I believe many small business owners would be happier if they built their business for "enough", and designed it around the life they actually want to live. I'm a millennial. Our generation was fully indoctrinated into hustle culture...but we're waking up. Work doesn't need to dominate your life. You probably became (or want to become) a business owner for autonomy and freedom.
It would be easy to dismiss this. After all, I sold my practice in 2021, and now I work from my laptop as a business consultant and coach. But I also built my practice to work without me so I could go mountain biking during the week. That was what allowed me to sell it and become financially independent.
And now, I've built this business around working 25 hours a week and earning more than enough to cover my family's wants and needs. You CAN build your business around your lifestyle. But it takes discipline. It takes the constraint to say "no" to a lot of opportunities and only say "yes" to the stuff that's aligned with the life you want to live.
And frankly, it takes commitment to becoming a good business owner. You have to run your business by the numbers, learn how to attract and convert a steady stream of ideal clients, make strategic decisions based on real data, and lead your team and set high standards. Even more importantly, you have to invest in yourself so you can become the type of person who has the skills and mindset to run a business that's designed around the life you want to live.
