Do you ever feel like just jacking it in?

[JoshandJamie]

I'm having a bit of a wobble at the moment. I started my little business as something to keep my mind occupied, my hand in and to earn a bit of cash. It grew fast and it became all consuming. The challenge I have is that as a PR person, I sell my time. And I only have a finite amount of time to sell. So to grow, I need to outsource work to freelancers as I'm not in a position to hire staff.

But I'm finding this even harder. I find I end up still having to follow up loads of lose ends and try to manage the process. I've got too many clients who aren't paying enough. I should instead have a few clients who pay more. But none of them have big budgets.

I've read the book eMyths and I know that I need to work ON my business instead of IN my business, but I just can't see how I can get out of this spiral. I could make a loss, hire something and pay them and spend my efforts trying to grow properly. But that would change the whole dynamic of me just working at home. It would add a huge layer of responsibility and complexity. And I think would give me far less freedom than I currently have.

Part of me wants to start turning away any business, just keep a few of my existing clients and scale the whole thing back, but it feels so counter-intuitive.

Part of the problem is also that I don't really 100% love what I do. I mean it's PR. I'm not the quintissential PR luvvy darling. I don't like trying to sell a story to a journalist if I genuinely don't think they're going to be interested. And if I decide to go big, I need to be more passionate about it so that I can inspire my staff - surely??

Sorry. long ramble but I just feel like a hamster on a wheel right now and want to jump off.

If it can go big and you employ staff then you can step back, if you don't love it, then don't throw away all the hard work you've put in up until now, just get somebody else to continue to earn you a living and ket them be passionate about it.

I am in exactly the same boat with a marketing business and it is a real dilema. Like you I am not prepared to give up working from home but the trade off is I work my socks off. The next step up is frankly terrifying and unless you are in this situation, people don't grasp how tough it really is. The step up could solve things but will also as you say add a big layer of pressure... where are you based?

In Berkshire goingslowly. It's a massive step to take and I just don't know if I want to. Where are you based? Would be good to have someone to share work problems with.

Am in Surrey, likewise on being able to talk to someone about it. I am on the cusp of this step but finding myself dreaming of going into employment - seems so much easier!

Have you spoken to Businesslink? Because I am thinking about it. I completed their online business assessment form - which itself made me question a lot of what I'm doing. And they're supposed to be getting in touch with me about it. A friend had a session with them and it turned out to be an hour long cathartic session for her to just talk and clarify her thinking. Maybe that's what we both need. I have put it off till now thinking that I'm going to have to put in a bunch of work before seeing them and go there with flashy biz plans etc, but I think maybe I should just call them and try it.

I did try have an hour with them and in the end they agreed that due to the nature of the business I was doing fine and they couldn't really help. They did follow me up and invited me to pitch for a piece of business through them but it turned out to be another small business with little budget and so the circle goes round.

Goingslowly, I'm happy to chat if you want to. Perhaps we can pick each other's brains and try to come up with some solutions. I've tried to CAT you but I don't think you're set up for it. I think you should be able to send me a CAT message - so if you want to do that, send me your email. I just don't want to post mine on a public forum.

This may be too simplistic

But can you find other people who do this - and get together? Possibly moving towards some sort of co-operative?

Could you find a sahm or a student who wants a bit extra?

That way to can increase work without incurring costs

Snap, I do run my business in this way, lots of people work with me but its the next step up which is the challenge as managing all that has become too much so it needs to come in house. J&J, will sort out CAT later and email you.