Action Is the Antidote to Anxiety: What I’ve Learned as an Entrepreneur During Uncertain Times
One of the most anxious seasons I experienced as an entrepreneur happened back in 2018. There was a point when we honestly weren’t sure if we had enough to make payroll.
I think many entrepreneurs know this feeling.
At first, building a business feels exciting because it’s your thing. You’re creating something from scratch, solving problems, and chasing opportunities. But once your business starts growing and you begin hiring people, the weight becomes heavier. Because suddenly, it’s no longer just about you.
You start thinking about your employees, their families, delayed salaries, sustaining operations, and the pressure of making the right decisions so the business survives. That’s when entrepreneurship becomes deeply personal.
The mental load of running a business
People don’t talk enough about the emotional side of entrepreneurship.
For me, anxiety looked like waking up in the middle of the night and mentally computing numbers in my head. Cash flow, upcoming expenses, projects, hiring plans, growth targets, backup plans. Even after making decisions, I would revisit them repeatedly.
“Did I make the right move? What if this doesn’t work? What else should I prepare for?”
It’s exhausting. And I think this is why many entrepreneurs quietly struggle. The line between business stress and personal stress becomes very thin.
Why action matters more than panic
One thing I realized over the years: anxiety becomes heavier when you stay stuck in your head.
I’ve always been someone who acts quickly on problems. I get even more stressed when I don’t do something about issues I’m thinking about. That doesn’t mean acting recklessly. It means building systems instead of panicking.
Uncertainty is part of business, especially today. Businesses are working through changing customer behavior, inflation, rising operational costs, and rapid shifts driven by AI. The entrepreneurs who survive aren’t necessarily the ones who panic the least. They’re often the ones who build the best systems.
Financial visibility is more important than most people think
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a founder: you need visibility.
Not just revenue. Not just profit. Visibility. You need to clearly understand where your money is going, what’s driving growth, what’s draining resources, and whether your decisions today align with your long-term goals.
A lot of people think profitable means successful and unprofitable means failing. But business is much more nuanced than that. Some businesses intentionally spend aggressively because they’re investing in technology, hiring, expansion, or future growth. Meanwhile, some businesses may appear profitable but have very limited scalability or long-term potential.
Without financial visibility, founders make emotional decisions. And emotional decisions made under pressure can be dangerous. Sometimes businesses don’t fail because they lacked opportunities. They fail because founders couldn’t clearly see what was happening inside the business early enough.
Systems create stability
One thing that helped reduce my anxiety as a founder was building systems early.
I strongly believe that systems should be built first, then people come in to support those systems. If you hire quickly without proper systems in place, the entire structure eventually becomes messy and difficult to scale.
At Taxumo, we regularly align as a team through weekly goals meetings, project lead check-ins, and monthly town halls. Transparency helped us tremendously. When employees understand where the company is going, what challenges exist, and what the team is working toward, they become more connected to the mission. That shared ownership matters a lot during difficult seasons.
We also encourage our teams to automate repetitive tasks, improve workflows, and focus energy on high-impact projects. Speed and adaptability matter more than ever right now.
One financial mistake I made early on
One mistake I made early in my entrepreneurial journey was listening to people who also had very little real business experience.
There are many “mentors” online today. But personally, I think it’s important to learn from people who have actually built businesses, sustained them, survived difficult seasons, and created measurable results. Failures teach valuable lessons. But credibility also matters, especially when you’re making decisions that affect your business, your finances, and your future.
The difference between fear and strategy
I’ve seen founders freeze because they’re too afraid to move during uncertain times. I’ve also seen founders make desperate decisions because they feel pressured to survive quickly. Both extremes can be dangerous.
Resilient businesses operate from clarity, not desperation. A resilient business isn’t one that never fails. It’s one that knows how to recover, adapt, and keep moving forward. The strongest businesses today are building from a place of vision, not just survival.
Why financial partners matter for SMEs
As entrepreneurs, opportunities appear unexpectedly. Inventory suddenly becomes available at a better price. Equipment goes on sale. Expansion opportunities arise. A large client requires immediate scaling.
When those moments happen, access to funding can make a real difference.
I see financing as a growth tool when used strategically. It’s not just about borrowing money. It’s about having the flexibility to move when opportunities appear, and the stability to hold steady when things get hard.
This is why having the right banking partner matters, especially in uncertain times. BPI Business Banking’s Ka-Negosyo Loans are designed for exactly this: madali (apply anytime, anywhere via Ka-Negosyo On the Go), magaan (flexible financing and payment options), and mabilis (minimal documents required, with or without collateral). For many Filipino SMEs, having that kind of support system reduces the burden of carrying everything alone.
Entrepreneurship can feel lonely
Even though many people start businesses, entrepreneurship can still feel incredibly isolating. Every founder journey is different. Different industries, different timelines, different opportunities, different burdens. And at the end of the day, founders carry the responsibility of making decisions that impact not only the company, but also the livelihoods of other people. That’s a heavy responsibility.
What I’d tell entrepreneurs feeling overwhelmed right now
If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now as a business owner: you’re not alone.
People often only see the launches, the milestones, the growth, and the wins. But behind those moments are founders quietly carrying pressure every single day.
My advice? Don’t make decisions purely out of fear or desperation. Pause. Look at your numbers. Understand your situation clearly. And focus on the next step you can actually take.
Sometimes anxiety grows because we keep everything trapped in our heads. But once you begin organizing the problem, building systems, asking for help, and exploring solutions, things slowly become lighter. Action creates clarity. And clarity helps reduce fear.
You don’t need to solve everything overnight. You just need to keep moving forward.
Motherhood changed how I handle pressure
Oddly enough, becoming a mom also changed how I lead and manage stress.
Having kids taught me patience and creativity. Helping children work through tasks, emotions, and challenges often requires thinking outside the box, and I realized leadership works similarly. You can’t always force outcomes. Sometimes you need adaptability, empathy, and creativity. That’s probably one reason I’ve become calmer and mentally stronger over time as a founder.
Clarity comes with experience
In the early years of building Taxumo, I felt like we constantly had something to prove. Every move in the market felt like something we needed to react to immediately.
But now that we’re approaching a decade in the industry, things feel different. There’s more clarity. More focus. More understanding of what truly matters. We now see our direction more clearly: what we need to prioritize, what opportunities align with our vision, and what distractions we can ignore.
That clarity is one of the biggest things that reduces anxiety in business. Because sometimes confidence doesn’t come from knowing everything. It comes from surviving enough seasons to know that you’ll figure things out along the way.
