’s an excessive amount of responsibility. … That combines with limited resources. … Now you’ve got too much responsibility. You have too few resources to meet those responsibilities. Then that combines with the third element, which is chronic stress.”
If two of these are present, you’re at risk. If all three are present, you’re on a fast track to collapse.
How to interrupt the pattern:
- Reduce responsibility (re-scope your commitments and clients).
- Increase resources (time, money, or capable people).
- Cut chronic stress (habit, sleep, environment).
Common founder mistakes that lead to burnout
“The biggest [mistake I made] is one I can only see with retrospect, which is undervaluing myself. So desperate to build a business. … I was nervous about being too expensive. I was very young. I was 25.”
Tamryn’s second biggest mistake was that she was trying to do it all. “I made was trying to be wonder woman. … I wanted to do the client delivery. I wanted to be a successful business owner. I wanted to also be a good wife and friend and daughter. And I didn’t give myself any water in any area.”
Delegation: why it fails and how that failure feeds burnout
Tamryn describes why delegation goes wrong for many founders, “You know, after speaking to many business owners, I actually think this is a common thing. … That’s the type of person who’s going to battle to delegate. … Then because it went badly, I was like, you want something done properly, you do it yourself.'”
The result? You spend more time fixing outsourced work than it would have taken to do it once yourself, losing both time and energy.
How to delegate well:
- Build clear SOPs and checklists before handing work over.
- Train with the expectation of incremental improvement (not perfection on day one).
- Pay for competence. Cheap shortcuts cost far more in rework and frustration.
How burnout showed up for Tamryn (what to watch for)
Tamryn’s personal symptoms map well to common signs founders ignore. “My first set of symptoms for burnout was mood changes. … Then it started affecting sleep. … And then the third thing it affected, and actually without my noticing until it was physical health. … I was literally bursting into tears every five minutes when the burnout really, really kept on popping.”
Key red flags to watch for: persistent mood shifts (irritability and negativity), sleep disruption, loss of passion, escapist thinking, and strong emotional reactions (e.g., frequent crying). Don’t wait. These are signals your system is depleted.
Immediate first steps to get out of the spiral
Tamryn stresses recovery must start with rebuilding capacity:
"The first step is to focus on getting you back into a good mental space because the burnout is not caused by your mental condition. It's caused by systemic issues in your business. But if you reach the point of burnout, you can't cope with anything. ... You need to start with Where am I and how do I get better."
Practical first-aid steps:
- Rest first: create enforced, device-free time off (even short daily breaks). “You’ve got to just be away from the computer and not be able to work.”
- Fix sleep: treat sleep as the mission-critical recovery tool. Tamryn: “Sleep is far more important for your health than people realise.” Seek medical help if necessary.
- Move and get sunlight: small movement and natural light resets mood and circadian rhythm. Tamryn: “15 minutes in the garden every day, that’s it.”
If you have access to nature, it speeds recovery, but short exposures work anywhere.
Choose one to start:
Choose one action item this week (and keep it at ONE) to work on consistently for the next 30 days. It can be any one of the following or something unique to your situation.
- Block two 60–90 minute deep-rest sessions per week (no laptop, no email).
- Fix one sleep habit this week (consistent wake time, reduce screens 60 min before bed).
- Delegate one repeatable task this week with a written SOP.
- Schedule a short daily movement (10–20 minutes of walk/garden time).
If you’re building something you love, protect yourself, because you are the one building. Burnout is a system failure. Fix the system, and you keep the dream.
Teagan specialises in Copywriting, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing and Blogging. Teagan uncovers the deeper “why” behind every venture. She believes that every person and project has a unique story, and nothing excites her more than transforming these narratives into compelling content that demands to be shared with the world.
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