Why You Are Stuck In Your Business
And how to break free
Cheated. Stuck. FOMO.
That was how I felt when I slogged for 10 years with nothing to show for it.
Watching others gloat about their success didn’t help either.
I started my business for freedom.
Some say I’m lucky to have the freedom to choose my own hours, work with clients I love, and wear pyjamas all day without judgment.
But somehow, along the way, that freedom turned out to be a mirage.
I was drowning in client calls, chasing invoices, scrambling to meet deadlines.
That got me wondering:
"Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be better than a 9-to-5?"
What freedom? I was trapped.
I had 10 clients and wanted even more for more income.
At the same time, I didn’t want more, because I was tired.
Nothing feels worse than this love-hate relationship with client work.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
If you feel this way, let me tell you this:
Getting stuck in your business doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
It means you’re human.
But staying stuck?
There’s a way out.
The freelance trap
I started freelancing in 2005, living the dream.
I could sleep at 9 AM, work at 9 PM, and no one could tell me otherwise.
Clients paid me up to $10,000 per project, I took three-month vacations, and referrals flowed in without me lifting a finger for marketing.
Money was good.
Life was good.
Until it wasn’t.
When my first child was born in 2013, everything changed.
Suddenly, client calls clashed with nap schedules.
Deadlines collided with diaper changes.
I was trying to be a full-time parent and a full-time freelancer.
I sucked at both.
Then life threw another curveball.
My dad had liver cancer, and I became his caregiver, juggling his health crises with client work.
One time, I had to pause a client's presentation halfway to rush home and help him administer morphine to reduce his pain.
My bank account turned negative.
I was half a million dollars in debt.
And my mental health? Let’s just say I felt 20 years older and disillusioned.
That’s when it hit me:
I didn’t own a business.
I owned a job.
The only upside? It’s a flexible job.
A job where my clients were my bosses.
If I stopped working, the money stopped flowing.
Why you are stuck
Here’s some tough love:
You’re stuck because your business relies on you for everything.
You’re the marketer, the service provider, the admin, the coffee maker, and the emergency backup when things go wrong.
I get it.
It feels easier to do it all yourself.
But that mindset is the trap itself.
I used to think I will wait till I make more money, then I hire the best talents to help me.
That day would never come.
Not because I didn’t have the money.
It was because I relied on only “me”.
The business can’t run without my time and my expertise.
In 2015, I made a change.
I stopped being the business and started building the business.
It’s now 2025 and I’ve got several productized businesses under my name, without me having to touch a single client work.
You can do that too:
One system
Many businesses
All running while you sleep
Here’s how to get unstuck right away
1. Identify the Real Problem
I thought I needed more clients.
Maybe I had a time management problem.
Nope. And nope.
The real issue?
I was trying to do everything alone.
I was trying so hard not to outsource or hire anyone, afraid of lowering my profits and risking someone from screwing up the work.
I wanted full control over my work to keep clients happy, coming back for more.
It was also faster and easier to just get the work done myself.
That made me do everything and anything, including tasks that I hated doing and those that are not of my core strengths.
People around me say:
“Being busy is a good thing, means your business is doing well.”
“You are a freelancer, of course, you have to do everything.”
“You will grow once you have more clients.”
So I stayed really busy.
I used up all the time I had on client fulfilment work and delivery.
If this is you, stop.
Action Step: Look at your day.
What tasks drain your energy but don’t actually require you to do them?
That’s where the problem starts, that’s where you need to fire yourself and get something or someone to replace you.
2. Don’t Focus On Your Skills
For years, I sold my graphic design skills, proud of my talent.
Then I realised that clients don’t care about my skills, they care about how my offer can change their lives.
Clients were asking for great designs, great skills and talents.
Yes, these are important, but just nice to have.
They haven’t known me enough to trust that I can give them the right, thoughtful designs to remove their pain.
And by the way, you can’t just ask clients what they want.
“They would have said they want faster horses.” — Henry Ford
Especially when they don’t know you well enough, you must first know their pain and offer them the painkiller.
When I stopped thinking that I have to sell design and started showing that I can help them solve specific urgent problems, I was able to see my relationship with the business and why my business exists in the first place.
This helped me spot the right offers that are high in demand for specific groups of people.
At the end of day, if you were to eventually run a business without you, the deliverables will not come directly from you.
Like in my case, I may be running a design business, a content startup and a branding agency, but I’m not creating the designs, I’m not writing a word for the the client’s blog article and I’m not creating the client’s brand story.
If I were to sell my skills, I have to do it all.
That may work if I were to look for a full-time job.
But those helping to churn out client work will be either your employees or contractors you hire.
Action Step: What problem do you solve better than anyone else?
Start with the problem.
Focus on that.
Everything else is just noise.
3. Simplify and Specialize
Doing everything for everyone is a recipe for burnout.
Here’s why:
Switching between tasks, client communication and projects doesn’t work for our human brains. Everyone will cop out at some point, it’s just not sustainable in the long run. I did it for 10 years and that’s enough.
When you don’t specialize, clients think you can do everything. “Oh, can you just add this one tiny thing?” But it’s never tiny. You say yes because you want to be helpful, or maybe not to lose your client, but deep down, you’re killing yourself.
If you have to do everything, guess who’s slowing down the business? Yep. You are the bottleneck. There’s no time to breathe, no time to grow, and definitely no time to binge-watch anything because, no work, no money.
Without a clear focus, every day feels like putting out fires. One client wants A, another wants Z, and somehow you’re stuck in the middle wondering what happened to B. It’s chaotic, and it drains you.
Being a jack-of-all-trades means you blend in. It’s hard to charge premium rates when you’re just “the person who does stuff.” You end up working more for less, and you are wondering why you hate your own business.
Now, I productize to specialize in ongoing graphic work because my clients need it regularly.
That focus made it easier to systemize, delegate, and scale.
Action Step: Pick one service.
Go deep.
Get known for it.
4. Start Small with Delegation
Does outsourcing make you feel like getting your arms chopped off.
10 years ago I hired my first designers.
They were great people, helpful and good at what they do.
I left them to handle everything and thought that was it.
But no.
I started getting clients booking calls with me more often than ever.
They didn’t like how their designs turned out and I ended up redoing everything.
There were many issues, such as, briefs not followed, deadlines not met and designs not up to their expectations.
Frustrating?
Yes.
But the problem wasn’t them, it was me.
I thought they just had to take orders from clients, do the work and deliver the goods.
It doesn’t work that way.
I realised I was just passing on the chaos and fire-fighting work to my team.
I didn’t give them clear guidelines.
Well, because I didn’t know I had to create them.
I thought all contractors should come up with their own ways to get the work done.
But if everyone did that, there will be inconsistencies in quality and deliverables.
That was why clients were unhappy and I had to hop on so many calls to hear about their bad experiences.
Action Step: Document your processes.
Create SOPs.
Train your team to deal with the day-to-day tasks.
It’s painful at first, but freedom is on the other side.
5. Prioritize Sales, Not Just Service
As a freelancer, I hated sales.
I’m also an introvert and not a social butterfly.
I am long-winded if you can’t tell by now.
But I only talk a lot with those who are extroverts.
What I’m saying is, I don’t have the gift of the gab and can’t do sales for nuts.
I loved hiding behind the screen dabbling with colors, pixels and typography.
Unfortunately, without clients, there’s no business.
I could create an award winning design, only for me to know and admire.
The great news is, you don’t have to be out-spoken or have a vocal talent to be great at sales.
There are many ways to do sales.
Sales are not just for talkers.
Sales doesn’t have to be one-to-one.
Sales can be done with video, writing, or designing.
There comes marketing, the activity to scale your sales.
Having this mindset, I set aside time to focus on marketing.
I wasn’t even selling anything.
I was just regularly sharing what I know about using graphics to help convert landing pages on LinkedIn.
Doing that consistently brought in clients.
I grew my network without networking.
Action Step: Set aside time weekly to promote your services.
Growth starts when you set aside time for growth activities.
Systemize and change your life
Freedom is a choice.
You don’t have to stay stuck.
You don’t have to hustle forever.
The first step?
Get crystal clear on what’s not working.
Next, start small:
Delegate one task.
Specialize in one service.
Build one system.
Your business should support your life, not the other way around.
If you’re ready to stop being your own bottleneck, join my 5-day free email course on stopping scope creep.
It’s packed with the strategies I wish I had known back when I was juggling clients, babies, and burnout.
Freedom isn’t a dream.
It’s a decision.
Make yours today.
Need help NOW to spot the gap?
If you need help TODAY, I’ve condensed my experiences and lessons into a 10-part cash flow creator playbook to give you the skills to spot high-demand productized services.
You can use them over and over for any business you have right now or if you intend to start a new one. Get it here:
Till next week,
Marilyn