Knowing When To Put The Brakes On Your Business
Knowing When To Put The Brakes on Your Business | Samantha Jones | Embracing Slow Living
Let me preface this by saying, it’s not often that you use the brakes on your car then never drive again. In the same way as a car, brakes in your business are used to slow down and regain control. This is what this blog is about, slowing down and regaining control of not only your business but your life surrounding your business.
Being a business owner can be deeply rewarding and incredibly exhausting all at the same time. Especially in today's fast paced instant gratification world, no wonder so many entrepreneurs are experiencing higher levels of stress, burnout, and depression. What if there was an alternative way to run your business? One that left you feeling peaceful and happy as opposed to dead beat tired?
There is, and it’s gaining a good deal of momentum in more than just the small business space. The idea of a slow business is nothing new. I'd say it’s actually quite old and we’re finally coming back to it. Slow business does not by any means mean unsuccessful business. I would say on the contrary, I have felt more successful than ever since switching my mindset to a slow business model.
Wow that sounds great but how do I actually DO that and still pay my bills?
Get Real With Yourself
I’m not a beat around the bush person so let me just lay it all on the table right from the jump. Our addiction to the fast paced society has far more to do with avoiding ourselves than any monetary gains we “think” the hustle will give us. You cannot experience true success and genuine happiness without getting real with yourself.
Why did you start your business? What is the purpose of your business beyond providing for you financially? What is YOUR purpose, does it even align with your business?
You need to start deeply processing some introspective and self reflective questions if you’re serious about joining the slow movement.
If you need help journaling I have resources for that here.
Boundaries
Not setting and sticking to boundaries has become so much the norm we’ve deemed joking about it as cute. It’s not cute, every time you let someone cross a boundary of yours you are giving up a bit of yourself. Often we see boundary setting as bitchy or stuck up and I’d like to challenge you to take that up with your journal and really dig deeper into that belief.
Can you imagine how nice it would be to do what you want to do because you want to do it instead of doing what Sally Sue wants to do because she’s been your friend for years and that’s just how it is? What about this, not working for free or cheap because they’re xyz to you? Mind blown right. Get comfortable with saying NO.
Every person's boundaries are going to be different, this is something you’ll need to work out with yourself along your self discovery journey.
Goals Look Different
My goals used to look a lot like
$10k months by Dec 2023
3 Revenue streams making $x each
X number of followers by August 2023
If this looks at all familiar, here is another opportunity to have a little chat with your journal. The goals above are very standard “what your goals should be” according to the modern metrics of success. We are no longer going off these modern metrics because they’re rubbish and slowly killing us. Coming up with your own goals that are true to you takes a little more thought and for me it’s taken a good deal of time and tweaking.
If you don’t yet know yourself on a deep level (see step 1) you can’t possibly know what you actually want. We all have been trained to want similar things. Why? Because America's marketing strategy is incredible at selling the “American dream.”
My goals look a lot more like
Live in God’s design for my life and work
Be able to be home with my kids while making an income
Be on my own schedule and in control of my time
Pour intention and purpose into all of my work
Never stress about money
Never use scarcity as a marketing tool
Mindset
Shifting from the modern way of running your business and your life to a slow life will take a great deal of mindset work. Hustle culture thrives on a scarcity mindset while slow living is fueled by an abundance mindset. Take a scroll through the current ads running on Social Media and make note of which ones are “you’re missing out, you’re not in the in crowd if you don’t have this, your life is not complete without this” all scarcity tactics.
If you’re running on a scarcity mindset, slowing down will give you so much anxiety and worry. When you move into a place of faith and abundance, trusting that you will not only be okay but will flourish it’s much easier to slow down.
Every business has a gas pedal and brakes, slow business is acknowledging the two and using each with intention. If you read this and are still struggling to know how to apply slow life to your life please reach out! I am here as a resource and I firmly believe each and every person can live a successful slow life.
It’s a process, not an overnight thing, spend some time in thought then come back for more resources.
