I belong to a B2B networking group and although I am an extremely poor public speaker, it has proved to be a great experience. It has forced me to slightly improve my speaking apprehension, it has provided friendships and associations with area business owners, it keeps me in the loop as to what's happening in my town and it has given me thousands in business opportunities. That being said, it is not a way to get out from under a mountain of overwhelm.
At one of our meetings, we had a guest speaker that was a business coach who offered a free consultation, so I took advantage of that and met with him. He was a pleasant fellow but after our meeting, I felt that he would be nothing but a cheerleader and would not actually give me anything substantial. The cost was also far beyond what I thought he could accomplish. I'm sure there are good coaches out there but I think there is about 95% that are not really worthwhile.
I am running 3+ businesses and I always have the same feelings of being overwhelmed and I know what I need to do but find it almost impossible, instead I keep trying to expand and grow. What really needs to happen is to slow down, take a step backwards, clean up your act and then proceed with focus and clarity. Do you need a business plan? Sure, but doesn't the thought of developing a business plan just give you stress and make you feel even more overwhelmed? It does for me...
If I could give you some simple starting advice, it would be slow down, even if you have to put customers off for a short period you need to keep the train from running off the track. Next, get organized, clean up your spaces, clear your desk, sort things out in piles if you need to...bills, work orders, things to do, materials, quotes, jobs waiting, whatever it is that you have. Prioritize these things you just organized in order of importance. Then...and this is the most important thing....take one small manageable thing and work on it until it's finished, then take another and do the same. Soon you'll have a feeling of success in what you are doing and eventually you will be caught up and organized, after that reach down deep in yourself to do everything you can to keep from falling back into old habits but instead try hard to maintain your organizational success. Typically this feeling of being overwhelmed is because you are looking at too large a picture and it is crushing you, you should only look at and deal with things in manageable sizes, whether that is all the things on your desk or all the things you are trying to do with your business, and then complete them, don't leave things half done.
One of the greatest factors for small business failure is trying to do too much, trying to expand too fast. You need to do one thing well before you can do ten different things...you know, you need to crawl before you can walk and you need to walk with confidence before you can run.
After you get it together for awhile, you can consider the business plan, which is whole 'nother discussion. Also, you can evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and consider doing the things you are good at and hiring someone for the things you are not so good at, etc.
