How to handle running a business completely by yourself
Running a business entirely alone creates relentless physical and mental pressure, leaving owners trapped in a cycle of overwork, constant panic, and isolation with no one to talk to. This extreme solo burden makes it impossible to take a break or step back, eventually leading to physical illness, injury, and burnout.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Finding a mentor or peer network
- 2Taking a breath to talk about what is overwhelming you
- 3Calling an old friend or venting to a cashier at the grocery store
- 4Prioritizing the million little things so they are digestible
- 5Raising prices to reduce working hours
- 6Hiring part-time help or contractors gradually
- 7Selling the business to a competitor
- 8Finding trusted people through personal networks
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m 45 and I have a successful service based business that I run entirely on my own since 2005.”source ↗
“I work 7 days a week long hours to survive in this economy. My job is pretty physical and I’m getting sick and injured more and more frequently.”source ↗
“How do I restructure my business so that I can afford to take the leap into having permanent employees? My personal credit is crap and I had to do some debt consolidation.”source ↗
“Feeling incredibly overwhelmed about what’s happening. Afraid of disappointing people, will it all be good enough? Fears of getting cancelled or something over minor typos or someone criticising what I do”source ↗
“I’ve been trying to figure out a million details and things on my own in a short time and been so non stop that I’ve felt like I’ve been in a continuous panic attack for days. Even physically sick from it.”source ↗
“I don’t have anyone I can talk to about this in my life..”source ↗
“it’s feeling like insane pressure and expectations to keep up with”source ↗
“I know I need a break but I also feel like I can’t take it like I NEED to get everything sorted you know?”source ↗
“a mí también me costó soltar el control, batallé para encontrar gente de confianza hasta que una de mis empleadas se quedó a comisión y ahí sí le mete ganas.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9Doing senior IT work alone on helpdesk pay
- 2How to prioritize marketing tasks when you're a team of one
- 4Health insurance options for owner-only businesses
- 6How to plan a business from scratch without missing key steps
- 2Feeling completely lost and bored after selling my business
- 3How to manage money as a new 1099 contractor