How to have a life when you run a business by yourself

Back in 2011 I left corporate and started my first business, Beautifully Organised. I wanted more control over my time, to run my own schedule and to work on my terms. I wanted to be home for my young children more instead of having to work long hours, evenings and weekends. I wanted my work to fit around my life, and over the past 13 years I’ve worked with a lot of small business owners who want that too.

Now for me, work life balance was a windy road.

Beautifully Organised started as an in person service, where I would go to other mums’ homes and physically help them organise it so that their day would flow more smoothly around their young families. Here’s how to set up your kitchen so making dinner at witching hour is easier, here’s how to set up your bathroom so it’s quick and easy to clean right after bath time, that kind of thing.

The ironic part was within just a couple of months, I was working just as long hours as I was before, I was away from my kids for the same amount of time, and I was responsible for everything - not just organising for my customers, but the marketing, sales, customer service… everything. I burnt out in a few months.

My corporate job was inflexible, but at least it was a regular pay check and I could turn off when I wasn’t at work.

If I wanted more balance, if I wanted to work in a way that aligned with my dream lifestyle rather than dictated what it would be like, I needed to be more strategic about how my business worked. So at that point, I decided to make some changes.

It took a lot of trial and error, but these days Beautifully Organised is an online business, and I make money sharing my organising tips via courses instead of personally going to people’s homes and organising them myself anymore. I have a very simple business model, and that’s actually what freed me up to start The Simpler Business podcast in the first place! I like to work a couple of hours a day, and I limit my private clients in this business to a handful so I’m not overworked anymore.

I also made a few other changes to my approach to running my business and thought I’d share them in case you find them helpful! Here’s what I do each year to run my 2 businesses and still have a life I love with plenty of down time.