To want to walk away from my 'golden handcuffs' business - but how?

[LifeExperimentation]

10 years ago, I set up my online business. It was originally a big passion and exciting - I loved it.

The business allows me the freedom to do all the school drop-offs and school hols are not a problem. With the flexibility of work, I can support my DC with playdates and taking them to after-school clubs etc.

I also earn a good living from it. (My earnings have now surpassed my husband's).

BUT, I'm so tired of it and feel burned out. There are constant problems - nothing insurmountable but they are constant and it grinds me down. There are days when I have bad anxiety (chest pains) and I feel I NEVER get a mental break.

I think that maybe I want out in 5 years time but I have no idea how to do it. Or what I would do after then.

Has anyone been in a 'golden handcuffs' situation that you wanted to change? How did you change it?

Would hiring staff help?

Can you employ someone and delegate the crap bits?

What are your skills? What do you earn? What would you be prepared to earn for less stress? These are the kind of questions youd want to ask yourself.

Yes it's a pain having to manage holidays and family outings around your business.

Incorporate it

Bring a partner in, and take a back seat with a reduced income. It won't be easy if you don't employ anyone at present. You have to teach the other person everything you know, and maybe they can just up and leave and start on their own.

Or try and find someone who wants to buy it, with you staying on for a while - but you will find it probably isn't worth as much as you think it ought to be - Dragon's Den type situation.

Good luck

Find a partner, there's many people out there who either need a flexible job or (as I my case) a second job because life has taken an unexpected turn but could invest eg from divorce settlement. Go 60/40 maybe?

Thank you for the replies.

I have a team. It does help but they also need managing, too. As they’re mainly remote, I’m mainly to be found on my laptop all day.

I probably earn £50-£60k?

My skills are in marketing.

@Gth1234

It’s a limited company. I started off with a partner but it didn’t work out (as had different expectations).

Yes, I had wondered about how to prime it for selling off in 5 years. I’m currently working with a third party consultant so might pick his brains about that.

Megan that is rude, get your own thread!

Yup - you most likely have to hire someone or get a partner. Which probably means reducing your income. Ideally, you'd find someone who could take on some of your work while ALSO bringing in some new work. But you'd have to pay them a proper salary, possibly with some kind of financial incentive or the promise of a partnership down the line.

Other options are to look into options to merge or sell your business with another one that's similar. Do you have contacts in your industry you could approach? So perhaps another person with a similar situation where you agree to merge and then you both get to agree certain amounts of time off or certain responsibilities etc. Or you find a bigger marketing agency and you sell to them. But then you would have genuine golden handcuffs as you'd probably need to agree to stay on for a certain amount of time, more or less full time, to merge your business with theirs and ensure your clients don't leave.

A final option is to hire someone as a sort of office manager/ work flow manager/ client relationship manager. someone who can manage the people and the workflow. This is a great type of person if you can find them and probably cheaper than hiring someone to more or less replace you. But... you'd have to train them on your processes, clients and people. And you'd also have remain heavily involved in the main business.

Also, on a more practical, immediate level, in my experience running a small business, I CAN take time off but it has to be prepared for with the kind of military precision we expect from some of these big royal events! . Pick a date in advance. Start warning clients and teams that you will be away and out of reach during that time. Pre-manage projects so that they're not on deadline during that time frame. Allocate work and specific responsibilities to your employees for that time away.

And to be honest even then, you probably can't risk taking more than a week on that basis.

@BlingLoving It’s an ecommerce business (but my background is in marketing). But, some of your suggestions still apply, of course.

@PetitionForCheaperUniforms start you own thread, you’re in CF territory!

@lifeexperimentation Aaah, okay, sorry, misunderstood.

Do you work with retail or small businesses (Shopify or something?) because in that case, for holidays, horrible though it is to give up the income, I'd suggest you take the hit and just shut down for a week twice a year. You sound well established enough that I doubt it would impact you and you can put out of office responses on for new queries saying you'll get back to them if they're willing to wait.

Also, you could consider changing your work hours? It might slightly impact your business but not completely. So become officially open from 9:;30 - 14:30 only or something like that?

@SunnyGirl12 and @SleepyGuineaPig - ha, yes!

@BlingLoving Yes, direct to consumers online.

I guess the problem isn't not being able to take holidays. I can definitely do that, although I live in a constant state of anxiety of how the business is performing and what problems are going on.

For example, last half term, there was a big Google update. A drop in traffic can have a big impact, so it was really anxiety inducing.

Bloody hell, I'd love to buy your business. I'm in a bit of a rut myself

If you’re suffering from anxiety now why are you considering selling in 5 years?!

There’s tonnes of options:
Exit now (I sold a business very successfully after only 9 months of trading so you def don’t need to wait!)
Partner with someone
Take on a F/T manager

@LuluBellaBlue that’s a good point…

I have been working with a high level (£££) consultant to ease the burden, and I was hoping that would help. It probably has but new challenges come my way all the time.

I think part of the anxiety is personality tbh.

Please tell me how you sold your business!

Maybe you should discuss the matter with your husband.
Maybe you can try and walk away earlier if the other party agrees.

I’m intrigued by how you “sell your business” too.

@Cheeseandwin5 I think DH would support me whatever I felt was best ultimately. He isn't involved in the business.