Why you should stop treating your business like a baby.
“My business is my baby. I brought this idea to life, hustled all day and night…. and now it’s it here. I can’t let anything happen to it, I have to protect it.”
As a solo-biz entrepreneur this may have crossed your mind. You’re working yourself into the ground, little to no boundaries, but hell- wasn’t it all worth it to now have your business baby? Yes and no.
This used to be me.
Before I opened The Rising Wolf, I also successfully opened and ran two small businesses and even though the process was beautiful, I was wracked with guilt. I felt bad saying no, I felt bad taking a vacation, I felt bad not answering emails immediately. Even though I was so profoundly proud of the growth I was achieving, whenever I tried to do anything for myself or implement boundaries, I was bound by the shackles of guilt.
Business guilt vs mom guilt
It’s okay to feel this way temporarily, but you don’t deserve to feel this way long term. What I am going to say next might shake you to your core, but here’s the real truth: Your business is NOT your baby. Your business is a business. When you start to remove your maternal connections to it and the need to control every aspect, you will be able to set yourself free. Business guilt is very similar to mother’s guilt. You feel bad when you’re at work because you could be at home doing something with you babies, or someone you love.
It’s a tangled web of never winning.
Here’s step by step on how to change it:
- Identify why you feel so much control over your business.
- Put your feelings around your business in perspective to your feelings around someone you love, ( a best friend, child, partner) Do you love your business the same way you love them? What are the feelings that come up for you?
- When you are at the end of your life and you look back on what you have accomplished and the people you loved, what are you most sad to say goodbye to?
Whether you have a child or not, we all know- babies must grow up. We must instill strength in them, trust other people to care for them as much as we do, and let them spread their wings. By holding ourselves hostage by the idea that we are the only ones who can care for our business, is nuts. It’s simply not true.
