Small shifts that make day-to-day business feel more manageable

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash‍ ‍

Easy is not a word that’s typically associated with running a business! Even when things are going well.

There’s always something to think about, something to deal with, something else you should probably be doing. And if we’re honest, we do sometimes make things slightly harder for ourselves than they really need to be (ummm yep… totally guilty of this too!)

Not because we’re doing it wrong. Usually it’s because we’re busy, we care, and we’re trying to make good decisions as we go.

What I’ve found is there are a few things that, when you sort them out, make business feel less messy and stressful.

The first one is this….

Decide things once and stop carrying them around

One of the biggest drains in business isn’t the actual work itself. It’s the half-made decisions that we never finalise. Sometimes because it feels too hard, other times because we feel too busy to that decision-making time.

Things like:

• Who am I actually doing this for?

• What do I need to focus on right now?

• What actually matters this month?

When those questions stay undecided, they pop up in our brain again and again taking up valuable brain space and energy.

When we’re undecided on core business decisions, it has a knock on effect and impacts things like how easy it is to create content (if you’ve ever thought “what the heck am I going to post today?!” you know exactly what I mean!) Or what marketing tactics to use to reach the right people (how can you reach the right people if you’re not clear on exactly who they are.)

Making a decision on these things doesn’t mean it’s locked in forever. It just means you’re not dragging the same questions around with you every week. That alone makes everything feel lighter.

Be choosy about what advice you let in

There’s definitely no shortage of business advice out there.

Between social media, podcasts and AI, you can get answers to almost anything in seconds. Helpful, yes, sometimes. BUT it can also leave you feeling overwhelmed, more confused, and less sure of yourself than when you started.

Being selective about what advice you listen to isn’t about shutting yourself off. It’s about not letting every opinion, prompt or suggestion steer your direction. It’s very easy to be heading in one direction and then hear a couple of ideas and totally change direction based on what you’ve heard. And then tweak again when we hear something else that sparks our interest.

A big part of this is learning to trust ourselves and the decisions we make. Then sticking with it for long enough to actually see what kind of results we get and adjusting from there. Remember, if you’ve heard something that really resonates, you can always write it in a Google or Word doc and call it your parking place for ideas. Then revisit it down the track to see if, strategically, it’s something you want to try.

Less ‘information’ noise. More trust in the decisions you’ve already made.

Make things simpler than you think

It’s so easy to make business more complicated than it needs to be. I’ve seen this so often with the hundreds of women I’ve worked with over the years. And it especially shows up when they are worried about needing to get more customers and clients.

They think if they just add another offer or two, just create more content, just try lots of different marketing and lead generation activities that it will solve the problem.

Before long, there’s a LOT going on and everything feels messy, hard, and ineffective.

Whether you sell products or services, locally or nationally, things tend to feel easier when there’s less to hold in your head. When there’s fewer moving parts and fewer half-made decisions.

It’s not about playing small. It’s about making things clearer: For you, and for the people trying to understand what you do.

Have a rough plan for what’s coming up

When everything lives in your head, it all feels urgent.

• Every email feels like it needs a reply now.

• Every idea feels like it needs acting on now.

• Content feels like a last-minute scramble.

Having even a quarterly focus can make a big difference. Not even a rigid plan, just an overview of what’s coming up.

Key dates, busy periods, launches, sales, seasonal moments, events you want to host - get them mapped out in your diary or, even better, on a big yearly wall planner, so you see it all the time. Marking out school holidays, family holidays is also a good idea too, so you can make plans, for example, for content, ahead of this time.

When you can see these things ahead of time, you can work towards them instead of feeling like you’re in reaction mode. Content gets created earlier. Decisions feel calmer.

It definitely doesn’t make business effortless. It just makes it feel less frantic.

Don’t try to carry it all on your own

Running a business can feel surprisingly lonely, even when you’re busy or visible.

Chatting with people who get what small biz life is like makes a difference and is one of the reasons I set up South Hams Women in Business. Somewhere you can sense-check ideas, share what’s actually going on, or just admit when something feels harder than it should.

It can make things feel more normal and manageable, and that really matters.

The truth is…

No one’s cracked a secret way of making small business feel easy all the time.

But putting a few small changes - like these - in place and making them a habit can help to reduce mental load, friction, and that guilt we often put on ourselves for not feeling like we have things sorted.

It’s nothing flashy, but it might help day-to-day business feel more doable. And that’s a big win in my eyes!