How to make your business sustainable from the beginning
Photo credit to www.helenkaram.com
Having a sustainable business is something that we all want right?
But sustainability seems to be a lofty word that comes along “later” in business, when things are already working and the basics of the business are there.
I want to invite you to think of sustainability as something you should set up straight away as part of your business foundations because it’s so much harder to shake up that foundation once it is set.
What is sustainability anyways?
For me sustainability is having a business that runs on an ongoing basis and with consistency without burning myself out.
An unsustainable business in my opinion is one in which you have periods of highs and burning the candle at both ends, going at the maximum speed driven by adrenaline and then having periods of burnout in which you’re run to the ground and you need to recover from all of it.
It’s exhausting and unfortunately that’s how I see many “traditional” businesses be run. They are based on hustle culture and staying long hours, working hard and playing hard and they don’t take into account the possibility of recharging yourself along the way.
My father has a veterinary clinic that he’s been running for 40 years and let me tell you he’s a hustling guy. He’s been working long hours all his life and that’s the norm for him. In the last few years after turning 60 he's (luckily) wanted to slow down by taking some extra days off and delegating more tasks to his team but let me tell you it hasn’t been easy to reverse some habits that have existed for this long.
To the point that he’s considered burning the business down as an easier alternative.
When I started my coaching practice 4 years ago I was terrified by burnout. Coming from a family background of working hard as well as going to business school where the terms “dynamic and fast paced environment” are worshipped as God’s words, I was very afraid that being an entrepreneur would have to look this way.
So thanks to this fear I set up my business very organically and gradually made it objectively sustainable from the start. Of course since I was driven by this fear I was also holding myself back from success in many ways because I was afraid of being overwhelmed by things to do and not being capable of handling them but that’s a story for another blog post.
The way in which sustainability looked for me was :
Really reflecting on what was the lifestyle I wanted to have in this phase of my life first and foremost. And I wanted to have a lifestyle with plenty of spaciousness to take care of myself, process my emotional and mental health and physical one. I didn’t want to have to suck-it-up and keep on going for a few days before looking at what had happened that week in my life. I wanted that space daily.
As part of my lifestyle reflection I also knew that I wanted a digital and location independent business so that’s the goal I was striving for. I knew I wanted to peacefully work by myself because that’s how I thrive as an introvert and choosing the people that I would have to interact in my business as the ones that would resonate with my values of freedom and flexibility as well.
I also knew that because of all the things above I didn’t want to work 24/7 but I really wanted to spread out my work so I could tend at different tasks in different days and it didn’t matter that some things would take longer to be accomplished or that I would have to trade-off some earnings because of that. That looked like about 20-25 hours of work each week.
With these foundations in mind my business immediately looked very different from most of the ones I observed around me and I honestly judged myself for it a lot in the first few years.
Was I being lazy? Was I missing out on something?
My inner critic was loud at times because I didn’t have many examples of people working this way.
But I’m glad to say that nowadays I see so many inspiring people setting up their work sustainably from the start and talking about how many hours they work, how they prioritize their health and life and build their business around it and not the other way around.
In the future I dream of having a family and kids and I can already see how having this foundation will be helpful to make my business still sustainable ( with some tweaks and changes that I’ll figure out then) and still running without burning myself out.
So now the ball is in your hands, what is a way you can make your business sustainable today without waiting for some perfect time in the future?
What is your ideal lifestyle and how can you build your business around that?
Maybe your idea of sustainability will look very different from mine and that’s totally ok. The most important thing it’s that it’s meaningful to you and makes you feel relieved just thinking about it!
Looking at your lifestyle vision and building a sustainable business from scratch it’s my jam and I have a coaching program created exactly for this “The Entrepreneur Leap” so If this sounds like where you’re at now jump on a FREE Discovery call and I’ll be happy to explain you more about the program and honestly tell you If it is for you. Book your call here.
