Two weeks ago, I wrote about how problem-solving—something experienced business owners are usually very good at—can work against them.
When they see something isn’t working, they make a thoughtful change, evaluate, and adjust. Sometimes the change helps but doesn’t resolve the larger issue, so they make another change … then another …
After months or years of this, they start wondering why they, a capable problem-solver who has successfully navigated all kinds of business challenges, still can’t figure this one out.
Then they think: Maybe I should blow it up.
Or the other extreme: Guess I need to suck it up and keep running as-is.
But neither is what they really want.
They know they can’t keep forcing themselves to operate as-is. But walking away means abandoning years of work, a strong reputation, good clients, reliable income, a capable team, and parts of the business they genuinely value.
It feels like an impossible choice, but it isn’t as binary as it seems.
A business isn’t just one thing. It’s made up of many interconnected parts: the work itself, the clients, the offers, the delivery model, the pace, the team, your role, the visibility required, the financial model, and the way all of it intertwines with your life.
An owner who thinks, “I don’t want to work with clients anymore,” may discover that she still loves the work but can no longer tolerate delivering it at the current pace or volume.
Someone who thinks, “I’m tired of this business,” may not want to abandon the business at all. She may want to stop working long hours, carrying the weight and responsibility of a large team, or maintaining a visibility and social media strategy that’s exhausting and uninspiring.
Different problems call for different changes.
The goal isn’t to preserve as much of the old business as possible simply because it once worked. Nor is it to make the most dramatic change available because you’re desperate for relief.
The goal is to understand what actually isn’t working so you know which specifics need to change.
Think about your business as a house that no longer works for the people living in it. Sometimes changing or rearranging the furniture is enough. Sometimes a wall needs to come down. Sometimes the family has genuinely outgrown the house and needs to move; and even then, they can take their belongings with them.
You can’t know which kind of change you’re dealing with until you understand the exact mismatch.
That’s why taking the time to figure out what no longer works and why matters so much. Realignment doesn’t necessarily mean reinventing everything. It’s using discernment to help you make the right changes for the right problems.
The business that works for you now may look meaningfully different from the one you originally built. That doesn’t mean the old business was wrong. It simply means that you’ve changed, what you need from your business has changed, and the business needs to change with you.
I’d love to know if and how you relate to this.
Have you found yourself thinking your only options are to keep running the business as it is or walk away from the whole thing?
If you stopped treating the business as one indivisible thing, which parts would you keep and which are no longer working for you?
What has changed about you, your life, or what you need from the business since you first built it?
Fill me in, and I’ll personally respond.
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