Over the past six months, I’ve been applying for work. It’s been a mix of circumstances, part economy and part… the economy. No really. It’s partly my financial need, partly the lack of clients, and partly my husband having to accept a lower-paid job. All of those things sit inside the bigger economic picture, because when the cost of living rises and business income drops, eventually the numbers stop being a mindset issue and start being maths.
So I wanted to share some advice if you’re a business owner needing to return to the workforce and turn your business back into a side hustle. Not because I have a neat little “three lessons from my reinvention” story. I don’t. This is messier than that. It is practical, emotional, financial, values-based, and messy in the way real life often is.
When I started my side hustle, I thought it was odd that so many women returned to paid employment when their kids started school. Many of them had started their businesses to fill their days, earn some income, and have the flexibility they wanted as mums. I was also a mum of a school-aged child. I wanted more flexibility, so I left employment and built that side hustle into a full-time small business. That has been the shape of my working life for the past 14 years.
To be honest, there are many reasons women, and it is mostly women, leave paid employment and start their own businesses. When I’ve asked over the years, the most common answer has been flexibility. Flexibility to support their kids through school. Flexibility to avoid school holiday care costs. Flexibility to attend school events, manage sick days, and not have to justify every family need to an employer. Flexibility was the point.
What is not openly discussed is what happens when the kids finish school. Mine have. Some women continue their businesses exactly as they are. Some grow them. Some quietly reduce them. Some return to paid employment because the rising cost of living, mortgages, household expenses, and uncertain business income start to collide. That does not mean the business failed. It means the season changed.
When the business no longer fits your life
For me, the realisation was not a slow, gentle dawning. It felt more like a bolt of lightning or a switch flicking on. I realised I was working what felt like a 40-hour week for peanuts, and I couldn’t realistically increase that income to the level my family needed. Not quickly. Not reliably. Not without pretending the market, the economy, and my capacity were something they were not.
The signs had been there, but I had not named them properly. I was bored. I procrastinated more. I was more easily distracted. I still cared about the work, but something had shifted. When you put your heart and soul into a business, it shows. It also shows when you don’t, and I think many business owners know that feeling before they are ready to admit it.
This is where shame can creep in. Small business owners are often told, directly or indirectly, that if they are good enough, strategic enough, visible enough, consistent enough, or “aligned” enough, the business will support them. Lovely theory. Absolute rubbish when the economy is tight, your market is cautious, your household costs have changed, and your business was built for a different season and in a different decade.
Many small business owners I know are turning their businesses into side hustles. Not because they are lazy. Not because they lack courage. Not because they did not want it enough. They are doing it to survive, to provide, to live, and to make choices that support the whole of their life. They are realising that they are more than the part of their identity labelled “business owner”.
When the real cause was financial, but not only financial
The real cause of returning my business to a side hustle was financial, both short-term and long-term. I needed to contribute more to our household income now, and I needed to think about the future. This is about securing a better retirement for my husband and me. It is about creating a better future for my kids when we are gone. It is not glamorous, but it is real.
That is the part business advice often misses. It loves a story about freedom, purpose, visibility, scaling, and “building
your dream life”. It is less interested in superannuation, mortgage repayments, grocery bills, adult children, ageing, family responsibility, and the fact that women’s financial security is often shaped by years of unpaid or flexible work. But those things matter. They are not side notes. They are the context. And they carry no shame.
Thankfully, running the Should Challenge earlier this year had removed a lot of the noise around what I “should” be doing. Years ago, I had already realised that “I should be further along by now” was holding myself and my business to an expectation that was never mine. It was often set by people who did not have the same family constraints, financial responsibilities, or actual hours available in the day. We do not all have the same 24 hours, no matter how many motivational posts pretend we do.
The thought that haunted me more was, “If I was good enough, the business would support me full-time.” That one is sneaky because it sounds like accountability, but it is often shame disguised as fact or judgment. It judges a complex situation against someone else’s expectations, and those expectations probably aren’t even real. It also ignores the fact that it is harder to sell a service to other small business owners when the economy is tough, especially when that service is seen as a “nice to have”, even when the work itself matters.
Returning to work is not starting again
One of the biggest lies in this process is that returning to work means going backwards. I do not believe that. I am not starting from scratch, because I have learnt too much to be back at the start. If nothing else, I know who not to trust and what not to do, and honestly, that alone is worth a lot.
I have learnt how important purpose is for happiness and motivation in our work and life. I have learnt to set and hold boundaries. I have learnt about red flags, red flag people, and how easily we can let them into our lives when we are not living in alignment with our values. I have learnt that a business should grow and change, and if the business has to grow and change, the business owner must grow and change too.
My business is still alive. It is still relevant. Imposter syndrome still exists. Business owners are still held back by fear, self-doubt, people-pleasing, overthinking, undercharging, overdelivering, and all the other ways their psychology shows up in their business behaviour. People still interact in my group. People still read my blogs. People still say they need to book time with me. While imposter syndrome still holds business owners back, I still have a business.
Returning to the workforce has also taught me that I am more than what I fill my day with. I still need to think and learn about psychology and how it impacts people, especially business owners. That hasn’t disappeared because my work structure changed. If anything, it has reminded me that my business was one expression of my purpose, not the only container for it.
It has also taught me that I am allowed to have what is best for me. I am allowed to recognise that just because something was good for me when I started, that does not mean it will always be good for me. I am allowed to put my needs ahead of my clients and my children. None of which are selfish. None of it is set in stone. It can change again. That is flexibility, and flexibility is one of the reasons I started a business in the first place.
Let the business change shape
If you are turning your business into a side hustle, the business needs to change shape. This is not the time to keep every subscription, every offer, every marketing channel, every half-built idea, and every old expectation alive because cancelling them feels like admitting defeat. That is not a strategy. That is emotional hoarding with a login fee.
Look at what the business truly needs now. What income does it bring in? What expenses does it need to cover? What can it realistically sustain with less time from you? What parts of the business still work, and what parts belong to a version of your life that no longer exists?
For the business, this may mean fewer offers, fewer tools, simpler marketing, stronger boundaries, clearer availability, and more focus on what already works. It may mean your blog, email list, referrals, or existing audience matter more than trying to be everywhere online. It may mean the business becomes smaller for a while so it can stay alive without draining you. Smaller is not always failure. Smaller is sustainable.
For the owner, the work is different. You need to stop treating the decision as something to be ashamed of. Shame usually means you are measuring yourself against a standard, so the useful question is: who’s standard? Is it yours? Does it meet your needs? Does it support your family, your values, your future, and your wellbeing? Or is it another borrowed business “should” pretending to be wisdom?
If you feel ashamed, think about why you started your business. Think about why you now feel the need to return to the workforce or reduce your business hours. Think about who really matters when it comes to this decision. Then think about who you imagine is judging you. If those people do not match, do not matter, and do not have a genuine say in your life, they do not get a vote.
This is your life. You need to do what is best for you. Period.
Show yourself the hard truth
Here is the experiment I would try if you are wrestling with whether to return to work or turn your business into a
side hustle. Look at the facts without flinching. Not the fear story. Not the shame story. Not the fantasy business owner story where you magically have more time, more money, more capacity, and a market that behaves exactly how you want it to. The actual facts. These are also the exact steps I’ve taken.
Start with your subscriptions. What are you paying for in your business? What do you use? What supports the business now? What belongs to an older version of the business? What are you keeping because cancelling it feels like admitting something you are not ready to admit? Is there another way you can achieve the same outcome with one of the other tools you have? Can you do without it altogether?
Then look at the income. What income do you need now? What income does your business currently generate full-time? Can that income change? Do you have real control over that, or are you blaming yourself for market conditions you cannot fully control? Is the economy currently impacting your business, your clients, or your household? What is the absolute bare minimum your business needs to finance from its own income if you return to work?
Then ask the harder questions:
- What does staying full-time in your business and not getting a job help you avoid?
- What does staying in your business protect you from?
- What do you get out of staying full-time in your business, even if the numbers no longer work?
Be honest. If the answers are not in your best interest, do not align with your values, needs, or purpose, or will cause harm to you or the people who matter to you, you probably should not stay in your business full-time. That may sting, but it is useful. These questions uncover the truth you may be trying to hide from, and that is the most “me” experiment I can offer: show yourself the hard truth. The facts.
Returning to a side hustle is not failure
Returning to a side hustle has freed me from some of the noise business owners hear about the “shoulds” of business ownership and marketing. The shoulds are loud. You should be more visible. You should launch. You should scale. You should post more. You should have a signature offer. You should be further along. You should be able to make this work if you really want it.
No. Sometimes you need to make a different decision because your life is different now. Sometimes the brave thing is not pushing harder. Sometimes the brave thing is admitting the business model no longer fits the life you are living.
I am proud that I made the choice early. I am proud that I did it for myself and for my future self. My younger self never imagined I would own a business. My younger business-owner self-started it for flexibility, and I am still choosing flexibility. It just looks different now. I think she would be proud.
Current me knows I do not have to keep doing things that no longer serve me because I somehow believe that is what is expected. I do not have to make the business carry more than it can. I do not have to make myself carry more than I can. I don’t have to continue a decision I made 14 years ago if it no longer serves me.
If you are returning to paid employment, reducing your business hours, or turning your business into a side hustle, you have not automatically failed. You are allowed to make a decision based on the life you actually have. You are allowed to protect your finances. You are allowed to choose stability. You are allowed to let your business become something different.
You have permission to change your mind.
FAQs about turning your business into a side hustle
Is turning my business into a side hustle a failure?
No. Turning your business into a side hustle can be a practical decision based on your current life, finances, family needs, energy, and market conditions. A business changing shape does not mean it failed. It means something changed, and you’re responding to the facts.
How do I know if I should return to work or keep running my business full-time?
Start with the facts. Look at your current business income, household income needs, expenses, subscriptions, savings, and how much control you realistically have over increasing revenue. Then look at what staying full-time in the business helps you avoid. If the decision is being driven more by fear, shame, or identity than by values and facts, that is worth paying attention to.
Can a side hustle still be a real business?
Yes. A side hustle can still be a real business. It can still serve clients, generate income, hold purpose, and create impact. The number of hours you work in your business does not decide whether it matters.
What should I change first when turning my business into a side hustle?
Start by simplifying. Review your subscriptions, offers, marketing channels, client availability, and income expectations. Keep what supports the business now. Let go of what belongs to an older version of the business or a life you no longer have.
