In various blogs and groups, I’ve seen people mention falling out of love with their business. Most are trying to fall back in love with their business. I confess I don’t know how to do that. What if you didn’t fall out of love with your business because of burn out and lack of self-care? Do you choose to love a business that no longer fills you with joy? What if taking time off doesn’t help you like your business again much less love it? Is it time to divorce your business?
I found myself in this very situation. I tried to tell myself I was tired and burned out. I was, but that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was that I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do. I wasn’t meant to be a human calculator doing bookkeeping for the benefit of the IRS, bankers, a board of directors, investors, or sales commissions. Am I saying that no one I’ve done accounting work for over the last eight years appreciated the value I tried to provide? No. The problem is not enough appreciated or valued my work. I care deeply about work I do and I can’t turn it off. I can’t just pretend I didn’t see five things a business can do to save money and provide better services. Eventually, I fell into the downward spiral of feeling absolutely unappreciated.
Are you doing the work you are meant to do?
I have expertise that wasn’t being utilized because I was working with the wrong people and offering the wrong services. Selling people on advisory services to make their business better who only want number crunching doesn’t work and I tried to make it work. I tried too hard for too long to make that work and I failed. I was bored with the work I was doing and frustrated that I was bored. That’s a bad place to be. For me, it’s toxic. The meltdown that followed meant that I let people down. Unfortunately, it’s taken me months to understand the reasons why I had to divorce my bookkeeping business.
Before you tell yourself you just need a break and you’ll quickly fall back in love with your business, I would encourage you to take a step back and really take a look at your business. What’s the real problem? In your heart, you know the answer. Listen to it. Perhaps you’ve been working too long without a break and a vacation is in order. Maybe it’s time to outsource to free up your time to reduce the number of hours you work.
On the other hand, is the problem that you are working with clients who don’t fit your ideal client profile? Are you (and your clients) happy with the work you are doing? Are you as excited about your business today as when you started it? Please don’t ignore your feelings until you or your business self-destructs. Whether you understand them or not, those feelings of dissatisfaction are trying to tell you something. Need a sounding board? I’d love to help.