Yet here you are, apologizing to a client for not responding to a message immediately. Feeling guilty on a Tuesday afternoon when you’ve only worked for four hours that day. Checking Slack at 9:00 PM because that’s been your routine for most of your working career.
Many solopreneurs don’t realize they’ve inadvertently recreated corporate life until they’re already living it. You traded a demanding boss for a dozen demanding clients. You swapped mandatory meetings for back-to-back Zoom calls. That freedom you craved? Doesn’t exist in your solopreneur world.
To find actual freedom as a solopreneur, you have to recognize that you’re following a corporate playbook—and make a conscious decision to change.
Identify your ‘corporate workday’ habits
Corporate habits are deeply ingrained. We’ve worked that way for so long that they just feel like “how work is supposed to be done.”
For me, it was the instant email (or Slack) response. In my corporate job, quick replies signaled that I was on top of things, engaged, and reliable. When I started freelancing, I brought that habit with me. If a client sent me an email, I’d reply immediately—even if I was in the middle of the grocery store.
Here’s something to try: What would happen if you took an entire day off, unplanned? Not a vacation day you scheduled weeks in advance, but a spontaneous decision to step away from your client work on a Wednesday. Does that break your clients’ expectations around your response time? Does the idea make you feel a bit squeamish?
