5 Business Rules Women Entrepreneurs Need to Stop Following (especially moms)

There are a lot of rules when it comes to building a business.

Be available. Say yes to every opportunity. Keep growing. Keep scaling. Give your customers whatever they want. Work harder if you want more.

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us just accepted these as the rules of entrepreneurship. And after spending more than $100,000 on mentorship over the years, I can tell you that I’ve been handed plenty of them.

But I’m in a season of questioning a lot of what I’ve been told I have to do to build a successful business.

Because when you’re a woman building a real business — and especially when you’re also a mother — your time, energy and priorities matter. I don’t believe the goal should be to build something that looks incredibly successful from the outside while quietly eating away at the life you actually wanted to create.

So, here are five business rules I think we can officially throw in the trash.

 

 

At one point when I owned my gym, I attended a conference where we were told that new client inquiries should be answered within five minutes.

Five minutes.

Technology makes that slightly more realistic today, but the bigger question is: why have we decided that being a great business owner means being accessible to everyone at all times?

I don’t believe it does.

Your clients need to know what to expect from you. They need clear communication, boundaries and reasonable response times. But none of that requires you to be constantly checking your phone, email or Slack.

Most of my clients don’t even have my cell phone number. We communicate through channels that allow me to decide when I’m available, because my business exists to serve my life — not the other way around.

Good customer service does not require unlimited access to you.

 

 

Nope.

Your customers are absolutely worth listening to. Their feedback can be incredibly valuable, and paying attention to what people need is part of building a strong business.

But that doesn't mean every request should change the way you operate.

When I owned my gym, there were always requests for more. Open Sundays. Add another evening class. Add another early morning class. People naturally make requests based on what would work best for them, but they don't necessarily have the context you have as the person running the business.

The same thing happens in my business today. Someone might prefer that I structure a coaching offer differently or create a service specifically around what they want. I can listen to that feedback without automatically changing my business to accommodate it.

At the end of the day, this is your vision. You get to decide what you offer, how you deliver it and what makes sense for the business you're trying to build.

 

 

I’ve said yes to a lot of things in business that I wish I hadn't.

There may be a season when saying yes more often helps you learn, make connections and discover opportunities. But as your business grows — and particularly when your time is already divided between business and motherhood — you have to become choosier with your yes.

I don't want a business that requires me to get on a plane every other week. I don't want to constantly travel across the continent for meetings, events and opportunities. There are women who genuinely love building their businesses that way, and that's great.

It's just not what I want.

I want something simpler. I want to stay closer to home. So I've made decisions that allow me to build that kind of business.

Growth doesn't require you to accept every opportunity that appears. Sometimes the smartest business strategy is knowing which opportunities aren't worth the time and energy they'll cost you.

 

 

This is a big one.

We're constantly surrounded by messages about reaching the next revenue milestone. Six figures becomes seven. Seven becomes eight. More revenue, more clients, more team members, more offers, more growth.

But what if you don't actually want more?

Years ago, I did an exercise at a mastermind where we calculated what our dream lives would actually cost. We looked at everything — homes, cars, restaurants, travel and all of the things we imagined wanting.

The interesting part was that for many of us, the number was much lower than we assumed.

It forced us to ask a much more useful question than, How big can I make this business?

Maybe you want a five-figure business. Maybe you want six, seven or eight figures. There isn't a correct answer.

Scaling comes with a cost, and you get to decide which costs you're willing to pay. You don't have to keep growing simply because growth is available to you.

Build toward what you actually want — not toward a number somebody else told you should impress you.

 

 

I have absolutely been in seasons where I gave my best energy to my work and brought whatever was left home to my family.

I don't recommend it.

I love my work. I'm incredibly ambitious about what I'm building. But I don't want my business to consistently get the best version of me while the people I love — and I, myself — get the scraps.

There has to be energy left for a life outside of the business.

For your kids. Your partner. Your friendships. Yourself. Whatever matters to you.

That doesn't mean you aren't serious about your business. It means you're serious about building success in a way that doesn't require sacrificing everything else to get there.

 

 

There is no shortage of people willing to tell women entrepreneurs how we're supposed to build businesses.

Be available. Say yes. Work more. Scale faster. Take every opportunity. Push harder.

But you don't have to blindly follow rules simply because someone successful told you that's how it's done.

Especially as a mother building a business, the goal isn't to create something that looks impressive from the outside while it's slowly taking over your entire life.

You are allowed to question the rules.

You are allowed to decide that a strategy that works beautifully for someone else doesn't work for you.

And you are allowed to build a profitable, sustainable business around the life you actually want to live.

So maybe the better question isn't, “What am I supposed to do next?”

Maybe it's:

That answer might tell you a whole lot more about the business — and the life — you're actually trying to create.