How I run my business next to a 9-to-5
Making part-time business work without the hustle (and 3 new favourites)
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My business has always been part-time: from spending one day a week on it to two (now) and (soon) three days. Building and running a business next to a 9-to-5 or ‘regular’ job brings its own challenges, but benefits too.
Whether you’re running your business next to a job, care responsibilities or while living with chronic illness, in this post I share how I built my business on one to two days a week—while still feeling slow, gentle and spacious (and keeping my sanity).
The power of compartmentalising
The only way in which running my business next to my part-time teaching job in higher education works is by compartmentalising. Currently this looks like Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for teaching and Tuesdays and Thursdays for my business. When I started my business I spent Thursdays on it, and the rest of the week on teaching.
This approach started when I was still doing academic research without having a paid research position. For years, Thursdays were the only days I spent on research. When I left academia, my research day became my business day.
How I make business work on first one and now two days a week, is through a combination of joy and dedication.
My business days are the days I look forward to the most during the working week: working on my business gives me autonomy, allows me to be more creative, connects me to myself through the work that I do and to do work that genuinely nourishes me.
I’ve learned not to feel guilty that I’m not available all days of the week.
Setting boundaries around your business
Five years into my business I have no problem in explicitly making space for my business in my week. I’ve stopped feeling guilty about not being available for my teaching job on the days I’m working on my business.
But I’ve definitely had to practise defending my boundaries. I’ve had to defend my business days from meetings, marking deadlines and institution-wide professionalisation days.
In my business, mentoring clients may be working on projects that they want my feedback on, or want to schedule meetings on days other than Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ve really had to remind myself that this is simply my availability, rather than feeling guilty that I’m not available on other days of the week.
And this approach resonates with my clients too (who are, each and every one of them, lovely humans):
Apart from external demands, I’ve also had to practise not to give into internal demands.
I used to schedule dentist and doctor’s appointments on Thursdays, telling myself that this was my “day off” and I would have time. But in doing so, I took time away from my business. Now, if possible, I schedule those on teaching job days instead.
Reminding myself of the importance of my business is key to resisting external and internal demands.
My business is important to me and to my sense of fulfilment—and, as I’ve scaled down from my teaching job, it’s become increasingly important to my finances too.
Remembering this importance again and again has allowed me to give myself permission to not work on other things on my business days: from tasks related to my teaching job, to catching up on the laundry.
Are you hiding your amazingness?
A new free resource to help you take up more space with and in your business--because your amazingness deserves to be seen
As my business has grown it is taking up more space in my brain, including on non-business days.
But there’s something very pleasant about not having to think about my business three days a week. Especially on my fullest teaching day (Wednesday), I get—and have—to be fully present with my classes and my students, and there is a focus and calmness in such intentionality.
The same goes for not having to think about teaching on business days and feeling a glorious sense of distance from the hustle and bustle of higher education.
Communicating your availability
Having set phrases to tell colleagues and students (at my teaching job), and clients (in my business) when I’m available or not has made a huge difference. I no longer feel that I need to apologize or cloak my availability in long explanations.
Instead, I have two phrases I come back to again and again—which no one has ever challenged.
For my teaching job, I say “I don’t work for [name of institution] on Tuesdays and Thursdays”. I absolutely do not say that these are my days off, as I’ve noticed that in the organization this can lead to “oh, but can’t you just switch your days?”.
When working with clients, I am very clear from the discovery call on that I am available on Tuesdays and Thursdays—and that’s how I say it: “I’m available Tuesdays and Thursdays”; “I check in with email and Voxer on Tuesdays and Thursdays”.
Other practical strategies I use:
I use my digital calendars: in my teaching job calendar, Tuesdays and Thursdays are blocked out and not available, in my business calendar only Tuesdays and Thursdays are available;
I communicate my availability everywhere: at my teaching job, my signature specifies that I work for the institution on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On my business website, my availability is mentioned on the contact page, in communications with clients and in my out-of-office reply (which is always on).
The biggest surprise for me has been how much people love my boundaries and my out of office reply especially.Both are an extension of my slow, gentle and profitable values, and the people who work with me find my boundaries inspiring and aspirational.
Accept the pace at which you’re going and growing
Would I have grown my business faster if I had been able to work on it five days a week? Maybe. Maybe not.
In seasons when more is happening in my business, I have wished for more days available to me (which is why I’m scaling down further from my teaching job in September).
In the past, frustration about running my business part-time usually came up when I compared myself to others. When I saw them work on their business more than I did and felt like this was such a luxury. In those moments I’d remind myself to keep my eyes on my own page, and that I had the luxury of an income outside of my business that took away the pressure of making money for a while.
I find it harder to deal with limitations from health challenges.
Whether it’s PMDD—for which I’m getting treatment—, a residual symptom of clinical depression or just me, but over the past couple of years I’ve been unable to work as much or as hard as I used to. I need considerably more rest, including daily naps.
Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time resting that any work I’d like to do is squeezed into the margins.
Acceptance for me lies in trying to remember that I also want to work at a slower pace. In remembering that I often enjoy resting. And remembering that I don’t want my life to be about work. But it can be really hard.
What living with mental illness means for my business
I didn’t start working for myself because of recurring mental illness—although looking at it now, it makes a lot of sense. In this post I want to share about my experience running a small business alongside recurring illness—in my case, mental illness.
Keep chipping away
Especially when I was still spending one day a week doing research, people would be surprised that I’d actually get anything done on one day a week.
One day a week doesn’t sound like a lot, perhaps. Perhaps two days doesn’t sound like a lot, either. Perhaps you have less time for your business and feel like surely that isn’t enough.
If you find yourself thinking this way, I’d love to invite you to challenge this all or nothing approach. You have the time and energy that you have, and while this can be painful and frustrating, having whatever time and energy you have is more than nothing.
You can actually get things done in one day a week—without hustling or working yourself into the ground. Break your projects and plans down into the smallest pieces and take one step at a time.
Keep chipping away. That idea you jotted down in thirty minutes? That’s moving your business forward. Drafting an email in an hour? That’s moving your business forward.
Keep chipping away. Be gentle with yourself. Remember why you want this and lean into the joy.
Take a moment to think or journal about these questions:
Where do you need to compartmentalize in order to make space for your business?
How can you deal with external and internal demands on your business-time? Which phrases can help you here?
Where and how can you use out-of-office replies, email signatures, your website or calendar software to safeguard your business-time?
Do you run a part-time business? How do you protect your business-time? What needs work and what are you pleased about? Leave a comment to join the conversation.
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a newsletter | I deeply loved
‘s recent post on time, Spring and how we experience the world.a book | I can rarely resist stroking moss when I encounter it and was so fascinated by learning more about it in Twelve Words for Moss (which is also just a beautiful memoir) (affiliate link).
being away | J and I spent a weekend in Berlin and I loved wandering, exploring, reading, people-watching and simply being ✨
What’s on your lists of favourites this month? What did you read, see, hear, drink, eat, observe that made your day?
I’m chipping away at a full behind-the-scenes review of my recent launch for paid subscribers, which will be coming your way soon.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to some slightly warmer and drier days, smelling the wisteria and watching the plants grow.
Have a beautiful, calm and nourishing rest of your month,
Until next time x
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Really interesting read Astrid, I run my Home Styling business alongside the day job and although I work 5 days a week, I work at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays which allows me to focus on my business during those days, scheduling client appointments, working of projects, arranging social media content, blogs etc.
I’m very fortunate to have an employer that’s flexible and as long as the day job is my focus, during quieter times it’s all good to spend time on my own business.
At the start of this year I wanted to get a better balance and not find myself working into the evenings and weekends and in the whole this is working, there’s only the odd evening so far where I’ve had to put time aside to work.
The plan (ideally) will be to reduce my days from 5 down to 4, although for the time being I feel I’ve got a “system” that works for me 😊
What a fabulous article Astrid... I love particularly how you "guard" each part of your working life, and that each is like a break from the other... very inspiring... 😊