Your Business Should Work For You (Not the Other Way Around)

This Week's Sponsor: The Rainmaker Family

Stop Trading Precious Family Time For Business Income

Build a leveraged Amazon business that runs while you're making memories that matter. Over 14,000 moms have discovered how to create income streams that work even when they're not.

No product ideas needed. No logistics headaches.

→ CLAIM YOUR FREE FAMILY FREEDOM DESIGN SESSION ←

Hey Beautiful Mama! 👋

Let me tell you a secret that successful entrepreneurs rarely admit: sometimes the life we create looks nothing like the life we actually want.

I was reminded of this truth while interviewing Samantha Guthrie for our podcast. She's known as the "ATM Cash Queen" - the woman who turned a $2,000 investment into a multi-million dollar ATM business that later had an eight-figure exit.

But what I found most meaningful wasn't her impressive financial success. It was when she shared her philosophy about entrepreneurship:

"When you start a company, it is your DUTY to yourself to make sure you're growing a company that provides you the life that you want. That's the number one reason to start a company."

She then shared how she and her husband worked NONSTOP for three years - including Sundays from 9 AM to 1 PM, with only Sunday afternoons off.

"We were overwhelmed, tired, and you know what happened? Our relationship with each other wasn't loving - it was functional. We forgot to have fun."

Her words made me pause and reflect. How many of us have built "successful" businesses that actually make us miserable?

The Warning Signs Your Business Might Be Running You

If you're nodding along, feeling seen in this conversation, you might be experiencing what I call "success whiplash" - when your business is growing but your life satisfaction is shrinking.

Here are some warning signs I've noticed in myself and many of the entrepreneurs in our community:

You can't remember the last time you had a full day off without checking your phone

Your kids or partner constantly hear "just a minute" or "let me finish this one thing"

You've started dreading Monday mornings (wasn't entrepreneurship supposed to eliminate that weekend-to-workday dread?)

Physical symptoms like disrupted sleep, digestive issues, or constant fatigue have become your new normal

Your business feels like a demanding toddler that never, ever naps

Sound familiar? Don't worry - you're not alone, and there IS a better way.

The PITA Factor: What's The “Pain In The A**” In Your Business?

One framework Samantha shared that I found particularly useful is what she calls "The PITA Factor" - identifying the things in your business that are a Pain In The A**.

These are the tasks that:

You consistently avoid

Make you feel drained when you do them

You're not particularly skilled at

Keep you stuck in a cycle of doing things you don't enjoy

For me, this was definitely bookkeeping in our early days. I would procrastinate, feel overwhelmed, then stay up until 2 AM trying to reconcile accounts before tax deadlines. Classic PITA situation!

The problem is that when we keep doing these PITA tasks ourselves, we create a business that traps us rather than serves us.

The 3-Person Marriage: You, Your Spouse, and Your Business

Another insight from Samantha that I found valuable was her description of entrepreneurial marriages. If you work with your spouse like Stephen and I do, this will resonate:

"There are three people in your marriage - you, your spouse, and the company. They all have their own needs, and you have to remember to meet them all."

This is especially true when boundaries between work and home life blur. When we first started our business, Stephen and I would talk shop at all hours - over dinner, while getting ready for bed, even first thing in the morning.

The problem? Our business was getting more attention than our relationship.

Samantha shared how they implemented simple but powerful boundaries:

No work talk after 7 PM (they eventually moved it to 5 PM)

No business discussions in the bedroom

Designated "work talk" chairs in their living room - if they needed to discuss business, they had to sit in those specific chairs

We've adopted some of these in our own life, and I've especially protected our bedtime routine. I've learned that trying to solve business problems right before sleep is a recipe for insomnia and cortisol spikes!

Systems That Scale Without Sacrificing Your Sanity

So, how do we actually build businesses that support our ideal lives instead of consuming them? Based on Samantha's wisdom and our own experience, here are the key ingredients:

1. Schedule Regular Business-Life Alignment Checks

Samantha recommends quarterly "self-meetings" where you ask:

Is this business still providing the life I wanted when I started it?

Do I enjoy what I'm doing day to day?

Is this the direction I wanted my business to go?

Don't just focus on revenue goals and widget counts. Check in with your actual satisfaction level.

2. Hire Help Sooner Than You Think You Need It

This was Samantha's biggest regret - not hiring help sooner. She fell into the classic trap: "I know how to do it, and it would take longer to explain it than to just do it myself."

Sound familiar?

The problem is, this approach creates a ceiling on your growth. As Samantha put it: "You can only go as high as what you know. You can't go higher than what you know because you don't know how to do it."

When you hire someone with more experience than you in some area, they bring that level of expertise and lift your entire business.

Start with just 5 hours a week of support if budget is tight. Even that small amount can free you from PITA tasks and give you room to grow.

3. Create Clear Work-Life Boundaries (Especially If You Work With Your Spouse)

Beyond Samantha's time and space boundaries, consider:

Using separate workspaces if possible

Having clear "start" and "end" signals to your workday

Creating transition rituals between work and family time

Using different communication channels for work vs. personal conversations

Stephen and I have started taking short walks between "work mode" and "family mode" to help our brains make the switch. It's a simple 10-minute reset that makes a huge difference!

4. Build Systems That Don't Depend On You

Samantha emphasized that to have a truly valuable business (whether you want to sell it someday or not), it must be able to function without you.

This means:

Documenting your processes

Creating standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Establishing clear KPIs so everyone knows what success looks like

Building a management team that can make decisions in your absence

Even if you're a solopreneur or just starting out, begin documenting your processes now. Future-you will thank present-you!

Your Life Is The Point (Not Just Your Business)

As I reflect on our conversation with Samantha, the message that keeps resonating with me is this: Your business should be a vehicle for your ideal life, not something that consumes it.

Yes, there will be seasons of intense work. Yes, building something meaningful requires sacrifice at times.

But if you find yourself in a perpetual "just this season" of overwork and overwhelm, it might be time to step back and recalibrate.

Because the truth is, no amount of business success is worth sacrificing your health, your relationships, or your joy.

As Samantha said: "If you build something that you don't like doing, you will not like doing it for the rest of your life."

So let's build businesses we love that support lives we love even more.

Your Action Steps This Week:

Identify Your PITA Tasks

Make a list of the 3 business activities you consistently avoid or dread. These are your prime candidates for delegation or automation.

Create One New Boundary

Choose one simple work/life boundary to implement this week. Maybe it's no phone during dinner, no work talk after 8 PM, or a dedicated work-free day.

Document One Process

Pick one thing you do regularly in your business and document exactly how you do it, step by step.

This is the beginning of creating systems that don't depend on you.

With love and gratitude,
Chelsey 💕

P.S. Ready to design a business that creates both time freedom AND financial abundance for your family? Book your FREE Family Freedom Design Session, where we'll help you map out systems that can transform your business without sacrificing what matters most. Click here to grab your spot!