A business can grow while giving its owner less of the life they wanted. In a BBC report published on 23 October 2026, Staffordshire entrepreneur Emma Hine described deliberately reducing the size of her online greetings-card business after its demands undermined her work-life balance.
The BBC reported that turnover had reached £1 million a year. That is a measure of sales, not profit or personal income. Her experience is one business owner’s account; it does not establish that shrinking is the right answer for every company.
Measure the return on the owner’s time
Before deciding whether to expand, record how your working week is actually spent. Separate delivery, sales, administration, rework and tasks that only you can currently perform. Compare those hours with the cash the business can sustainably provide after its commitments.
The aim is to identify which activity produces useful returns and which creates volume without enough margin. A larger order book can hide expensive complexity.
Test the options before cutting sales
- Change the mix: identify products or services that demand disproportionate support or repeated corrections.
- Change the process: consider whether clearer instructions, scheduling or delegation would remove the pressure.
- Change the terms: review pricing and service boundaries for future work, taking existing commitments into account.
- Change capacity: consider a smaller operation only after checking which costs would actually fall.
Model the transition
Lower sales do not automatically mean lower overheads. Prepare a cash-flow comparison covering stock, premises, subscriptions, debt payments and the timing of receipts. Include the costs of making changes, rather than comparing only two steady-state profit figures.
Where staffing or contractual commitments may change, obtain appropriate advice before acting. A deliberate adjustment should leave customers and colleagues clear about what happens next.
Choose a measure of success
Write down the outcome you want: a more predictable working week, greater financial resilience or capacity to take time away. Then set a review date and measurable indicators. Growth is one possible strategy; the decision should follow the business’s economics and the owner’s objectives.
Browse business planning resources
Source
BBC News: “I shrank my business for work-life balance”, Richard Price, 23 October 2026, featured on BBC Business. The business-planning suggestions above are our analysis; the reported turnover has not been independently audited by us.
Jonathan Fagan is MD of Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited and TP Recruitment Limited, a set of websites involved in a range of recruitment work. Jonathan has been running small businesses for over 20 years and has a number of interests and investments in companies as diverse as transcription, legal recruitment and a bit of marketing. He is an author of a number of guides and books, together with a children’s novel. In his spare time he enjoys playing golf, cricket, coaching girls’ football, operating a parent taxi, lots of running and paddleboarding on Bala Lake and the River Dee. He is a strong believer in a good work-life balance and regular blogs on making money vs enjoying life. Jonathan’s website is https://www.jonathanfagan.co.uk