When you’re the boss of your own business, you have the freedom to choose your hours, your projects, and your clients. You decide what you say yes and no to.
Then why is it so common for business owners to burn out, stretch themselves far too thin, and live their lives utterly exhausted?
Click to TweetWhy is it so common for business owners to stretch themselves too thin? Join the conversation.As you probably know, this stop-at-nothing approach to business is simply unacceptable to me—and has been since I was 20—so it continues to baffle me why, for so many people, burnout is a normal part of life.
More importantly, I wonder why no one else is talking about this or trying to change it!
As you know, I’m not the kind of person to push-push-push until I end up in the hospital. I want a business that supports my life, not takes it over. I call this philosophy success without sacrifice.
Although I understand for my own life what success without sacrifice means, I sometimes get tongue-tied when I talk about it! (Like on my most recent interview with Michael Knouse on The Startup Sessions and soon-to-be-released episodes with Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson on Being Boss and Adrienne Dorison on The School of Self-Mastery.)
Part of the reason I struggle to put my thoughts into words is that success without sacrifice, by its nature, means different things to different people.
For me, it means getting a full night’s sleep, working no more than 30 hours/week, and having plenty of space to enjoy life. But it might look completely different for you!
And although I have a lot of ideas and opinions about this topic, I don’t have all the answers.
To help you (and thousands of business owners like you) create a business that supports your life, I need your help.
Here some of the questions I’d love to get your opinions on:
- Do you believe that work-life balance is a myth?
- Why do people quit 60-hour/week jobs to run an 80-hour/week business?
- What comes to mind when you hear the phrase success without sacrifice?
- What did you dream your life would look like when you started your business? Does it look like that now? If not, what’s standing in your way?
And most importantly, HOW CAN I HELP??
I want to know your thoughts, experiences, and insights on these questions. I want to know about your beliefs, your inner conflicts, your fears, worries, and desires around the topic of success without sacrifice.
Because I want to help you create a business that supports what you want most—whatever that is.
Together we can create a world where success without sacrifice is the norm. Where burning the candle at both ends is the outdated way of working and building a business that supports our lives is the way smart women do business.
It starts today with your comments and insights. It continues from here, this year and beyond, with talking about how to make these changes both to our lives and the lives of those we love.
Let’s start a revolution. Share your thoughts below.
Hi Jenny, I love every part of my business, figuring things out, experimenting; I love my work, I love the freedom I have with my schedule, and I’m actually doing pretty well, sticking to my 30 – 35 hours a week schedule that I had set up for myself during MIWO. However, what I struggle with is not seeing the returns each week. So I feel like I’m not doing enough, not pushing hard enough, not doing more, to get clients. I split my time between client-getting activities and list-building activities, but sometimes it feels like I’m not making progress with either of them. So I feel like I should be doing more…
I have always loved your attitude, Saiisha! I love your work boundaries, and I love that you’re always open to experimenting.
It sounds like you’re ready for some “next level strategic analysis.” 🙂 Basically, start looking at what you’re doing to get clients with a more critical eye. If you’re not seeing returns you expect, then it could be that you’re not doing them in an optimal way OR it could be that you have skewed expectations.
Here are two posts on experimenting. See if either of them spark any ideas for you:
* https://jennyshih.com/2014/01/learning-failures-wins-create-success-business/
* https://jennyshih.com/2014/01/exactly-experiment-business/
Also, feel free to hop into our private group and ask more. I’m always happy to help past clients 🙂
Both these posts are perfectly what I needed Jenny, and I also stumbled on an old post about “words that sell or destroy sales” that’s helpful too. It’s funny I think I’ve read all of your posts many times over, but these are what I needed to re-read right now.
Thank you for the reminder about the private group – I’ll ask as soon as I can come up with a specific question 🙂
Great questions… I do not believe work-life balance is a myth. I think it is important. But hard to do… It is one of the reasons I wanted to go into business for myself. I think it comes down to setting boundaries for yourself and sticking to them. Being flexible but still carving out that time for the rest of your life. I also think setting up systems that will allow you to work less but do more are also important. Efficient systems will help alleviate some of what becomes the 80 hour work weeks. A lot of what takes up those hours are tasks that are just time-eaters. For example, I just had a situation where it took me 2 or 3 hours to sort out what I needed to remit to government for payroll taxes. But now I know that the system I was using before was not as effective as it could be. So now I will change it, and reduce that time down to 15 minutes.
As for the other questions, since I am just starting on the business building journey, it is hard to say whether it is meeting my expectations or not. I expected a slow start, but maybe not this slow… It is requiring some re-thinking of the focus of my business. My dream is definitely not a reality yet. But I keep plugging away… As for what is standing in my way, it is hard to say. Many factors play into it, some I can control, and some I may need to adjust my business plan to evolve around. Just have to keep trying things!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Helen! I really appreciate it!
I also understand how challenging it is to get started and get traction in business. It definitely threw me when I first started as well. There are tons of resources here to help you, so scour the site and you’ll probably find something that will show you your next steps.
I’m cheering you on!
Good morning, Jenny:
Do you believe that work-life balance is a myth?
YES, AND I JUST WROTE ABOUT IT HERE: http://www.womenwerk.com/single-post/2016/10/03/I-Don%E2%80%99t-Care-About-Work-Life-Balance-And-I-Think-No-Woman-Should—Shawna-Kaye-Lester
Why do people quit 60-hour/week jobs to run an 80-hour/week business?
I DONT KNOW ABOUT OTHERS. BUT FOR ME, I don’t want to work 80 hours each week, but as I start up, I find that I am doing everything/ most things by myself. Until you can hire help, it takes a lot of time to put in place all the things that make working with you a smooth experience for your customer. It’s like trading in time for the money you would pay a support team.
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase success without sacrifice?
ENJOYING LIFE ON MY OWN TERMS – being able to determine the time I spend working, having enough money where if I had to stop working for a year or two (You know all about this, Jenny) I could, not needing to do anything that makes me unhappy for money. Life is real. It is not a routine with predictable turns, and I think everyone should have success that enables them to respond to life’s challenges as they want to, not how they HAVE to.
What did you dream your life would look like when you started your business? Does it look like that now? If not, what’s standing in your way?
I DREAMED OF ENJOYING LIFE ON MY OWN TERMS. Does not look that way yet. I am at the beginning, and I am not here for overnight success… I know I have to put in the time and right strategies and systems to get there. The lack of robust lead generation systems and a business coach are what now stand in my way.
And most importantly, HOW CAN I HELP??
By sharing any blog posts that can help us figure out how to Make It Work Online, until we can take the course. Specifically, how to grow email lists and generate leads all year.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing all of that! I love hearing how you all view this topic.
As far as ways to get clients and build your business, I have SO MANY resources here!
The best place to start is here: https://jennyshih.com/2014/11/online-business-success-formula/
But really, scour the site. Go to the main blog page and then click on the button for “get clients.” That will lead you to a treasure trove of articles. Or just go through the whole blog, post by post. You’ll find so much here to get you started.
Thank you, Jenny. Scouring underway. Scour scour. This learning curve is STEEP.
Do you believe that work-life balance is a myth?
I like to think of it as “harmony” instead of balance… balance is 50/50 and I feel like I want to give 100/100, but be strategic of how and where I give!
Why do people quit 60-hour/week jobs to run an 80-hour/week business?
I have no idea, but I sure didn’t! I opted not to go back to a corporate job so I could be home with my kids… so if I manage 15 hours a week of dedicated work time, it’s a great week.
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase success without sacrifice?
I feel like, at least in the beginning, there is always SOME sacrifice, on one side or the other. But as I’m learning more advanced goal setting and work/life management systems, I’m sacrificing less and less.
What did you dream your life would look like when you started your business? Does it look like that now? If not, what’s standing in your way?
It’s getting there. I’m in my second quarter of really working in my business, and I am building towards where I want to be. 🙂
Thank you for sharing, Natalie! I always love hearing from the hearts and minds of smart business women. <3
Do you believe that work-life balance is a myth?
I don’t think it’s a myth. For me I either go head first or procrastinate. So my balance is out of whack sometimes.
Why do people quit 60-hour/week jobs to run an 80-hour/week business?
I left an 80-hour a week job – because I was angry and stressed all the time. So my life is definitely better in that area. I’m struggling with replacing that salary which I thought I could do very quickly. So I need to adjust my expectations and remove my thinking that success is just about $$$
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase success without sacrifice?
I think a well-planned strategy is the key. My problem is that I have fantastic strategies and goals for my clients- but don’t have them for me!
What did you dream your life would look like when you started your business? Does it look like that now? If not, what’s standing in your way?
I have some aspects in place. Other pieces are what is holding me back like the accounting aspect, paying taxes and getting new clients. I’m a creative person so I always procrastinate the financial end of it. That’s really put my business at risk this year.
I love that you said you can do what you do for clients but not for yourself, because that’s so true! It’s easy to see things in others but not ourselves — and why I’m excited about the new course so we can all help one another create success without sacrifice.
Thanks for sharing!