How to balance creativity and business
Finding time for the work you love to do.
How can you do more of the creative work you want to be doing in your business? The work that lights you up. The work that you started your business to do in the first place.
If you’re struggling with this, you’re not alone. I see it in my client work and, heck, I’ve experienced it in my own business.
Know that there’s a path though to the other side depending on how you got to the point you’re at. That said, also know that nothing happens overnight. There are no quick fixes.
But reaching the point where you’ve realized you’re unhappy with kind of work you’re doing in your business, and something needs to change, is the first step in making that change happen.
How did you get away from it?
I see two common moments in the life of a business when this shows up:
The first is when a solopreneur is getting started or is the first year or two of running their business.
The second is when the business is growing — adding clients and team members to service them.
Let’s break it down.
1. You’re getting started.
When you’re starting out, it’s just you — and you're doing everything. You're in Canva one minute, sending invoices the next, then posting on LinkedIn, and updating your website. Not to mention actually delivering services to your clients.
This is pretty much every female founder I know when they’re getting their business off the ground and often for the first couple of years they’re running it. You’re in a position where have to wear all the hats. Your sweet spot creative and big-thinking work becomes one more thing on the to-do list, assuming it makes it onto the list at all.
I’ve been there. And it’s a seriously unpleasant place to be. I’m on the other side, but it was a process and it likely took longer than it needed to for two reasons. First, I didn’t realize I was holding myself by not focusing more of my time on my business and how I define and deliver my services, until it became obvious that I was.
And, second, when I reached the place where I had defined and was ready to focus on my high-value activities, I had trouble “letting go of the reins” — old (read: perfectionist) habits die hard. I still have to check myself NOT to do the tasks that are quick and easy to check off my list (and oh, do I love checking things off a list :).
2. Your business is growing.
You’ve got more clients which is fantastic. Maybe you’ve hired a team, so you're not wearing all the hats anymore. But now you're managing people, systems, processes, client engagement scope creep, and Slack messages.
Your calendar is full, but it’s not full of your work — the work you started your business to do in the first place. You’ve become the HR and operations manager and may still be in the weeds of client delivery.
I’ve seen this happen more than once. One of my first consulting clients over a decade ago went through this exact scenario. She hired me to help her “take her business back down to the studs,” which we did. Nothing was off-limits and we changed her business top-to-bottom (offerings, pricing, positioning, messaging, imagery, website, business development strategy, all of it).
And it worked. She successfully pivoted her business, and in the process, grew her revenue and her team. Then a few years in, she woke up and realized she was no longer doing the work she loved doing most. She had become the de facto ops and HR manager, and she was deeply unhappy. Our work became helping her get out of that back into her zones of excellence and genius.
The fix — if you’re just getting started.
Or you’re in the first couple of years.
You’re doing it all yourself. You’re hustling, bootstrapping, and making it work. This is the game. But staying in this mode too long will leave you feeling resentful and stressed out.
Here are some suggestions for how to change things:
1. Ruthlessly prioritize.
Move your default state away from “everything is important.”
Pick the 1–2 offers that are most aligned with your zone of genius or at a minimum your zone of excellence and are most likely to generate revenue in the next 90 days. Say “no” to the rest (for now).
2. Time-block for your creativity (whatever this looks like for you).
Don’t wait until everything else is done. That time never comes.
Treat your creative work — writing, designing, brainstorming — like a client appointment. Put it on the calendar and protect it.
3. Start delegating earlier than you think.
You don’t need a full-time hire. Start with a VA or domain-specific talent to help you even five hours a week.
Get admin, tech, or operations tasks off your plate — even just a few — to free up your mental bandwidth.
4. Build simple systems.
Think templates, workflows, repeatable processes.
If you’re doing something more than twice, systematize it.
If you're stuck with how to create a system, brainstorm with ChatGPT to get you going.
The goal here is to free up your time to make enough money, with enough sanity, to move from being in hustle mode and step into the role of business owner — not just freelancer.
The fix — when your business is growing.
You’re making money. From the outside, it looks like you’ve made it. The reality looks more like this — you’re on Zoom all day, working on and approving client deliverables, managing people, and, putting in too many hours. Like the client I mentioned above, you’re asking yourself, “How did I get here?”
1. Redefine your role.
What’s the work only you can do? What are you best at?
Your new job is not to do everything well — it’s to double down on your highest value work.
Get clear on what you truly want your role to look like over the next 12 months — and write a damn job description for it (yes, really).
2. Shift your org chart.
Stop plugging holes with random hires — think strategically.
Who do you need on the team to get you out of the weeds and into your zone of genius? One awesome hire is better than three that are just okay.
Think: project manager, client lead, ops coordinator — roles that remove you from day-to-day tasks that you don’t need to be doing.
3. Install decision filters.
Not every idea gets to go on the whiteboard for your business.
Create simple criteria for what gets a “yes” — new clients, projects, platforms — and what’s not a priority for the next six months. Then, stop saying, “sure, we can do that,” if it’s not aligned with those priorities. In other words, learn to get better at saying, “no.” And reconfirming your priorities on a regular basis.
Create a PARKED document for ideas that you’re not ready to implement and don’t want to lose — this helps to remove the ideas from your mental load and know that you haven’t lost them.
4. Create space for deep work.
No one does their best creative thinking in 15-minute (or zero-minute!) windows between meetings.
Batch your calls, whether it’s client calls, networking, discovery calls (this is a favorite of mine). Protect one full day a week for heads-down work or visioning.
Build your week around your your most important work and set expectations with your clients and your team.
And yes, every client has heard me ask, “Are you calendar time blocking?”
The goal here is to design a business that lets you lead, create, and grow in a way that leaves you fulfilled at the end of the week, not drained wondering why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Less is more. What can you cut? Where can you add? How can you focus more?
And one more note.
I say this often, but its worth repeating in this context. You need to be building a business that supports the life you want to be living. Keep that in mind as you work through “the fix” no matter the stage you’re at.
Until next time.
Katherine
#ICYMI
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