One of the hardest, but also most rewarding, things I’ve done in my professional career is navigating an online business.

Today on my podcast, the A Gutsy Girl podcast, I announced that the show would be coming to an end on October 10, 2023.

If you care to listen to this short episode, here it is.

There is the emotional – or maybe it’s just vanity? – side to a business, but the part that matters most in the end is the actual business side.

An Experiment

So I did a little experiment.

For about an entire week, all I focused on was how I was spending my time.

Actually, it reminded me a lot of the process I teach with my gut healing journal – meticulously tracking in all the right ways to identify more about what causes the drain.

I wrote down my daily activities – tasks I had to complete for the business and projects I was working on.

Then, I wrote how long it took me to complete each of them, and finally I wrote out how those tasks made me feel.

Finally, after the week was over, I wrote more on the impact the week made.

What were the things that both delighted me and moved the needle for the business?

Here’s what I found:

1. I waste a lot of time.
2. From my list, seemingly 100 new ‘to do’ items were created.
3. I spend a lot of time on the podcast.
4. The needle was moving, but not necessarily due to any of the first three.

These realizations lead to many things, but maybe more so than anything else, they lead to action and decisions for pivoting A Gutsy Girl.

Navigating an Online Business

Since the very first days of owning A Gutsy Girl the comments from friends, family members, and acquaintances have always run rampant around the idea that…

all I do all day is “play” on the Internet.

I’m not calling any one person out, and I’m not even saying this has been a daily occurrence, but I can’t count the number of times variations of those simple words have been shared with me.

And, as an online creator and owner of an online business for over a decade now, I can tell you with full conviction that any way those words are spun are simply flawed.

I can also say that navigating an online business has been, by far, the hardest “job” I’ve ever done.

By 2026

While I love what I have created with and for A Gutsy Girl, I will also now announce that this shift has been a long time coming.

By 2026, I have the intentions of selling A Gutsy Girl.

Putting this out into the universe and online makes it feel all too real, but it also has me confident for how and where I’m spending my work hours on the business.

In 2024

Most years, I start focusing on the subsequent year for all business activity sometime mid-December.

But not this year.

This year, because I’m navigating an online business through change, it has already begun.

There are 5 main areas for A Gutsy Girl that we are going to bring to a whole new level.

And these 5 areas were determined by carefully reviewing both numbers and the impact on women with IBS and/or IBD who have provided positive feedback.

1. A Gutsy Girl . com – the website, namely catering even more to those with diagnosed or suspected SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)
2. The supplement line at guthealingsupplements.com
3. Gut Healing for Beginners (our main digital course)
4. The gut healing journal
5. My signature book, A Gutsy Girl’s Bible: a 21-day approach to healing the gut

Online Business: the lonely road

When I worked in Corporate America, it never felt lonely because there was always a co-worker to bounce ideas (successes and complaints!) off of.

On any given day, I could look sideways and see at least 5 other people who were in my (seemingly) exact same shoes.

But out here, growing an online business and creating something from nothing (literally did this when I launched the brand in 2012) is oftentimes isolating and lonely.

And this is why I chose to write this all out here, on my personal website vs. the business website.

It serves a twofold purpose:

1. A great place to establish accountability
2. An invitation for other online entrepreneurs to get this same sense of “community”

I’m looking forward to even more growth, sharing the journey, and ultimately selling A Gutsy Girl.

Because, you know….as an online entrepreneur it’s about so much more than merely “playing all day on the Internet.”

Just me —

Sarah Kay Hoffman