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# Mental Health as a Business Advantage: Why Smart Entrepreneurs Are Prioritizing Employee Well-Being

In a compelling conversation on the Dear Business Coach Podcast, mental health advocate and entrepreneur Francine Binns shared how she transformed her franchise business by putting employee well-being first—and saw remarkable results. "Business includes people. Your staff are people, and your customers, your clients are people, and you cannot remove that aspect from business," Binns explained, emphasizing that caring for people emotionally and mentally directly impacts profitability. Drawing from her psychology background and business experience in Jamaica, she revealed her competitive edge: creating space for staff to decompress during work hours. "If you have a business where people do not feel psychologically safe, then you, as the entity, you're missing out on the potential of this person," she noted. Her approach proved successful as customers specifically chose her location for the exceptional experience her well-supported team provided. Binns advocates for what she calls "smart work" over just hard work, using a powerful car engine analogy: "Our brain is our engine, and you cannot ignore what is going on there... if you were checking the water level in your engine, you wouldn't know it overheated." Now co-hosting the Balance in Bloom podcast, available on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon, Binns continues championing the integration of mental health awareness in business settings. To learn more about creating psychologically safe workplaces and hear more transformative stories, connect with Francine Binns on LinkedIn and subscribe to Balance in Bloom, releasing new episodes every two weeks.