Feeling Behind Doesn’t Mean You’re Failing

As a small business owner, it’s so easy to feel like you’re constantly behind. You’re juggling multiple roles - client work, admin, marketing, finances - while still trying to find time for the creative work that started it all.

You wear so many different hats in one day that it’s hard to know where one role ends and another begins. One minute you’re creating content or packaging orders, the next you’re replying to emails, sending invoices, or trying to learn a new system that everyone else seems to be using already.

Just when you feel like you’ve finally caught up, something else demands your attention. There’s always another task, another deadline, another thing you should be doing.

That’s the word that often sits quietly underneath it all — should.

I was recently reminded of an acronym for SHAME that I think is spot on: Should Have Already Mastered Everything.

It captures something I see so often in the creative business owners I work with, and in myself too. The pressure to know how to do everything, to be across all the moving parts, to have systems and strategies in place before we’ve even had a chance to properly learn.

The truth is, running a business means learning as you go. It’s messy and full of trial and error. You don’t get a handbook that tells you how to manage your time, your energy, your finances, and your creativity all at once.

I think however that it is exactly this that makes the experience so rich and why so many of us decided to start our own businesses. You get to forge your own path! This means that you get to create YOUR OWN MANUAL, not follow someone else's.

The trick here is not to compare yourself to what everyone else is doing, because then you are missing the point. 

When you catch yourself thinking you’re behind, pause for a moment. Ask yourself: behind compared to what?

Is it compared to a story you’ve told yourself about where you “should” be by now? Or compared to what you see others doing online, people who might have more support, time, or resources than you do?

The reality is that what you see on social media is often the polished version, the part that’s meant to be seen. It rarely shows the moments of doubt, the failed launches, or the projects that never made it past the idea stage.

Remember that you’re doing the best you can with what you know right now. That’s enough.

Progress in a creative business isn’t always visible. Sometimes it’s found in the small things, for instance the moment you say no to something that doesn’t fit, the day you take a proper break, or the time you finally send that email you’ve been putting off.

If you need a reminder today: you don’t have to have it all figured out. You’re allowed to be learning, adjusting, and evolving as you go.

Take a moment to notice how far you’ve already come.

What’s one small thing you could do today to honour that progress?