4 things I do to take time off in my online business (and not lose momentum)

Let’s be honest. For a lot of women in business, “time off” doesn’t actually mean time off. It means answering DMs from the beach. Sending emails between school holiday chaos. Holding your breath, hoping nothing breaks while you step away. And if you’ve ever taken a proper break only to come back to empty inboxes, no leads, and a flat launch, you know how real the fear is. So today, I want to walk you through exactly how I take time off in my business without losing momentum, even while running what has, until very recently, been a one-woman show. This isn’t theory. This is lived experience. Including the year I got it very wrong.

Behind the scenes: why this episode matters

For the first time in many years, my business has gone through a true rebuild. Team changes. Structure changes. Capacity changes. A full house renovation layered on top of all of it. There were weeks where my internet was out for hours, trades were in and out of the house daily, and my schedule had zero predictability. And yet, the business continued to grow. Not because I worked harder. But because the foundations were finally doing the heavy lifting. If you’re an expert service provider, coach, or consultant who wants to scale without sacrificing family time, health, or sanity, this matters. Because momentum doesn’t come from constant visibility. It comes from systems that keep working when you don’t.

The biggest mindset shift: stop trying to do everything yourself

Before we get into the strategies, we need to name the real issue. Many women subconsciously believe that having it all means doing it all. It doesn’t. One of the most important, and humbling, lessons of 2025 for me was this: If I want a part-time business, I cannot run it like a full-time solo operator. For years, I’ve worked with contractors. Podcast managers, VAs, Pinterest managers. Because I knew capacity protection mattered. But this year forced me to grow up as a CEO. I’ve now hired my first bona fide employee, with payroll, workers’ compensation, and all the grown-up things that come with it. And honestly, that decision alone has changed how sustainable this business feels. So consider this your bonus tip: If your business collapses the moment you step away, the issue isn’t your work ethic. It’s your structure.

The real problem with “time off” in online business

Most people think time off kills momentum because:

They stop posting
They stop launching
They stop selling

But that’s not actually the issue. The issue is that their business relies entirely on manual effort. No systems. No lead flow. No pre-launch runway. Which means every break comes with a cost. Momentum doesn’t disappear because you rest. It disappears because nothing was set up before you rested.

The framework: how I take time off without losing momentum

Here are the four core strategies I use, especially in December and January, to protect momentum while protecting my life. These work whether you’re a one-woman show, a two-woman show, or scaling beyond that.

1. I run ads (and treat them like my hardest-working employee)

If there is one non-negotiable in my business now, it’s this: My business does not rely on my daily presence on social media. Instead, I run paid ads to:

Lead magnets
Webinars
Waitlists
Applications

Those funnels are always warming people up, always adding qualified leads into my ecosystem, always doing the work in the background. I genuinely think of Meta Ads as one of the hardest-working employees in my business:

They never take holidays
They never burn out
They optimise constantly

And because of that, I can step back without everything grinding to a halt.

Why ads matter more than you think

If you are not consistently generating 300 to 500 new email subscribers per month, there is a bottleneck in your business. Full stop. That bottleneck is often the reason your launches feel:

Small
Stressful
Inconsistent

Because you’re launching to the same audience again and again. Right now, especially post-Cyber Monday, ads are in one of the cheapest periods of the year. If you’re not using this window to warm leads for the new year, you’re leaving serious momentum on the table.

2. I stack end-of-year and beginning-of-year sales

December is not a dead zone. It’s one of the most psychologically primed times of the year. People are:

Reflecting on what didn’t work
Planning for what they want next
Deciding what support they need

While many business owners take their foot off the pedal, I do the opposite, strategically. From September through January, I’m:

Inviting clients to re-sign
Opening applications
Running launches or pre-launch activity
Stacking offers intentionally

Inside the Mastermind, we call this a double-dip strategy. You invite people into a cohort that starts in January or February, but you open those invitations months earlier. That means you can head into the new year with:

Revenue locked in
Capacity planned
Nervous system regulated

There is nothing more grounding than entering January knowing your income is already secured.

3. I refuse to reinvent the wheel

This one is personal. I have one core transformation that I support clients with. One core philosophy. One primary offer. And while that offer has evolved dramatically over the years, the essence has remained the same. Which means:

My webinars are similar
My messaging is consistent
My frameworks are refined, not recreated

I’ve been running iterations of my core Mastermind for nearly six years. The content is better. The results are stronger. But I’m not starting from scratch every time. 2026 is a double-down year for me, not an experimentation year. And that’s how momentum compounds. If you’re constantly rebuilding, you’re constantly resetting.

4. I plan my entire business around school holidays first

This is one of the most overlooked, and powerful, strategies for women in business. Before I plan launches, content, or promotions, I do this:

I block out all school holidays
I add personal commitments
I note low-capacity periods

Only then do I plan launches. Why? Because running a webinar two days into school holidays without support is a recipe for resentment. When you plan life first, business fits around it, not the other way around. Inside the Mastermind, we:

Map the full year
Forecast revenue
Plan launch cycles
Budget intentionally

That clarity alone removes so much mental load.

The lesson I learned the hard way

At the end of 2022, I dropped the ball. I didn’t have anything running over December and January. I was exhausted. I left everything too late. And I paid for it. It took me until June to feel like I had caught up. Marketing is a lagging indicator. If you want sales in February, what you do now is what matters. That’s why I no longer treat the end of the year as optional.

If you want momentum and time off, here’s your next step

If you’re an expert service provider who wants to:

Build recurring revenue
Move into one-to-many offers
Scale without burning out
Stop relying on constant visibility

Then the Peace + Profit Mastermind is the place to do it. Applications are currently open. Official onboarding begins in February, but we support you immediately, including strategy, funnel planning, and pre-launch setup, so you don’t lose this window. Come into my DMs and send: “I’m interested in the Mastermind.” I’ll send you the details and help you decide if it’s the right next step for where you are now. And make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast. I have some epic episodes coming up where I’ll take you behind the scenes of what worked, what failed, and what’s coming next.