‘I’ve been able to do a lot more… by doing less’: The entrepreneur who’s made a business out of balance
Starting a business often comes with finding the right balance — not every up-and-coming entrepreneur has the leeway to quit their day job right off the bat.
For Rebecca Kelly, founder and chief executive of event technology service, VenueScanner, it was juggling the 9-5 with the 5-9 — in addition to everyday life — that created a whole new world of obstacles.
The constant work and effort it took to tackle the ups and downs that came with working both jobs became a “debilitating” experience for Kelly.
But she said once she started to prioritise her health as much as her business, growth has been out of the park.
Sleepless nights, long hours, and a strong passion for both her day job and side hustle, Kelly experienced what many entrepreneurs and career-focused individuals often forget about: burnout.
Jumping into the world of entrepreneurship on a whim, Kelly said it’s been nothing short of an “up and down journey”.
Not just mentally, either — it was the physical signs that led Kelly to make a change to how things worked.
Signs of burnout
“Shaking, collapsing, shortness of breath, that sort of thing… a big struggle in concentration and ability to work,” she said.
After realising the “burnout” was turning physical, Kelly dropped her Naked Wines day job and put her full focus on scaling VenueScanner.
Now? With a global staff of around 40, VenueScanner has seen 100 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, a 60 per cent increase in cost growth, and a wave of new members and bookings.
“I think the thing that fundamentally helped me was making this mental shift from a mindset perspective that my physical and mental health is critical to being able to achieve the things that I need to do,” Kelly said.
It’s not the same for everyone, she added, as she has met many “successful” entrepreneurs and career-focused individuals who have never experienced anything like she has.
Some signs can be more visible than others, she said, whether it be physical exhaustion, lack of emotional control, or even a change in mental processing power.
For what she likes to call her “curse of caring,” it all comes down to the individual.
Acknowledging that the 24/7 grind of entrepreneurship can often be addictive, she said it’s worth taking a step back to focus on what is still important: sleep, exercise, and limiting the “quiet killer,” that she considers to be screen time.
“I’ve been able to do a lot more by doing a lot less,” Kelly said. And now she puts her focus on making sure the wellbeing of her employees is her top priority.
“Caring about the people but also prioritising what you need to achieve as a business just flows through the company,” she added.
Offering flexible working hours, minimum rather than maximum holiday policies, and even as much as “work from anywhere August” initiatives, Kelly took the risk that she believed was needed.
Considering her “work from anywhere August” initiative to be the most risky, she said she saw the opposite response – the final quarter of the year had never been more productive.