When running your business gets in the way of doing what you love

Most people start a business because they're good at something they love.

They want to illustrate, photograph, train, coach, create or spend their time working with clients. Very few start because they can't wait to spend their evenings answering emails, scheduling social media posts or updating their website.

But as a business grows, that's often what happens.

The client work you once wanted more of starts filling your working day, which means everything involved in actually running the business has to fit around it. Emails get answered between appointments. Social media gets squeezed into the evening. The blog you've been meaning to write gets pushed to the weekend.

Before you know it, you're working longer hours but still feeling as though you're never quite caught up. And sometimes, somewhere along the way, you start to fall a little bit out of love with the business you worked so hard to build.

Success changes how you spend your time

When you first start a business, doing everything yourself often makes sense.

There might be enough space in your week to work with clients, answer enquiries, manage your inbox, create content, update your website and keep everything organised behind the scenes.

Then your business starts to grow.

You have more clients, more enquiries and more opportunities, but all the other work doesn't disappear. You're simply trying to fit it around a much busier business.

I've seen this happen with so many business owners over the years. They want to spend their time doing the work they built their business around, but instead they feel as though they're drowning in all the other things that come with running it.

It's not always about needing more time

It's easy to think the answer is more hours in the day, but I'm not sure it is.

Often, the bigger problem is how many different things are competing for your attention.

You sit down to focus on client work and an email arrives. You remember something you need to post. A customer enquiry comes in. There's something on the website that needs updating.

None of those things necessarily takes very long on its own, but they constantly pull your attention away from what you were doing. And even when you're not physically working on them, you're thinking about them.

That's the part that can become exhausting.

I understand it from both sides

I'm writing this blog post on my day off, which probably tells you everything.

Most of my working week is spent supporting my clients, so working on my own business often has to happen around the edges too. I know what it's like to have a head full of things you want or need to do and not quite enough space to do them.

When I was growing my business, I had a team supporting me and I couldn't have done it without them. Over the past year I've deliberately downsized my business, which suits the way I want to work and live now, but it also means I've chosen to take more of my own business admin back on myself.

The difference is that I genuinely enjoy that side of running a business. Give me a system to organise, a process to improve or a piece of content to plan and I'm quite happy. It's a big part of why I became a Virtual Assistant in the first place.

For many of the people I work with, it's completely different. They didn't start their business because they love managing inboxes, planning content or keeping everything organised behind the scenes. Those things are taking them away from the work they actually want to be doing.

Handing some of the business-running over to me means they get more time for the work they love, and I get to do the work I love too.

Sometimes you can do everything yourself. The question is whether you still want to, and what it's costing you if you do.

What changes when some of the weight is shared

One of my favourite things about supporting clients is seeing what happens when they realise they don't have to hold everything themselves anymore.

They relax. They have more space to focus properly on their clients and the work they love. They can take time away from the business knowing someone is keeping an eye on things while they're gone, rather than checking emails from the beach because they're worried something might be missed.

And sometimes they simply start enjoying their business again.

I think that's easy to underestimate. When you've spent months or years feeling constantly behind, getting some of that headspace back can remind you why you wanted to run your own business in the first place.

How you spend your time matters

I don't think business owners should spend their days constantly distracted by emails, social media, notifications and everything else demanding their attention.

Of course, those things need doing. They're part of running a business. But they don't necessarily need to be done by you.

Your time is valuable, not simply because you can charge for it, but because how you spend your days affects how you feel about your work and your life.

Whatever it is you're brilliant at, I want you to have the time and headspace to actually do it. That's where your skills, experience and energy are best spent.

The rest of the business still needs looking after, but you don't have to be the person carrying every part of it.

Creating more space isn't always about becoming more productive or finding another hour in the day. Sometimes it's simply about deciding where your time and attention are best spent, and giving yourself permission to get support with the rest.

‍ ‍

TL;DR: As your business grows, the work involved in running it grows too. If emails, enquiries, content and admin are taking over the time you once spent doing the work you love, the answer may not be finding more hours. Sharing some of that responsibility can give you back the headspace to focus on your clients, enjoy your business again and have a life outside it.

Continue reading

If this feels familiar, you might also enjoy reading The hidden mental load of running a business (and why it feels so exhausting), where I explore why carrying everything in your head can feel so draining, even when you're managing to keep on top of it all.

Want to see what this can look like in a real business? Read Katie's story to see how ongoing support helped her spend less time on emails, admin and marketing, and more time focusing on the creative work she loves.