I burned my web design business to the ground

Ever wanted to burn your web design business to the ground? I have.

The first time, a few years into travelling full time, feeling like I was always on my laptop but never catching up with work.

The second time, when I was pregnant with hyperemesis and spent 8 months vomiting, feeling starving and deeply depressed.

The third time? Well.

That’s when I did burn it all down.

Our daughter was a couple of months old. The intro to motherhood, despite a beautiful birth experience had rocked me to my core.

Covid had kicked off in Australia the week after our baby was born, so no-one was in a good place. We didn’t have visitors to help, not even the midwives were legally allowed to come see us to check in. Life was in lock down. It was a weird, sad time.

All the while, we were trying to work out how to take care of a tiny human with zero sleep.

I always thought I’d have time while pregnant to plan and prepare my business for parenthood life. But I’d had zero mental or physical capacity to do that. I’d referred out a lot of my clients, thinking I’d work with them again once I was no longer pregnant.

A while after our baby was born, I wrote a list of work tasks to take care of… but as the weeks past, I had this awful feeling that I’d never get on top of my business again. How could I?

My web design business had become a monster

Every time I thought I had 5 minutes, I’d either be too mentally wrecked to think straight or my baby would need me. It felt impossible.

I’d created a monster with my business. Just thinking of how far behind I was with invoicing, paperwork, emails, marketing… and that wasn’t even paid work. 

I broke down. I sobbed my eyes out. I hated what I’d worked so very hard to create over the previous almost decade.

My husband saw me crying and as a man of few words (but always with great gut instinct and honesty) said to me: “If you don’t want to do it anymore Lou, don’t.”

And I didn’t want to.

I stopped calling myself a web designer

So I referred out 95% of my clients to other designers. I was so blindly exhausted & mentally fried that I couldn’t even see that it would’ve been smart to keep web hosting clients or WordPress care plans for easy recurring income.

It all went. I was done. I stopped calling myself a web designer.

I setup an email autoresponder saying no to all work and recommending a few trusted designers who I knew.

That was over 5 years ago now… and a lot has happened since.

I don’t regret any of it, because it’s lead me to where I am now. I’ve learned so much about myself. I’ve done a lot of healing. I’ve experienced many new, interesting, unexpected things.

But gosh, I never want to go through that again.

I rebuilt my web design business to be stronger than ever

The web design & SEO business I have slowly rebuilt today is very different with simple, smart systems; automations; clear client boundaries; healthy mindset, and complete clarity on what I’m actually doing with my time and why I’m doing it. No fluff. No time-wasting.

My web design business now is way more resilient and much more capable of adapting to unexpected changes as life unfolds and continues to change. Which it will always do, which is what makes life so interesting! There’s always another change coming.

And now I know that my business (and myself!) can not only adapt to change, but can thrive through and grow through it.

I’m so grateful to have learned all these tough lessons over the past 13+ years.

Now I get to hold your hand, and walk you through exactly how to make simple, aligned shifts in your web design business (or other creative freelance business) that perfectly align with you, and whatever season of life you’re in right now.

You don’t have to do it alone. I’m right here with you.

Lou x