If you know me even a little bit, you know I am allll about sustainable business practices when it comes to growing your aligned service-based business. Every decision that I have made – even when risky – has been to have a business that can sustain for years and years to come.

Being an entrepreneur – you’re inherently taking a risk and betting on yourself to provide an income AND support the business growth. The “risk” of being an entrepreneur can be a lot mentally to take on. This is the #1 reason I see folks giving up on their businesses.

The way that you can mitigate that risk as much as possible is to make sustainable business decisions along the way.

While that risk will never go away, and you’ll always be growing in a way that stretches you (if you’re doing it right), there are some ways to feel more secure in your business and become sustainable.

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to see if your business is sustainable and will support you for the long haul!

1: If you got run over by a bus, would your business still be OK?

From the get-go, you need to be making decisions that will allow flexibility in your business if something goes wrong in your life. Because… it will!

If you’re a solopreneur, this might look like:

• Building clauses into your contract to set up an expectation for what happens if and when you aren’t able to physically be there to do what you need to do in your business.
• Setting aside a certain percentage of revenue each month for a business emergency fund. When you have this you can pay yourself even when you need to take time off.
• Revamping your offers and your pricing to support your lifestyle even if you worked half the time you have available. This will support you in having the bandwidth to take the time off you need when you need it!

If you have a team supporting you, you’ll need to make sure that they are prepped if and when you need time off too. AND that they are supported when they need time off. This means:

• Setting up SOP’s
• Talking about sick time and vacation expectations up front so you know who covers what when things go down
• Doing practice runs to troubleshoot before you take extended time off (like for maternity leave)

2: Do I have a proven track record that shows that my business is sustainable?

Honestly, the feeling of being sustainable will take time. I usually feel like something is sustainable and something I can predict if it’s happened 3 times. This is actually a measurement that we build into all the milestones we support our students with as they scale to their sustainable 6-figures in their business!

I didn’t feel like $10k months were my baseline until it happened 3 times… Same with 6-figure years, and multi-6 figure years! Now – that’s all the norm and something that I feel is the baseline of sustainability in my business.

“Doing something 3 times allows you to know that it isn’t a fluke, and that whatever this is — 3 laptop free vacations with no client emergencies, or 3 years of reaching 6-figures, etc — is sustainable.”

Kelsey Kerslake

Something else that makes me feel sustainable? That I’ve proven I can handle really tough business situations. I’ve been through enough hard times to know that I’ll do whatever it takes to make it through. I’ve proven to myself that while it won’t be fun — I can make it work and bet on myself and the business to make it through to the other side.

3: Is the time and energy you’re spending in your business something you can see yourself sustaining 5 years from now?

You can’t hustle forever. You need time and space in your business so you can live the life you want. As an entrepreneur, it’s always going to be a fun blend, but overall, you should be enjoying your life in and outside of your business.

Does your business actually support the life you want to live with time, money, and energy? Making sure it does is key to long term sustainability!

The choices you make today add up and affect the life and business you’ll run in the future. If you’re not making sustainable decisions now, or don’t have a business model that is sustainable, you won’t last long!

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So, is a sustainable 6-figure business something that you’re looking to have in your life to support the future you want (and deserve??)

I’m sharing exactly how you can make this happen in the next 12 months during a FREE training on Tuesday!

>> Click here to register for the free training!

I’ll be sharing sooo much in-depth info about exactly what it takes to make this happen in your business AND life. I’ll even break down in-depth examples of how you can make $30k months working 15h per week!

This might feel sooo out of reach to you right now, but I promise it’s closer than you think — you just have to go about it the right way. And, I’m showing you exactly how in this training!

>> Click here to register for the free training!

See you then!!

xo Kelsey