Why You’re Capped (Even If You’re Busy)
Being busy doesn’t always mean you’re growing.
If your revenue depends on you saying yes to endless “next things,” you’ll hit a ceiling. Especially when your highest-return work is buried under small requests.
Before we get into the mechanics of doubling your business — market, headroom, leverage — we have to start with what’s underneath it:
Truth → Love → Value.
1. Truth: What are you actually willing to give now?
A plateau often shows up the moment your work stops being true.
Not “true” as in inspirational. True as in: you can keep doing it without resenting your life.
A plateau usually shows up after you become the default yes-person.
Tweaks. Template edits. “Quick questions.” Tiny retainers that never end.
It’s valid work. It’s just not always sustainable work.
So ask the truth question plainly:
What are you doing right now that you can do… but don’t want to keep doing?
If your business requires you to keep giving that thing to grow, you’re going to cap out. Not because you’re weak. Because you’re human.
Truth is where capacity is. Capacity is where your ceiling comes from.
2. Love: What are you devoted to?
When I say love, I’m not talking about a lotta like, I mean devotion.
What kind of work do you come back to – even when nobody is clapping?
What kind of work makes you feel more like yourself after you do it?
This matters because when the work is connected to something you’re devoted to, you regenerate.
You may get tired. You may take breaks. But you don’t fall off the cliff.
When the work isn’t connected to anything you care about, you start needing “discipline” for everything.
Discipline is useful. It’s not infinite.
So ask:
What work do you want to get better at for the next decade?
If you can’t answer that, you’ll keep rebuilding your business every year from scratch.
If you can answer it, you can build something that compounds.
3. Value: Where does the market already pay for the change you create?
This isn’t about your worth as a person. You’re priceless.
This is about marketplace value:
Where do you reliably create profitable change for someone else?
Not “I make nice websites.”
I mean:
you reduce risk
you reduce confusion
you reduce wasted time
you reduce ongoing maintenance
you increase conversions
you make the site easier to manage
you help a team stop stepping on each other
you help a business finally look legitimate
Value is tucked in that “before and after.”
And here’s the part you’ve probably felt -
Your most valuable work is often not the work you’re most visible for.
So you end up known for the work that keeps you busy… not the work that makes you money.
You end up marketing the generic version of yourself… while your best outcomes are buried in a list of services.
So ask:
What do people thank you for the most – the thing that makes them feel real relief?
Then ask the harder question:
Is that the first thing your website says?
If it’s not, you’ve found your bottleneck.
Why solopreneurs stay stuck longer than they need to
If you work a job, at some point someone promotes you.
New role. New expectations. New comp.
But when you run your own business, nobody taps you on the shoulder and says:
“You’ve outgrown that version of your service.”
So a lot of people stay in the role that helped them survive the early years. They keep selling what they can do. They don’t reposition around what they’re most valuable doing.
And that’s how you end up with a full calendar and a flat year.
Doubling usually isn’t a hustle season.
It’s a role change.
It’s you promoting yourself inside your own business.
The 10-minute alignment audit
Open a doc and answer these in one sitting:
Truth: What can I no longer sustainably give?
Love: What work regenerates me and I want to get better at?
Value: What change do people already pay me for – and thank me for?
If your best work stays hidden, your revenue will too.
If you read this and felt a little too seen, there’s a new Double Your Squarespace Business cohort starting soon. You can put your name on the interest list below and I’ll send details there first.
