ASLU 106: How Do You Know It's Time to Move On From Your Creative Business?

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This episode is brought to you by Fine Lime Designs Illustrations

We all have moments where we want to throw in the towel with our creative businesses but how do you know when it's really time to move on? And how do you navigate all the fears that come with that? And what do you do with your business when it's time? My original co-host Lisa Bolton is back this week and we talk all about knowing when it's time to let go, move on or pivot.

Lisa last appeared on the podcast during Episode 52: Visualizing Success and as many of you know, she was my original podcast co-founder and co-host for the first 19 episodes of the show. You can listen to all of those back in Season One of the podcast.

I always love getting to record with Lisa because those episodes are basically glimpses into what it’s really like when we meet up for a cup of tea and a chat in real life and the back and forth is effortless!

In the last few years both of us have hit the milestone of knowing it’s time to move on from an existing creative business that, in both our cases, were “successful”. How can you leave behind a successful business? Well, if you remember a few weeks back when Heather and I talked about running a 7 figure creative business, a big theme in the conversation was what is our personal definition of success? And in many instances, money - which is hugely important in the day to day scheme of things - is not the only measure of success.

In last week’s episode on creative burnout, I mentioned that one of the questions to ask yourself when trying to determine whether or not you’re burnt out is whether or not your business is in alignment with what you want to do, your personal values and your personal definition of success. Sometimes, admitting it’s not can be incredibly scary because once we admit we’re not in alignment, there’s nothing really left for us to do but make a change. And humans don’t like change! Change can freak us out!

And that’s what this episode is about… knowing it’s time to make a change but facing all the fears and uncertainties that come with that (and recognizing that with that fear comes the promise of making things better)

This Episode Is For…

This is a great episode for creatives who:

  • have a nagging feeling that they're no longer fulfilled by what their creative business does

  • suspects it's probably time to move on or pivot but are struggling with fear of change, fear of losing their identity, fear of losing an income or fear of "what's next?"

  • is ready to move on but has no idea what to do next (and has a lot of fears around that question mark)

  • is ready to move on but has no idea what to do with their current business

If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a link to this week’s episode. You can also listen via the player below or on your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, and more). Just search for And She Looked Up!

are you quitting? or taking back control?

in this episode we discuss:

  • our own decisions to move away from “successful” and what may have appeared to be “dream businesses”

  • fear: fear of moving on, fear of starting over, fear of being irrelevant, fear of where the next paycheque will come from, fear of not being good enough to do something else, fear that your successful business was a fluke, fear of success…a lot of fear!

  • some of the signs that things aren’t sitting right with you in your business

  • that there is no one sign that things aren’t working - it’s usually a culmination of signs and feelings that grow louder and louder until you can’t ignore them

  • stepping back from “hustle” to take time away and figure out what’s next and learning to say no - even when that choice is not popular

  • working harder does not always solve the problems

  • what happens when you have a business partner?

  • how quitting is not necessarily giving up

  • what happens when you need the paycheque? Like… right now?

  • what do you do after you move on? Reverse engineering new ideas

  • the importance of talking to other entrepreneurs and business owners - a mini board of directors

  • what do you do with your business when it’s no longer working for you? Do you leave, sell, shelve, put on hiatus or pivot?

Mentioned In This Episode:

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Podcast EpisodeMelissa HartfielS3, creative enterpreneurshp, creative mindset, business mindset, closing your businessComment