If you are in desperate need of permission to put yourself first, read on. It isn’t self-indulgent; it’s the most strategically sound decision you can make for your business.
There’s one thing your business cannot exist without at the moment – you. This sounds obvious, but a good majority of small business owners treat themselves as the last priority and the thing that only gets attention when everything else has been dealt with. (Which, of course, means never.)
Without you, there is no business
When you work for someone else, the organisation can survive without you because there are systems, other people, and contingency plans. When you run your own business (particularly in the early stages) you are the product, the decision-maker, the relationships, the vision. If you burn out, get ill, or simply stop caring, the business has to stop too.
This is the reality of what it means to be a founder, freelancer, or solopreneur, so the logic that follows is that looking after yourself is not separate from running your business well; it’s a crucial part of running your business well.
Remembering why you did it
Cast your mind back to when you first decided to work for yourself. What did that feel like? For most people, the decision was driven by a desire for freedom over their time, their work, their income, and their life. What they didn’t want to do was swap one demanding boss for another, worse one. They didn’t want to work longer hours for less certainty with no one to complain to!
If your current reality looks nothing like the one you signed up for, that is worth paying attention to. Write down (honestly) why you started. What did you hope your working life would feel like? How close is that to where you are now? The gap between where you are and where you want to be is the gap that needs a plan made for it.
Not being your own worst boss
Most people who leave employment do so partly because of a bad manager or a toxic workplace. The irony is that many then go on to become the worst boss they’ve ever had by setting unrealistic expectations, ignoring their own boundaries, never acknowledging progress, and always moving the goalposts.
Ask yourself: how would you feel if an employer treated you the way you treat yourself? No set hours, no proper breaks, very little holiday, work bleeding into evenings and weekends, no recognition when things go well, and relentless self-criticism when they do not.
You deserve the same conditions you would expect from a good employer: reasonable hours, rest, fair pay, and credit where it is due. These factors are what make sustained, quality, enjoyable work possible.
Paying yourself properly
This is one of the most overlooked aspects of running a small business, particularly in the early years. Many business owners reinvest everything and pay themselves last, treating their own income as the flexible line in the budget.
There are times when this is necessary but it should be a temporary measure, not a permanent way of operating. If you are not paying yourself a wage that reflects the value of what you do and the hours you put in, you are essentially subsidising your business at your own expense and that is not sustainable.
Set yourself a salary, even a modest one, and review it regularly. Track what you are actually earning per hour and if that number wouldn’t be acceptable from an employer, it’s worth asking why you are accepting it from yourself.
Taking holiday (properly)
Freelancers and small business owners are notoriously bad at taking time off. There is always something that needs doing, paying for, always a reason to delay it, always the nagging feeling that stepping away will cause something to fall apart.
But time away from the business makes you better at running it. Your best ideas rarely come when you are head-down in a packed working week. They come in the shower, on a walk, or on the third day of a holiday when your brain has finally had a chance to decompress.
Build your leave into your calendar before anything else and treat it as a non-negotiable commitment, the same way you would treat a client deadline. If the business cannot survive you taking two weeks off, that is important information and it points to something that needs to be addressed through better systems or support, not by you never leaving.
Health and wellbeing
The connection between physical health and mental performance is well established. Sleep, movement, food, and time outdoors are not indulgences; they are inputs that directly affect the quality of your work, your decision-making, and your ability to cope with pressure.
Start by going through this checklist … How many of the following apply to you right now?
- You get seven or more hours of sleep most nights.
- You wake up feeling reasonably rested.
- Your energy levels are broadly steady across the day.
- You take at least one proper break during working hours.
- You get some form of movement or exercise most days.
- You eat regularly and drink enough water.
- You have time in your week that is genuinely not work.
If fewer than half of these apply, you are running on a deficit, which might feel manageable now, but the thing about deficits is they compound and the time to address them is before you hit a wall, not after.
Balancing work and life
Work-life balance can easily be dismissed as an unachievable ideal, and it’s true that the lines are blurrier when you run your own business but try not to think of the goal as perfection but intention. It’s knowing that you have made deliberate choices about how you spend your time, rather than just reacting to whatever is loudest.
Practical ways to build intention into your week:
- Set a clear end to your working day and stick to it as often as possible.
- Use a shared calendar for personal and family commitments so they’re visible and protected.
- Have a physical or mental ritual that signals the end of work like a walk, closing the laptop lid, or changing clothes.
- Ban your phone from the bedroom.
- Protect at least one full day a week that is not spent working or thinking about work.
Try making small, consistent changes that will add up faster than you might expect, instead of a dramatic overhaul that might last two days before flipping back.
Preventing burnout
Burnout is a state of prolonged physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that doesn’t get resolved with a good night’s sleep. Once you are in it, recovery takes months, not days, so prevention is considerably easier than recovery.
However, the warning signs are worth knowing. Watch out for…
- A persistent sense of dread about work that did not used to be there.
- Difficulty concentrating on tasks you would normally find straightforward.
- A flattening of the enthusiasm and creativity that used to come naturally.
- A growing resentment towards clients or customers you once valued.
If any of those sound familiar, take them seriously. Practical steps to reduce the risk include:
- Auditing your workload and identifying what can be dropped, delegated, or deferred.
- Saying no more often, particularly to work that falls outside your core offer or does not pay well.
- Building recovery time into your week, not just your year.
- Talking to someone, whether that is a trusted peer, a mentor, or a professional.
The best version of you makes the best business
There is no version of a thriving business that does not begin with a reasonably healthy, motivated, and clear-headed person at its core. You do not need to be perfect, you do not need to have everything sorted, but you do need to be paying attention to how you are doing, making adjustments when things go wrong, and treating your own wellbeing as a business-critical concern. The businesses that last are not built by people who push through until they break; they are built by people who learn over time how to sustain their energy and stay connected to the work they love.
