Why Small Business Owners Struggle With Work Life Balance
Contributed by SBOC Member:
Pat Miller
Founder of the Small Business Owners Community
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A personal trainer wrote into the Businessing Idea Slam with a work life balance problem that hits way too close to home for a lot of small business owners: working 6am to 7pm, six days a week, because they couldn’t say no to anyone’s schedule. They make decent money but haven’t had a Saturday off in four months.
Pat Miller’s response was immediate and direct: that’s not a business. That’s a job. And on no planet should running your own company feel like a job.
Your Choosing This
The hardest part of Pat’s feedback wasn’t about rates or scheduling. It was the mirror he held up: you are the one letting this happen. Every Saturday you work is a choice. Every 13-hour day is a choice. Every client you say yes to when you should say no is a choice.
That’s not a criticism. It’s a liberation. Because if you’re the one choosing it, you’re the one who can choose differently.
The Practical Fix
For a personal trainer specifically, Pat pointed out that the industry has natural peaks. People train early morning and late afternoon. That means your business might be a split shift: 6-9am and 4-7pm. The hours in between are yours. Accept that reality instead of fighting it by filling every available hour.
Second: if you’re booked solid thirteen hours a day, six days a week, you’re not charging enough. The market is telling you that your rates are too low. Raise them. Some clients will leave, and that’s fine — you have too many clients in the first place.
Third: bring in a junior. Hire someone who can take the overflow clients while you move to a premium tier. The clients who want you specifically will pay the elevated rate. The rest get great service from your junior trainer, and you get your Saturdays back.
The Bigger Lesson
Work life balance for small business owners doesn’t happen by accident, it happens by design.
This isn’t just a trainer problem. It’s a small business owner problem. Whether you’re a consultant, a bookkeeper, a designer, or a coach, the pattern is the same: saying yes to everything until your business owns you instead of the other way around.
The best time to redesign how your business works is when you have a full funnel. New clients will never know your old schedule, your old rates, or your old boundaries. Make the change now while demand is high and you have leverage.
You didn’t start this to work 78 hours a week with no work life balance. It’s time to build the business you actually wanted.
Listen to the full episode: Businessing with Pat Miller
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BusinessingShow
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109
Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com
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Contributed by
Pat Miller
Founder of the Small Business Owners Community
Pat spent two decades in broadcasting management and hosting. After leaving the radio industry, he spent time consulting small businesses and realized the support system for entrepreneurs was broken. Where could you find help for improving small businesses and building real connections with other like-minded people. In June of 2020, the Idea Collective Small Business Community was born.