How to Trim the Fat in Your Business in 2023
When I was a teenager, I always looked forward to getting dropped off at my Aunt Georgia’s house while my parents would take a vacation.
Aunts are different than your parents. Aunt Georgia was cool, more relaxed than my mom.
So, I’d spill the tea to Gigi about boys, school, drama, my problems, and…
My aunt Georgia had some really great advice: “Don’t make a romance out of it.”
She means: “Don’t overcomplicate things.”
Like all great advice, we ignore it!
Until we do it the hard way, then learn that Aunt Georgia knew her sh*t.
When you own your own business, things get complicated.
Over the years, we tend to hold on to the way we’ve always done things (think: old clients that aren’t a good fit anymore, outdated, manual systems, trying to “do it all ourselves” like we did in Year 1, not raising our prices enough, etc), and we make our businesses and lives unhelpfully clunky, exhausting, and well…a bad romance.
This why we gotta trim the fat.
Every year.
Because when you “trim the fat,” you make your business lean and that creates mental energy and time freedom to come up with better ways of running your business, and downtime that gives you your best ideas yet. #glorious
Here’s what I mean by trimming the fat…
Wondering what exactly trimming the fat means? Well, lemme paint you a picture. Say you’re a service-based biz owner… right? Let’s go ahead and say that your job is in a more creative area — say, a designer — and that your Genius is designing people’s websites.
Here’s a look into your actual day to day…
9:00-10:00 AM: Check emails and try to wade through that complicated project management software that Lisa from Instagram told you you needed.
10:00-10:30 AM: Get frustrated by the software, and then forget you needed to pay your quarterly taxes — so you tinker around on Quickbooks before you get overwhelmed and stop.
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: You get on a call with that one client who you’ve had for YEARS and who is no longer your ideal client — and also annoys the sh!t out of you — but you feel like you owe it to her, so you stay.
11:30 AM-12:30 PM: You decide you rrrrrreaaaallllly need to post on Instagram, so you spend a full hour writing a caption that you hate, and then you decide that maybe you don’t need to post it, so you don’t.
12:30 PM-2:00 PM: At this point you’re drained and exhausted, and you haven’t even gotten any work done. You take a long lunch, scrolling TikTok, and kinda wade through your inbox while you’re at it.
2:00-3:30 PM: You finally get started on client work, even though it feels a lot more like busy work and a lot less like the kind of design you actually want to do.
3:30-5:00 PM: You’re stressed about the fact that you’re not booking enough high-ticket offers, so you decide to whip up a new service to post on your website… and then you start thinking about a mentorship program you could offer, since you saw someone else do the same… even though the thought of it drains you anyways.
5:00-10:00 PM: You didn’t get anything actually productive today, so you end up tinkering around on your computer in between episodes of White Lotus and cooking dinner before you finally fall into a (restless) sleep at around 12 AM.
Sound exhausting?! Yup.
Sound relatable?! Probably, to some degree.
I see this with so many of the successful women entrepreneurs I work for, too — they are so bogged down by the things they’ve already committed to, the softwares and clients that they don’t need, and the things that people are telling them they SHOULD do that they don’t have any time to do what gives them life, sparks their creativity or makes them a human they actually like being.
This leads to burnout. And burnout leads to a whole ‘lotta other problems we don’t want anything to do with: sickness, resentment, wanting to burn our business to the ground, dangerous boom and bust cycles in our revenue…on and on…
So… what do we do about it? HOW do we trim the fat?!
Get out a pen and paper and get to work answering these questions:
Who, EXACTLY, are the clients you work with or people in your business that drain you of your life force?
Don’t play! They exist. Write ‘em down. Then, write what they pay you or what work they’re supposed to be taking off your plate. Now, ask yourself: “What opportunities exist to replace that income from these draining clients, or complete the work that not-so-helpful helper has been owning?” (This is important — because you and I both know that you can’t just ~eliminate~ clients if you don’t have the income to replace them, so get creative!)
Now, what about your offers? Are there any offers that you DREAD doing?
Write ‘em down. Below each one, write what exactly drains you most about these offers - because we’re gonna need to know what to knock off in the future. Next to that, flip the negatives, and write what you would PREFER. Then, consider could you eliminate this offer or remove draining pieces from it? Can you stick to one signature offer instead of having 4, and constantly customizing sh*t? Can you remove some steps that just overcomplicate things, and don’t really matter to your client? Can you automate certain steps (like onboarding) or turn time-consuming, repetitive calls into pre-recorded videos? Can you outsource or train someone to take particularly time consuming pieces of it off your plate?
Now, what in your business can be automated that you’re NOT automating, or delegated that you’re NOT delegating?
I’d start by making a list of your biggest time and energy sucks that aren’t in your Zone of Genius - Accounting? Social media management? Administrative tasks? House cleaning? Make a “Sh*t List,” as I call it, then sort those items into what you can automate and delegate.
Now, what else? Honestly, what else is draining you?
Is it a list of dozens of “some day” product/business ideas that you haven’t started? Is it an unsupportive partner? Is it feeling like you’re always cleaning the damn kitchen? Is it saying yes to happy hour 3 times a week, even when you need a moment alone? Is it dragging your body to HIIT when you really just need a nap? Write it down. Get it out.
What can you just say NO to? What I call De-Activate? Just to create space and peace for yourself.
If you can’t de-activate it, what is one itsy bitsy baby (15-min or less) step you could take to relieve yourself of this pressure and weight? Think: re-scheduling/delaying a deadline, texting someone back, sending the email and asking book a conversation that will really clear things up, or booking a housecleaner.
You did it! You identified the FAT, and how you could TRIM IT.
The real battle is breaking down these next steps over time, and holding yourself accountable to taking them.
Need some help doing this?
You made it to the right page on the internet, Boo — because my VIP Day was built just for this.
The VIP Day is a customizable 6-week business coaching experience anchored by an 8-hour VIP Day, where we’ll audit your business, revenue and time, trim the fat, strategize your wealth and your rest over the next 12 months, and create a detailed quarter-by-quarter plan to make it all a reality — because it’s what’ you deserve (and then some).
Here’s what we’ll do 👇
We’ll start with a consultation where we clarify your vision for your desired revenue growth and rest in the next 12 months. Then, we’ll discuss what’s working and not working in your business, and what we would focus the VIP Day on to be most useful in solving your biggest obstacles (
From there, I’ll create custom pre-work that does what MONTHS of coaching does, creates crystal clarity about what’s working, and not working, in terms of your revenue, time management, marketing, sales, relationships and workload. Plus, the weeks leading up to your VIP Day give you the chance to actually marinate on key insights and new ideas before your VIP Day.
In the VIP Day, we’ll use my 5D Framework (customized to you) to create a strategy that addresses *EVERYTHING* you need to build a rich and rested business and life.
We’ll clarify what you’re best at,
Dream up a vision for your business where you earn more and rest more,
Design a *detailed, custom* strategy to scale your revenue over 12 months while working less,
Create a schedule and plan for how you’ll position yourself in your Genius Zone on a daily basis, and focus on the “needle-moving” work, and
Decide what we can automate (and how!), and delegate (and to who!), too.
After your VIP Day is done, you get a 30-day action plan… WITH DEADLINES… and a follow-up coaching call to make sure you’re implementing your strategy and have me to help you iterate it once you’ve gotten started.
Curious? Get the details on the VIP Day and see client results here, and then book a (free!) VIP Day Strategy Call with me today.