It’s a lie that business owners have to work long hours all the time to grow their business. Life is too short to spend it working more than you should.

Too many business owners think reaching success means you have to hustle hard all the time. Success in business comes from putting in the work. But success also comes from mapping out a game plan that works well for your business and doing it with intention.

It comes from honing in on your own business, growing your skill set, and focusing on what works for you.

There isn’t a formula for success. You have to define what it means for you.

But it doesn’t mean you have to overwork yourself to get there. You can reach success without burnout by working with intention.

How to actually work less and live more while growing your business

The more you hone in on what you already know instead of trying to do everything and learn everything else, the more you’ll grow your business in a way that is right for you and your business. And once you do that, you’ll be able to grow your business while working less because you’ll be focusing on tasks that actually move your business forward without getting distracted by everything else.

Follow these 3 steps to actually work less and live more while growing your business:

Find clarity

Find clarity about what you want your life to look like and how your business can serve that. Your business should support your life not burden it. By first thinking about what you want your life to look like, you can build your business to serve that life.

If you want to be able to stay home with your kids, that might mean you have to structure your business differently and work less hours, or different hours, to make it work.

If you want to be able to travel often, you have to keep that in mind when scheduling events, calls, or interviews.

If you want to grow your business on the side while you still work full time, you may have to keep it simple for a while instead of trying to scale until you have more time to devote to it.

Whatever life looks like for you, you can build your business around that and still make it work. It’s just a matter of paying attention to how they balance each other out and the changes you can make to structure your business differently to serve your life well.

Adaptable Strategy

Determine a strategy that works best for your business with the flexibility to adapt it as needed. Your business will grow and change. Your life will grow and change. Different seasons require different needs and you’ll have to adjust to that.

If you build your strategy with the ability to be flexible as needed, you’ll be able to adapt and change more easily. This means when you need to make a tweak to one part of your business, the whole thing won’t come tumbling down. Think of it as a game of Jenga. When you start moving the blocks of your life and business around, you want to tower to stand firm.

Execute on your own terms

No strategy will do any good without being able to execute it. But here’s the thing. You don’t have to execute it just like everyone else. Execute the strategy on your own terms.

That might mean slower growth than your competitor. That might be doing things a little differently than others. If your business requires you do to things differently so that you can better support your life, then do it that way.

There is no shame in doing it differently. The point is to execute. How you execute is up to you as long as you follow through.

Clarity, strategy, and execution are the 3 pillars that I go through in the Intentional Business Program to guide women to a more intentional business.

The Intentional Business Program is your guide to building a successful business without sacrificing your life. This 8-week program will guide you through starting, growing, or rescuing your business so that you can gain the freedom to live a more intentional life.