Is it EVER okay to NOT want to GROW you business?

Is it ever okay to say you don’t want to grow your business? It’s often an unasked question because of all of the SHAMING.

There is so much indirect and direct shaming of entrepreneurs who aren’t working nights and weekends. And I’m here to END that.

HUSTLE and being willing to work harder than someone with a regular “job” are required when you own and run your own business.

But sometimes I get so tired of the entrepreneurs I see who are celebrating the fact that they’re working all weekend.

Yes, that kind of dedication is necessary when you’re an entrepreneur. Yet I’m not sure we should be so quick to celebrate working too much and too hard and too many hours, and we definitely shouldn’t be shaming those who don’t.

I recall one time when a coach reached out to me – I’m connected to quite a few business coaches, covering all of the different niches.

This coach reached out right at the time that I had left my previous corporate job and starting this company, and I wasn’t ready to grow yet … and mentioned that in our conversation.

She had a bad response to that, along the lines of “omg I can’t believe you don’t wnat to grow, what’s wrong with you“. Not what she exactly said but that was definitely how it came across. Right after, she even made a social media post and live video talking negatively about people who say they don’t want to grow their business, and while she didn’t mention me by name I knew it was about our conversation.

What she didn’t take into consideration – even though she knew the part of my backstory because we discussed it in our conversations – one of the main reasons I had left my corporate job to become an entrepreneur was because of the negative impacts stress from overwork was having on all aspects of my life. I had been working 80 hour weeks for 3 years, which you can’t sustain … and one of my initial goals was to not even work 40 hours a week, because I needed time to heal, to work on my relationships, heck to clean my house and do my laundry!

I first needed to heal myself before I dove back into doing more work to expand my business.

Another piece we had discussed is how I had recently been a block away from a terrorist attack. Those types of life events change your perspective and outlook and often result in very different goals in life. I knew I needed time to process that fully and having a solid understanding of the direction I wanted my business – and life – to go.

Even despite this, there was a bit of shaming going on. That very shaming that makes us all so embarrassed to say “No, I’m at a stage where I don’t want to grow my business right now, all I want to do is maintain.”

It’s like that isn’t an acceptable response … but it is. We don’t know your circumstances.

Holding off on business growth can be a great CONSCIOUS decision. And it should be a conscious decision.

A decision like this can actually be coming from an abundance mindset and can be one of the greatest gifts, including financial gifts, that you give yourself and your family.

It can’t be simply an excuse you’re making out of fear or unconscious reasons. Sometimes we use these statements in fear, a fear to grow, a fear to succeed, a fear to fail. Am I using the excuse of having worked too many hours because I’m afraid, or is that the actual reason? Or am I using it as an excuse?

Those types of big, hard reflections can be difficult to make alone.

Success looks different for each person.

Success isn’t only about money, and it shouldn’t be. What I consider success may (and does) include NOT working 80 hour weeks.

You can’t fake such a decision … it has to be authentic to you and your carefully chosen life goals.

A lot of my marketing advice comes from working with entrepreneurs and small businesses, people at 5 and some at 6 figures, a few moving into a 7-figure business. I’ve also worked for multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies doing their marketing — and I know those strategies you used as a 5-figure entrepreneur are not the same strategies you need to to take you to a multi-million or multi-billion $ business.

The marketing you’ve done to get where you are, is not the marketing you need to do to take you to the next level.

I know some consultants and coaches out there giving advice have never worked at that level, and that’s why they can’t give you the real advice you need to get you to that level. That’s also sometimes why newer entrepreneurs are confused by my own advice; because it’s coming from a very different place of the type of information that you need to achieve real business growth.

Not growing right now can be a conscious decision based upon the choices you have made for your life. Everything in business, and in life, has an opportunity cost. That can be something as simple as if I work more hours this week, I have to spend less hours with my family, and maybe I’m not willing to do that.

Having done marketing for those companies who have grown to the multi-million and multi-billion stage, I know there are simple and effective marketing strategies that can – and must – be put in place to make your marketing more efficient. Things like our 3×3 Marketing Matrix^TM. Processes and systems to put in place for operational purposes. Things that will let you spend less time and less money on marketing while still achieving the same business growth results.

So for those entrepreneurs who would love their business to grow, yet have made a conscious decision not to add extra work to their plate, I applaud you. And when you’re ready to explore how the right, focused marketing strategies can help you take your business to the next level without taking more time, at Vicky Wu Marketing we have programs and services that can assist.

Request a marketing consultation to discuss either how to grow your business, or to discuss processes and systems that you could put in place to maintain at the current level while working fewer hours and spending less money.