In recent months, you might be up at night, thinking about the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner.

It turns out that many mistakes are entirely preventable.

If you’ve been grappling with these concerns, now is a good time to set your course in a more positive direction. In the process, you could just help yourself to some restful nights and rejuvenating sleep.

Set Up a Company-Wide Health Priority

Even if you are a small business owner, keep your eye on the health and welfare of your employees. You don’t have to be a major company to offer health education classes, set up a workplace health model. This will help you design health-friendly policies, and create a clean, safe environment.

When you are committed to health and safety, every employee will feel the difference. It may show up as healthy foods in the cafeteria or a company-supported farmer’s market in the parking lot.

Use your leadership to make health a company-wide priority. If you’re short on ideas, ask your employees and senior staff for recommendations.

Set a Healthy Example

As a leader, all eyes are on you. You will set an example when you model health-affirmative behaviors. For example, make your business location tobacco-free. If you’ve been a smoker, now is a good time to shift to a healthier lifestyle.

Show your diligence by participating in health-affirmative activities. Some leaders are avid runners, bikers, or swimmers. This sets the tone for healthy exercise as being a key component for a healthy organization.

Other leaders practice mental health through mindfulness or participating in self-care rituals. Many studies link the practice of mindfulness with improved creativity and performance at work.

Set for Success

Set up your organization and employees for success by offering health and safety training. This may be OSHA certification required by your organization, employee union, or government.

Help employees get to the training, whether it is the 10 hour or 30-hour training program. Make sure that their work is covered, and that they have access to training in English and Spanish.

Some OSHA certifications are held in physical locations while others are available in online pieces of training. Check your local offerings and help your employees easily access pieces of training.

Set For Implementation

As in everything you do as a business owner, check to make sure that all systems are ‘go.’ Look at your health and safety policies from the perspective of implementation.

Are all the programs up and running? Do you have systems in place for education, counseling, and coaching? Are your organizational policies spelled out in precise detail? Are the policies available online and in physical copies? Does every manager and employee know the policies?

Further, look at the benefits. For example, are you providing paid-time-off while people take required pieces of training? This may not seem like a big issue at first. However, people are more likely to take mandated training if there is no financial penalty.

Finally, consider environmental support for taking pieces of training and participating in counseling. Does everyone have equal access? Are the times and locations posted? Does everyone have an easy time getting transportation to a training location? Does each employee have access to the technology needed for taking virtual training?

With attention to implementation, you can achieve peace of mind. You’ll know that you’ve got all your bases covered.

Set For Impact

Running a small business takes a special set of skills. You need to be able to envision the outcome, plan policies, organize for implementation, and evaluate results.

As you look at your health and safety policies, set up your measures to evaluate success. Are you looking at worker productivity and issues of absenteeism, sick leave, or prevention? Are you considering healthcare costs? You may find that healthcare costs are reduced with more effective training and organizational policies.

Are you considering a larger context of improved outcomes? These may include a reduction in disability claims, and reduced time out for sick leave.

Finally, you may find the greatest outcome is creating a culture of health. With this, you’ll have a boost in morale, more success in attracting top talent, and an alignment between your health and business objectives.