This was great! My capacity last week was completely drained from moving and unpacking (why do I have so much stuff?!). So I allowed myself to just let it be. I'm working on knowing my limits, so this was right on time. And "to turtle" is such a great phrase! I'm going to work on adding more play and joy into my life and honoring my boundaries.
Yesss I'm definitely here for more play and boundaries. Congrats on the move! I know it can be stressful but I'm hoping that you are settling in and enjoying your new chapter!
Awesome article and excellent coping strategies. I mentally visualize what needs to be done, and chip away with it bit by bit. This way, i’m not overwhelmed, the job gets done, and i feel much lighter. Knowing my limitations helps. I do not place on reasonable expectations on what I can and cannot do. Right now this is working for me. Keep the great ideas coming Jess.🥰🥰
I love the chipping away bit by bit, that's definitely needed sometimes. I'm so glad that works for you and managing expectations is so huge. Thank you for sharing!! 💖
Oh, this one hit hard. My side-hustle (well … one of them) is supplying Australian native herbs and spices.
In recent years, I’ve discovered that I’m not very fond of making up all the little packets to sell. I love being at markets and doing the actual education and selling, but the prep takes hours, days, even weeks for big markets, because it’s literally just me and I do everything. Grinding, blending, printing labels, filling packets - all of it. My scale is too small to outsource.
Pushing through that makes me cranky and exhausted.
But even the markets are becoming beyond my capacity. It use to be that I’d just need a sleep and I’d recover from markets. Then it was as many hours as I’d spent at the markets.
Now, a 4-hour market wipes me for two days.
And I’ve got a new day job, because the native flavours weren’t paying their way. I can’t afford to be non-functional for days.
So I’ve stopped the markets and only sell online and to a few local shops.
But I know, and have for some time, that my beloved little business has to wind down entirely, because I don’t rejoice when I get a sale. I groan. I don’t want to do it any more.
But I have my whole workshop, scented with my flavours. I love that workshop. What do I do with all that sunk investment? With my hard-won knowledge and experience? With my regulars?
How do you persuade one’s self to bring it to an end?
oooo that's so tough Fiona. I think everything in you is saying that it's time to let it go, and I totally get that you've spent so much time and energy on it. I would have said is there someone that can help you do the parts you don't like to do, but I understand you might not be at that place scale-wise to outsource.
In terms of this part: "What do I do with all that sunk investment? With my hard-won knowledge and experience? With my regulars?"
Is there a way that you can take the knowledge and create a mini training/ebook on it and sell that? Is there a way for folks to do it themselves?
If you're not quite ready to close things down at this moment, is there a good number of packets you'd like to do each month? And that can serve your regulars? So like, for example, I'm only selling 10 per month and when they're gone, they're gone.
As you have a new day job, it also could be that you really need all of that extra energy to ramp up in your new role, so maybe this business can be put on pause for 2-3 months and you can let your regulars know and during that time, you can see how you feel without it and if you miss it.
I do think you are getting signs that it is either time to scale back and do it for fun orrr stop doing it entirely. And you can still make money doing it for fun but I think that's where those limits will come into play.
Hope that helps, and if you need more help thinking it through, my pocket pep talks are great for this.
This was great! My capacity last week was completely drained from moving and unpacking (why do I have so much stuff?!). So I allowed myself to just let it be. I'm working on knowing my limits, so this was right on time. And "to turtle" is such a great phrase! I'm going to work on adding more play and joy into my life and honoring my boundaries.
Yesss I'm definitely here for more play and boundaries. Congrats on the move! I know it can be stressful but I'm hoping that you are settling in and enjoying your new chapter!
https://substack.com/@egretlane/note/p-168254677?r=5ezmlv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
thanks for sharing!
Awesome article and excellent coping strategies. I mentally visualize what needs to be done, and chip away with it bit by bit. This way, i’m not overwhelmed, the job gets done, and i feel much lighter. Knowing my limitations helps. I do not place on reasonable expectations on what I can and cannot do. Right now this is working for me. Keep the great ideas coming Jess.🥰🥰
I love the chipping away bit by bit, that's definitely needed sometimes. I'm so glad that works for you and managing expectations is so huge. Thank you for sharing!! 💖
Oh, this one hit hard. My side-hustle (well … one of them) is supplying Australian native herbs and spices.
In recent years, I’ve discovered that I’m not very fond of making up all the little packets to sell. I love being at markets and doing the actual education and selling, but the prep takes hours, days, even weeks for big markets, because it’s literally just me and I do everything. Grinding, blending, printing labels, filling packets - all of it. My scale is too small to outsource.
Pushing through that makes me cranky and exhausted.
But even the markets are becoming beyond my capacity. It use to be that I’d just need a sleep and I’d recover from markets. Then it was as many hours as I’d spent at the markets.
Now, a 4-hour market wipes me for two days.
And I’ve got a new day job, because the native flavours weren’t paying their way. I can’t afford to be non-functional for days.
So I’ve stopped the markets and only sell online and to a few local shops.
But I know, and have for some time, that my beloved little business has to wind down entirely, because I don’t rejoice when I get a sale. I groan. I don’t want to do it any more.
But I have my whole workshop, scented with my flavours. I love that workshop. What do I do with all that sunk investment? With my hard-won knowledge and experience? With my regulars?
How do you persuade one’s self to bring it to an end?
oooo that's so tough Fiona. I think everything in you is saying that it's time to let it go, and I totally get that you've spent so much time and energy on it. I would have said is there someone that can help you do the parts you don't like to do, but I understand you might not be at that place scale-wise to outsource.
In terms of this part: "What do I do with all that sunk investment? With my hard-won knowledge and experience? With my regulars?"
Is there a way that you can take the knowledge and create a mini training/ebook on it and sell that? Is there a way for folks to do it themselves?
If you're not quite ready to close things down at this moment, is there a good number of packets you'd like to do each month? And that can serve your regulars? So like, for example, I'm only selling 10 per month and when they're gone, they're gone.
As you have a new day job, it also could be that you really need all of that extra energy to ramp up in your new role, so maybe this business can be put on pause for 2-3 months and you can let your regulars know and during that time, you can see how you feel without it and if you miss it.
I do think you are getting signs that it is either time to scale back and do it for fun orrr stop doing it entirely. And you can still make money doing it for fun but I think that's where those limits will come into play.
Hope that helps, and if you need more help thinking it through, my pocket pep talks are great for this.