Most entrepreneurs think working less means earning less. Here’s why they’re wrong – and how I learned to work 25 hours a week while making more money than I did working 60.
Last Thursday, I wrapped up my work week at 11:30 AM after my final client call.
It’s a far cry from the days when I thought you had to work 60+ hours to run a business successfully – turns out you can run a business in 25 hours a week.
That week included content creation on Monday, client sessions Tuesday and Wednesday, and relationship building Thursday morning – a complete week of business activities organized around themed days instead of scattered chaos.
I just finished everything I needed to do in about 25 hours instead of the 60+ hours I used to work when I first started my business.
And here’s the kicker – I’m making more money now than I was when I was working myself into the ground.
If someone had told me you could run a business in 25 hours a week and actually increase your income back in 2015 when I was pulling 60-hour weeks and heading straight for burnout, I would have rolled my eyes so hard they’d have fallen out of my head.
But here’s what I’ve learned:
I was working way harder than I need to be.
This isn’t just my experience. It’s backed by a growing body of research on what experts call “the counterintuitive power of less“.
The key insight is that productivity isn’t linear. After about 35-40 hours per week, the law of diminishing returns kicks in hard, which is exactly why you can run a business in 25 hours a week more effectively than working 60+ hours.
Your brain simply isn’t designed for endless work. It needs rest to function at peak capacity. Rest isn’t the enemy of productivity, it’s the fuel that powers your next sprint of focused work.
When you work fewer hours, you create natural urgency that sharpens focus, eliminate time-wasting activities, and show up to work with renewed energy instead of running on fumes.
The Price of My ‘Successful’ Business
Every business guru talks about their success story, but they conveniently leave out the part where they were working 60-hour weeks, surviving on coffee and spite, and forgetting what their family members looked like.
I did that dance for years. In 2015, I hit my highest revenue year ever (my first six-figures!) and I was absolutely miserable. I had a growing team, multiple offers, and all the markers of a “successful” business.
I was also working more hours than I did in my soul-crushing corporate job (which, if you know my story, is saying something!).
This is what I learned as an important lesson: Time is the ultimate currency.
You can always make more money, but you can never make more time. When I was working 60+ hours a week, I was rich in revenue but completely bankrupt in the currency that actually matters, which was time with the people I love, time for health, time to enjoy the life I was supposedly building.
My body literally had to force me to stop. Complete burnout. Three months off just to remember what it felt like to be human again.
During that forced sabbatical, I had this wild thought:
What if I could make the same money working half the hours? What if I could run a business in 25 hours a week instead of 60? What if I could build something that didn’t need constant feeding and maintenance?
Here are the three big transitions I took to move away from the hustle to exploring a path less travelled in the business world – the journey to a tiny business model:
Why the 25-Hour Work Week
Before you think this is some kind of “4-hour workweek” fantasy, let me be clear. I’m not talking about outsourcing your entire business to virtual assistants in the Philippines or building some passive income empire that runs itself.
I’m talking about something much simpler and more sustainable:
Working intentionally instead of frantically.
When people ask me how to run a business 25 hours a week, they’re usually expecting some complicated system or hack. The reality is you can run a business in 25 hours a week with surprisingly simple changes.
It’s about learning how to work differently. Instead of filling every moment with busy work, you focus only on activities that actually move the needle. Instead of being reactive to whatever feels urgent, you become intentional about what deserves your energy.
The difference between a 60-hour week and a 25-hour week isn’t productivity hacks or time management tricks – it’s clarity.
When you know exactly what creates value in your business, you stop wasting time on everything else.
The rest of my time, I’m exploring Bali, supporting my aging aunt in Malaysia, taking random Wednesday afternoons off, or just being a human being who happens to run a business instead of someone whose entire existence revolves around their work.
How I Learned to Run a Business in 25 Hours a Week: The Five Key Shifts
Learning how to run a business in 25 hours a week seemed impossible until I made these key changes:
Shift #1: I Simplified My Offers
This one was painful but necessary. I went from having eight different ways people could work with me to having two main offers.
Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, I got crystal clear on my “genius zone” – which is the work that energizes me and creates the biggest transformation for my clients. Then I built my entire business around that.
The result? My marketing got simpler (because I only had to talk about one main thing), my client experience got better (because I could focus on doing it really well), and my revenue actually increased.
Turns out when you’re not spreading yourself across a dozen different offers, you can do your best work. And when you do your best work, you can absolutely run a business in 25 hours a week.
Here’s happened when I simplified to one core framework:
Shift #2: I Chose Premium Over Volume
This might be the most counterintuitive shift of all. Everyone talks about scaling by serving more people, but I discovered my sweet spot was serving fewer people at a premium level.
I realized I didn’t want to be a course creator managing hundreds of students. My genius zone was 1:1 coaching and building longer-term relationships where I could create real transformation.
Instead of working with 50 clients at $500 each, I could work with 5 clients at $5,500. Same revenue, but I actually got to know my clients, could focus on quality over quantity, and had the time to do my best work.
Shift #3: I Designed My Business Around My Energy
I’m what you might call a “sprinter”. I do my best work in 2-3 hour focused blocks, then I need a break. Trying to force myself to work 8-hour days was like trying to run a marathon at sprint pace. It feels exhausting and unsustainable.
So I redesigned my schedule around when I actually have energy. My best thinking happens in the morning, so that’s when I do client work and creative projects. Afternoons are for easier tasks or not working at all.
I also batch similar activities into themed days.
All my client calls happen on the same days. I batch content creation, administrative tasks, and planning sessions so each day has a clear focus. This eliminates the mental energy drain of constantly switching between different types of work.
Understanding your natural energy patterns is crucial when you want to run a business in 25 hours a week successfully.
Shift #4: I Stopped Confusing Busy with Productive
You know that feeling when you work all day but can’t point to anything meaningful you actually accomplished? That was my life for years.
I was responding to every email within 30 seconds, jumping on calls that could have been emails, and basically treating my business like a needy toddler that required constant attention.
The wake-up call came when I tracked my time for three weeks and realized I was spending 70% of it on activities that had zero impact on my income or my clients’ results.
Now I focus on what I call “needle-moving activities” – the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of my results. Everything else either gets delegated, automated, or just doesn’t get done.
This shift alone helped me cut my working hours in half while maintaining my business results. It was one of the most important steps towards learning to run a business in 25 hours a week.
Shift #5: I Got Ruthless About Boundaries
This is where most people struggle, and I get it. When you’re building a business, saying “no” feels scary. What if you miss out on opportunities? What if people think you’re not committed?
But boundaries aren’t about being difficult. They’re about protecting your ability to do your best work.
I don’t check email after 3 PM. I don’t work weekends unless I choose to. I don’t take calls outside my designated work hours. And you know what happened? My clients respect me more, not less.
When you model healthy boundaries, you give other people permission to have them too.
Want to build a streamlined, profitable business you can run in 25 hours a week or less?
Explore the roadmap for working less while earning more:
What My Week Actually Looks Like
This is what it actually looks like when you run a business in 25 hours a week. Instead of cramming everything into every day, I organize my week around themes that align with my natural energy and business needs:
Monday (CREATE): Content creation day
- 8:00 AM: Outline next YouTube videos (1.5 hours)
- 9:00 AM: Schedule week’s content and plan social posts (1 hour)
- 10:00 AM: Write newsletter or blog content (1 hour)
- Total: 3.5 hours of pure creative work
Tuesday & Wednesday (MENTOR): Client-focused days
- 7:30 AM: Quick email check (30 minutes)
- 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Discovery calls and 1:1 coaching sessions (3 hours)
- 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Additional client calls on specific days for my EU clients (2 hours)
- Total: Max 5 hours each day, focused on coaching work
Thursday (MENTOR + CONNECT): Client work + relationship building
- 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Final client calls of the week (2 hours)
- 10:30 AM – 11:30 PM: Client love – where I check in with past clients who could become repeat clients and colleagues who could refer me (1 hour)
- Total: 3 hours wrapping up the week’s client work
Friday (REST & PLAN): Business admin and planning
- 10:00 AM: Money date – reviewing finances (30 minutes)
- 10:30 AM: Business review and planning next week (2 hours)
- Afternoon: Friday fun day – completely off
- Total: 2.5 hours reviewing my biz and planning the next week
Weekly total: About 15 hours of focused work (with some buffer of 6 hours in “flex time” for ebbs and flows throughout the week), then I’m free to live my life.
Compare that to my old schedule where I’d start checking emails at 6 AM and finish answering them at 10 PM, with “work” bleeding into every corner of my day.
The key to making a 25-hour work week successful is being incredibly intentional about those hours and batching similar activities together so you can get into flow states instead of constantly context-switching.
The Biggest Myth About a 25-Hour Work Week
You might be thinking, “If I work less, won’t I earn less?”
This is the biggest myth in entrepreneurship, and I believed it for years.
There’s zero correlation between hours worked and income earned.
Think about it. Do you want to get paid by the hour or by the value you create? If you’re running a business (not trading time for money), then what matters is the impact of your work, not the quantity of hours you put in.
I know lawyers billing 80-hour weeks who make less than coaches working 20 hours. I know consultants working around the clock who earn less than course creators who work a few hours a day.
The difference is the high earners focus on high-value activities. They’ve simplified their business model. They’ve created systems that work without constant intervention.
Your Next Steps to Run a Business in 25 Hours a Week
I’m not going to pretend you can go from 60 hours to 25 hours overnight. This is a process, and it requires some fundamental changes in how you think about work and success.
But if you’re tired of the hamster wheel and ready to try a different approach, here’s your step-by-step plan to run a business in 25 hours a week:
This week: Track your time. Every hour, for seven days. You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. I guarantee you’ll be shocked at where your time actually goes.
Next week: Identify your three most important business activities which are the ones that directly impact your income or your clients’ success. Everything else is just busy work.
The week after: Experiment with batching similar tasks and protecting your highest-energy hours for your most important work.
Start small. Even reducing your work week by 5-10 hours while maintaining your income is a massive win.
The Permission You’ve Been Waiting For
You don’t have to earn your worth through exhaustion.
Working yourself into the ground isn’t noble. It’s not impressive. It’s just inefficient.
You started your business for freedom. The goal isn’t just to run a business 25 hours a week, it’s to build something that gives you the life you actually want.
Most of us don’t even realize where our energy is actually going. We’re so used to the hamster wheel that we can’t see which activities are actually moving the needle and which ones are just keeping us busy.
When you run a business 25 hours a week intentionally, you’re not working less – you’re working smarter.”
That’s why I created a simple 15-minute audit to help you figure out exactly where to start and it’ll help you:
- Identify what’s actually draining your energy (it’s probably not what you think)
- Map your natural energy rhythms so you can work with them instead of against them
- Spot the recovery gaps that are keeping you stuck in overdrive
- Create a simple action plan to reclaim hours in your week
Grab the free Work Smarter, Not Harder Audit here and discover where your time and energy are really going. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have a clear roadmap for working less while accomplishing more.
