Are you finding that your business growth is coming at the cost of your freedom, ease, or sense of fulfilment? In this episode, Anna Lundberg shares why “more” isn’t always better – especially if more clients and more revenue are leaving you stressed, overworked, or simply feeling boxed in by the business you’ve built. Tune in to discover practical strategies for recalibrating your business so it delivers not just profit, but also genuine freedom and satisfaction.

Key moments:

[00:00] Introduction: The paradox of growth—when more means less freedom

[01:14] The Business Accelerator: Designing growth that works for you

[02:00] Signs your growth strategy isn’t serving you

[03:54] Recalibrating your business: Is more always better?

[04:51] Practical shifts: Offers, boundaries, systems, and marketing

[08:55] It’s not about slowing down ambition—making growth sustainable

[09:51] Client example: From exhaustion to sustainable profit

[11:31] Takeaways: Mapping what works and intentional auditing

[12:51] Final thoughts and how to get support

Resources mentioned:

• FREE intentional business model audit
• The Business Accelerator Programme: OneStepOutside.com/accelerate.
• Connect with Anna Lundberg: Get in touch on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Sustainable business growth

So you’ve grown your business, but with every new client or project, you’re wondering, is this actually what I wanted? If more revenue has come at the cost of freedom, ease or clarity, then this episode is going to help you rethink what growth really means. Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your lifestyle. Hi, I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider turned business mentor, executive coach, and mum of two. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant, I’m here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom, flexibility, and the fulfilment you’re looking for, ready to redefine success and build a business that you love. Let’s get started. Okay, before we get started stuck into this idea of growth that actually works, I do want to mention that we’re in the final days of joining the Business Accelerator. So if you are ready to grow in a way that actually works for you, not just on paper, this is where we’re going to help you design or redesign your business for more revenue and more freedom. You can learn more and apply onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

So, look, if more money equals more stress, then I’m going to say that you’re scaling the wrong way. I don’t like saying right or wrong, but clearly we don’t want more stress. Yes, there’s an element of challenge and excitement and a bit of hustle, perhaps in certain phases, certain seasons, but it shouldn’t feel like, ugh, I don’t really want this. That’s a weird way of going about getting what you actually want, if that makes sense. So, look, if growth is feeling more stressful than successful, that’s where we need to perhaps recalibrate how we’re running our business.

If you’re making more money than you were a year or two ago, great. But somehow you’re feeling less in control, not more. Right. You might be booked out with clients, but you’re constantly rearranging your calendar to fit them in. And you’re. You’re doing calls and, oh, you’re not going for your run, or you’re working late than you wanted to, or you’re juggling that with the kids or whatever it is, perhaps you’re charging more, but you’re still over delivering. You’re still working long hours in order to justify it to yourself if nothing else. Maybe you’re kind of delegating some bits and pieces, but you’re really still needing to oversee everything, right? I had an assistant for a while where I was still having to review and approve and check everything.

Right. And that’s not really unlocking any more time and energy for you. And if you’re wondering if that next level is even worth it, you know, because you’re already tired, that’s really tough. I think we don’t talk enough about. Well, fear is a strong word, but the fear of success as much as the fear of failure and the self sabotaging behaviours we might put in. Put in place. I was going to say that sounds very intentional, but we might be showing up with certain behaviours and habits to get in our own way because we fear that, oh my goodness, if this all works out, I’ll be even more tired. I don’t want more money because it means more stress.

You know, this isn’t failure if you’re have. If this is resonating, you know, this is what happens. Unfortunately, when growth outpaces structure, the way you run your business hasn’t yet caught up with how your business has evolved. So especially you know, after sometimes it’s months, it could even be years. You’ve got to a certain place and it’s amazing that you know initial success and if you’ve been lucky and clever and you know all those things and you’ve had a really good run. But as the saying goes, what got you here won’t get you there. So if you want to keep growing, hang on a second, we need to do something a bit differently. Okay, so if growth is feeling more stressful than successful, that’s the moment of recalibrating.

Another question to think about is what if more clients or more money isn’t actually the goal? Shocker. What if more clients and more money isn’t actually the goal? Look, we’re often told that the next step is always more, right? More visibility, grow the following, more offers, more scale, bigger team, etc. But what if that’s not what you actually want? The real question has to be what do you want your business to give back to you? Because yes, it should pay you, but also does it give you space to think, time for yourself, kind of a clear sense of where you’re going. If you’re earning more, but you’re feeling stretched, you’re stuck in the weeds and like you can’t step away, then the business, business isn’t really supporting You. So then perhaps adding more clients and more money isn’t the goal. Maybe there’s an element of enoughness. We’re earning enough, we just want to strip it back, work less for the same amount, actually have fewer clients, but higher quality clients. So let’s dig into that then.

What does sustainable growth look like in practical terms? So not big ideas, not theory and rah rah, you know, formulas you can follow and so on, but really meaningful shifts in how you are running your business in a way that works for you. Your personality, your values, your current and desired lifestyle. So what could that look like? Well, it could mean narrowing your offers so you’re not juggling five different types of delivery. Right. If you are, and you know I’m all for the multi passionate renaissance man and woman, but if you are, let’s say coaching and delivering workshops, speaking in person and online, B2C and B2B. And you offer a three month package and a six month in line by. You can already hear that that’s going to be, dare I say it, too much. Right.

And that’s okay. There’s a point at which, you know, we just realise, hang on a second, there was a reason why I developed each of these, but they’re not all delivering as much as they should be. They’re not all as enjoyable to me. Some are draining me, some are energising me. And that’s a moment of going, let’s look at, I mean there’s the pareto principle of 8020 that you may have heard of often. 20% of your offers, 20% of your clients are bringing in 80% of your income. Likewise that can apply in all sorts of places. You know, 20% of your marketing is bringing 80% of your clients and so on.

So narrowing your offers is really powerful at this stage. Boundaries, boundaries is another one. Setting firmer boundaries for capacity so that you know when to say yes and when to go. Actually, you know, there’s a wait list, I’ll come back to you or yes, I can start, but not until September, whatever that looks like. Yes, but I don’t work on Fridays, you know, putting those boundaries in place. And I’m very lucky that I work with clients, whether they’re organisations or in particular individuals and founders and solopreneurs that really respect my boundaries because they aspire to those boundaries as well. They share my values and you know, agree with my point of view that this is really important. So setting firmer boundaries is going to really help you.

Fixing leaky systems, that’s another One. So we again, we always chase or often chase more, more leads, more vis, see more followers. But actually if the people are coming to you at the moment, aren’t exactly converting, or if clients you’re working with aren’t staying with you or coming back to you or evolving with you, then there’s some, I wouldn’t say easy fixes, but certainly some important fixes along the way to make sure that you’re. And this sounds awful, but squeezing out the most juice you can from the existing clients and offers rather than adding more, more, more. So a proper onboarding process for new clients to reassure them that yes, this is the right thing. I’ve made a really good investment here, 100% right decision working with Anna, you know, boom, boom, boom, scheduling things. So if people are constantly rescheduling or there’s clashes or you’re just over delivering with too many calls, that’s something to fix. Obviously client communication being super clear.

Again, boundaries comes into that of like, hey, we’re going to have, you know, this includes a pre alignment call, it includes a follow up call, blah blah, blah. But you know, above that we’d need to look at additional fees or blah blah, blah, being super clear on who the stakeholders are, who needs to be involved and so on. So fixing leaky systems is really important and simplifying your marketing. And we’ve talked about this the last few months, certainly last month in May, we were talking about not chasing visibility just to stay top of mind, right? There’s no point in getting more followers, more views, more impressions, whatever measure it is that you’re chasing, if that’s burning you out, if it means that each post is a bit bleh and isn’t actually working very hard for you at all. So you know, we’re not talking about shooting yourself in the foot and cutting off. What are those expressions? They always have funny idiomatic expressions that come to mind. Or not when I’m talking on the podcast, but cutting off your left arm to feed the right. There’s something in there.

Answers on a postcard. Um, but we’re not talking about slowing down your growth is what I’m trying to say. We’re not trying to say, hey, no, you don’t get to have ambition, you don’t get to have success, but it is about making it more manageable, more profitable, more energising so that yes, you can grow further if you want to and that growth is going to be sustainable and feasible and worth it. Right? So a few examples, if I think of a client who came to me. She was in the middle of her best month ever and I say best sort of quotation marks because she was fully booked, highest revenue, dream client, sounds amazing, but completely exhausted. She couldn’t take on anything else, but she also could not take things on, you know, we have that kind of, oh, I’ve got to take it because what if next month is, is less busy and I’ve got to have this because of cash flow. And so, so that’s, you know, might resonate with you. Certainly has resonate, resonated something that I’ve experienced in the past too.

It sounds and looks good on paper, but it’s not going to be sustainable. So. And with this particular case, we streamlined the way which she was delivering her work. Obviously removed the kind of low profit work that wasn’t energising her, rebuilt a calendar to protect her energy without sacrificing income. And that can mean raising your prices. It can be again looking at your offerings, simplifying those, narrowing them down and setting firmer boundaries. All those things we talked about a moment ago. Another client had created again, sort of a successful business on paper, but it relied on her constantly being available.

And these happen to be two women, but I do work with men, so don’t worry, I’m here for you too, if you’re listening and you have a Y chromosome. So every new client of course would mean more of her time. And I find this when I have a programme, especially if you’re launching a new programme, you only got a handful of clients and if you’re early in your business especially, but during quiet times, you can end up over delivering and you can almost train your clients to expect too much. So if I’m charging people for a group programme, but there’s only a handful of people in there, I’m almost giving them one to one coaching and super bespoke ongoing support and that’s fine, but it’s not scalable. It means that if I grow to, I don’t know, 50 people in the accelerator, let’s say, I wouldn’t be able to keep that up and then they might be disappointed and so on. So anyway, enough about me, but this client, we rebuilt her offers to reduce her hours and shift her into more strategic, higher level leverage work. So grace doesn’t have to mean just more work, more hours, it means more options. This is the kind of work that we’re doing inside the business accelerators.

If you’re feeling boxed in by the very thing, ironically that you’ve Built, then this is your signal to pause. Whether you do it with me or alone or with someone else for that matter. Boohoo. I’d really encourage you to map, take the time to map out what’s working really well, and not just, you know, revenue, but really what’s energising you, what you’re enjoying, what’s profitable, all those things. In fact, just a quick, quick plug here. If you go to onestepoutside.com forward/, I’m going to say intentional business. I’ll just check that for a second. But if it doesn’t work, then just message me and I’ll send you this.

Yes, intentional business. So1step outside.com, forward slash, intentional business. It will redirect you to a free little audit that you can complete. And actually, it’s exactly those things I was saying. You know, what’s working in terms of energy, revenue, clients, etc. Based on that and based on how you’re feeling and what’s working, what’s not, then you can go about beginning to refine your offers, look at your pricing, streamlining your delivery, looking at the overall business model. We’re not talking about burning everything down, we’re just talking about pressing pause, you know, looking at what’s working, what’s not working as well, and then rebuilding from there. So I want to help you design something that not just works on paper.

There’s actually going to scale with you and scale with you, I should emphasise, rather than against you. And again, it’s not about burning it all down. We’re talking about some possibly quite simple but very strategic shifts that you’re making now to make sure that you’re not going to be stuck in the same cycle this time next year. So, again, there’s the intentional business model audit, there is the business accelerator. Last couple of weeks, now I’m doing intro calls before I do onboarding calls. And you’ll be able to join us if you want to, if we decide it is a fit for what we’d call Q3, I suppose, in the calendar year for our first call next month. So do get in touch onestepoutside.com accelerate to find the application form and we’ll have a call and chat to see if it’s the right fit. Thanks so much for listening.

I’ll see you next week and perhaps I’ll see you on a call very soon. Bye for now.

In the Business Accelerator, we do things a little differently. This is my signature programme for independent experts who are ready to grow sustainably, strategically and with integrity. If you want more income and more freedom, but without the hustle, the hype or the one-size-fits-all formulas, then you can learn more and join us at onestepoutside.com forward/accelerate. Register your interest or join the waitlist at onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

WORK WITH ANNA

Let us help you design a business and a life that gives you freedom from the 9 to 5. There are several options for how you can work with us. Choose the programme that’s right for you.

The Outsiders Business Accelerator

A mastermind for service-based business owners, freelancers and online entrepreneurs who are ready to achieve success on their own terms. onestepoutside.com/accelerate

1:1 Coaching & Mentoring

If you’re looking for one-to-one support to help you achieve your specific life and business goals, Anna has a limited number of spots for individual coaching and mentoring. onestepoutside.com/coaching