You're allowed to renegotiate the relationship you have with your business. In fact, sometimes that's exactly what needs to happen before you make any bigger decisions.
I seem to have developed a habit of getting out of the shower and immediately deciding I need to have a conversation about business breakups. 😂
Last time, I was making dinner. This time, I was cutting my own hair.
And somewhere between deciding whether to give myself a wolf cut or a butterfly cut, we got into a conversation about something I think more business owners need to hear.
You don't have to keep running your business the way you've always run it.
Even if that way has worked. Even if you've made money. Even if your clients love it. Even if you've spent years building everything around that particular business model.
You're allowed to change the terms.
Before you break up, have the conversation
In the previous episode of The Business Break-Up Podcast, We Need to Talk, I shared why I think we need to be having regular conversations with our businesses.
Not just the usual quarterly planning, reviewing revenue or checking whether our marketing is working.
I'm talking about checking in with how we actually FEEL about the business we're building.
Do we still want the same things? Are we enjoying the relationship? Is the business supporting the life we want to live, or are we constantly rearranging our lives to accommodate the business?
Because sometimes everything looks perfectly fine from the outside, while behind the scenes you're feeling increasingly disconnected from the thing you've built.
And that doesn't automatically mean the relationship is over.
Sometimes it means you need to renegotiate.
What does renegotiating your business actually look like?
Think about a relationship you've been in for a while.
The things that worked when you first got together aren't necessarily the things that will work five or ten years later. Your needs change. Your circumstances change. You change.
The same thing happens in business.
Maybe you started out loving one-to-one client work. You wanted to spend every available hour with your clients because you were excited about what you were building.
But now? Maybe you'd quite like to have a Tuesday afternoon to yourself without feeling guilty about it.
Maybe you're still passionate about the work, but you're absolutely over delivering it on Zoom.
Maybe you want to keep an offer, but change how it's delivered. Bring someone in to help with customer service. Reduce the number of days you work. Or stop doing something you've been tolerating for months.
You can still love what you do without loving every single thing about how you're doing it.
And you get to change those things.
You don't have to end the whole relationship because one part of it isn't working.
Try changing the terms for 30 days
One of the things I talked about in this episode was giving yourself permission to experiment.
Instead of making a massive, irreversible decision because you're frustrated, choose one thing you want to renegotiate.
Maybe that's removing an obligation from your calendar. Maybe it's changing the delivery of an offer. Maybe it's giving yourself an actual day off.
Then try it for 30 days.
Notice what changes.
Do you feel lighter? Are you enjoying your work again? Do you miss the thing you removed? Has your energy shifted? Is the business still working financially?
You might discover that the thing you thought you hated is actually something you want to bring back.
Or you might realise that removing it was the best fucking decision you've made in ages. 😂
Either way, you've learned something.
And if 30 days isn't enough, give yourself 90.
You don't have to marry every business decision you make.
You're allowed to experiment, evaluate and change your mind.
Of course, some changes have financial or contractual consequences, so plan those experiments around what you can realistically sustain.
Sometimes renegotiation is just the beginning
Here's where it gets interesting.
You might renegotiate how your business operates today, knowing that a bigger reinvention is coming.
Maybe you're changing your working hours because you need more capacity to explore a different direction.
Maybe you're stepping back from an offer because you've realised it's no longer something you want to be known for.
Maybe you're taking a sabbatical to work out what the next version of your business actually looks like.
And maybe those first 30 or 90 days of experimenting reveal that what you really want isn't just a different schedule.
It's a different relationship with your business altogether.
That's okay too.
Renegotiation and reinvention aren't mutually exclusive. One can lead into the other.
And sometimes you need a little space between the business you've been running and the one you're becoming interested in building.
What if you need more than a 30-day plan?
If you're feeling disconnected from your business but aren't sure whether you actually want to leave it, start with The Business Break-Up Plan.
It's a $27 workshop experience with three pathways: renegotiation, reinvention and conscious uncoupling. You'll also get a practical worksheet and 30-day planning process to help you work out your next steps.
EXPLORE THE BUSINESS BREAK-UP PLAN
But if you already know you're navigating a much bigger transformation, that's where The Business Breakover comes in.
It's my 12-month business reinvention container for established business owners whose businesses no longer fit who they've become.
We work through what still belongs, what needs to change, what you're ready to let go of and what you actually want to create next.
That includes the practical business decisions, but also the identity, mindset and subconscious patterns that can make changing direction so bloody difficult.
You don't need to have your next business figured out before you join. That's part of the work we do together.
EXPLORE THE BUSINESS BREAKOVER
So, are you ready to change the terms?
If you took your business out for a coffee tomorrow, what would you want to renegotiate?
Would it be the hours? The offers? Your clients? Your responsibilities? The expectations you've placed on yourself?
Or would the conversation reveal something bigger?
You don't have to make that decision today.
But you do get to have the conversation.
And you get to decide what happens next. 💋