Why Your Female-Led Business Feels Busy but Isn’t Moving Forward
Business Feels Busy
Late in the evening, when most households are quiet, many service-based founders find their minds still racing. Rosters, invoices, staff issues, participant needs, compliance deadlines. The workday may be over, but the mental load continues. For Vanessa Norman, this pattern was all too familiar.
Norman built a disability services business from the ground up, growing it to $4 million in revenue within just five years, supporting 200 participants with a team of 50 staff. Her organisation was widely recognised for its care model and operational success. Today, she shares her expertise as a business coach and mentor, helping NDIS providers and other service-based entrepreneurs create sustainable, scalable systems that reduce stress while increasing impact.
“By the time I got into bed, my body was exhausted but my brain was still at work,” Norman recalls. “I would lie there thinking about superannuation, tax, whether someone would call in sick at 2 a.m., whether we could afford the next hire. It felt like I was carrying the entire business in my head.”
While the NDIS sector has its own unique pressures, Norman believes the feeling of being constantly busy but achieving little is common across many industries.
“People think they have a motivation problem or a discipline problem,” she says. “In reality, most of the time it is a structure problem.”
The Illusion of Progress
In disability services, activity can easily be mistaken for progress. Teams are busy, participants are supported, paperwork is completed, and compliance requirements are met. From the outside, the organisation appears functional and successful.
“Everything looked fine on paper,” Norman explains. “Rosters were full, invoices were going out, staff were working, participants were being supported. But I remember thinking, why does this still feel so fragile? Why does one staff resignation feel like a crisis?”
She describes a disconnect between effort and outcome that many founders quietly experience.
“You are working harder, but revenue is not increasing in proportion. Margins feel tight. You feel like you are running just to stay in the same place,” she says. “That can really erode your confidence as a leader.”
When Growth Creates Fragility
Norman believes many service businesses reach a point where complexity grows faster than their systems.
“As you grow, you add staff, participants, compliance layers, but you do not always add the structures that make growth sustainable,” she explains. “Instead of feeling more stable, you feel more exposed.”
She recalls the moment she realised her own business had reached this point.
“I had built something that looked successful from the outside, but internally it felt like everything depended on me,” she says. “If I stopped, the business slowed. If I got sick, everything was at risk. That is not sustainable leadership.”
Structure Over Hustle
For Norman, the turning point came when she stopped trying to work harder and started examining how the business was designed.
“I realised that every decision required me. Every escalation came to me. That meant the business could only move at my speed,” she says. “You cannot scale a business that way.”
She now encourages founders to focus on delegation, documented processes, and clearly defined responsibilities.
The Cost of Constant Reactivity
Another trap, Norman says, is spending most of the day reacting. You are covering shifts, managing complaints, rescheduling services, responding to emergencies. All of that feels productive, but none of it builds the future.
She believes this reactive cycle is one of the biggest barriers to growth.
“If you are always putting out fires, you never get to build anything,” she says. “You never strengthen systems, you never plan strategically, and you never create space for growth.”
Redefining Progress
For Norman, progress is not about doing more tasks, but about designing better systems.
“Being busy is not the same as moving forward,” she says. “Real progress happens when the business can function, grow, and make decisions without everything running through one person.”
She believes the coming years will require service-based businesses to rethink how they operate.
“The opportunity now is to move from constant motion to intentional design,” she says. “When you build the right structures and clarify priorities, you stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling in control again.”
About the Creator
The Loneliest People Are the Most Liked
I have 3,842 followers. And no one to call when my chest feels heavy at 11:47 p.m. It sounds dramatic when I say it out loud, which is probably why I don’t say it. Instead, I post. A photo. A joke. A thoughtful caption about growth. A filtered version of a life that looks full. People respond the way they always do — hearts, laughing emojis, “You’re glowing lately,” “Proud of you,” “You’re such a positive soul.” Positive. That word follows me everywhere. I learned early that people like warmth. They like the friend who listens more than they speak. The one who remembers birthdays. The one who shows up smiling, even when they arrived tired. So I became that person. Not because I was fake — but because it worked. Being liked feels a lot like being safe. When you’re liked, people clap for you. They invite you places. They tag you in things. They assume you’re doing well. And assumptions are comfortable. No one looks too closely at someone who seems fine. I seem fine. The loneliest people aren’t the quiet ones in the corner. Sometimes they’re the loudest laugh in the room. The ones who know how to carry a conversation. The ones who can make strangers feel seen. I know how to make people feel seen. I just don’t know how to let them see me. There’s a difference. When you’re the “strong” friend, the “funny” friend, the “put-together” one, you slowly become a role instead of a person. And roles don’t get comforted. They perform. At gatherings, I float between groups like I belong everywhere. I ask questions. I remember details. I make connections. I leave with new followers, new contacts, new proof that I’m socially successful. And then I go home and sit on the edge of my bed in complete silence. No notifications feel the same as conversation. No heart emoji replaces eye contact. No comment section replaces someone noticing that your voice sounded off. Sometimes I scroll through my own profile to understand why I feel so empty. The grid is curated. Balanced. Happy. There’s evidence of friendships, coffee dates, achievements, small adventures. If someone studied my page, they’d think I’m surrounded. Maybe that’s why I don’t reach out when I need help. Who would believe the person who always looks okay? There’s a strange pressure in being well-liked. You don’t want to disappoint the image people hold of you. You don’t want to be “too much.” You don’t want to shift from inspiring to overwhelming. So you swallow the heaviness. You reply, “I’m good!” automatically. You become efficient at redirecting conversations away from yourself. You tell yourself loneliness is dramatic. After all, you’re constantly interacting. Constantly visible. But visibility isn’t intimacy. And being known is not the same as being recognized. I remember one night in particular. I had just posted something vulnerable — but not too vulnerable. Carefully measured honesty. The kind that hints at depth but doesn’t expose the wound. It went viral. Messages poured in. “Thank you for saying this.” “You always articulate things so well.” “You’re so brave.” I stared at the screen and felt nothing. Because bravery would have been telling someone specific, “I’m not okay.” Bravery would have been admitting that I feel invisible even when I’m admired. But admiration is addictive. It fills the surface. It doesn’t reach the center. The loneliest people are often the most liked because they learned how to survive by being agreeable. Being helpful. Being impressive. They built connection skills before they built vulnerability skills. I know how to network. I don’t know how to need. There’s a fear underneath it — what if people like the version of me that doesn’t ask for anything? What if the moment I reveal the mess, the overthinking, the quiet sadness, the confusion… the likes fade? So I maintain. I keep conversations light. I keep problems private. I keep performing stability. And the world rewards me for it. But sometimes, late at night, I wonder what it would feel like to be deeply understood instead of widely appreciated. To have one person notice the pause before I say “I’m fine.” To have someone call without a reason. To sit in silence with another human and not feel the need to entertain. Loneliness isn’t always about physical isolation. It’s about emotional distance. It’s about realizing that many people enjoy you, but very few truly know you. And maybe that’s partly my fault. Being liked gave me control. If I’m useful, funny, inspiring — people stay. If I’m messy, confused, uncertain — that feels risky. But slowly, I’m learning something uncomfortable. Connection requires risk. The kind where you let someone see the unedited version. The kind where you say, “I don’t have it together.” The kind where you admit you don’t want advice — just presence. The first time I told a friend, “I’ve been feeling really alone,” my voice shook. It felt dramatic. Unnecessary. Embarrassing. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t minimize it. She said, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I didn’t have an answer. Maybe because I was too busy being liked. Maybe because I confused applause with affection. Maybe because I thought needing someone would make me less admirable. But something shifted that night. A small crack in the performance. A small step away from being universally appreciated and slightly more personally known. I still have 3,842 followers. But now I also have one person who knows that sometimes, I sit on the edge of my bed and feel the weight of everything. And somehow, that one connection feels louder than all the notifications combined. The loneliest people are often the most liked. Not because they are fake. But because they learned how to shine in public and hide in private. I’m tired of hiding. I don’t want to be everyone’s favorite. I just want to be someone’s real.
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