How to run a sustainability audit of your business

Apparently, it is yet another goal-setting season. In between all the Lunar New Year posts about it being the year of the fire horse (and how we should subsequently be bounding towards the new year and Giving It Our All), and the almost-Spring posts determining that if you haven’t stuck to your new year goals yet, then Q2 is actually a wonderful time to re-start with goal setting, I have found myself becoming overwhelmed.

I, like the entire internet, have big goals for 2026, and there is so much I want to achieve.

But this relentless obsession with setting new goals and the determination that this year simply must be great sometimes feels like it achieves the opposite.

Regardless, I have, of course, been sucked in by the content and, in spite of myself, begun to reflect on my own goals.

And what I’ve learned is that this year I want to focus on building a business that’s sustainable for me as the founder.

Last year, I pushed myself ever so slightly too far. There were at least three nights a week when I would be working until midnight, and I found myself working the majority of weekends too. I kept telling myself I was building my dream business, so hard work was inevitable (which I still believe to some degree), but the level of hard work I was putting in simply wasn’t sustainable.

I made sustainability a big part of my strategy focus for clients in my workshops, helping founders reflect on whether they were building sustainable businesses for themselves, yet I contradicted my own best practices by never conducting a sustainability audit on my own.

So if you want a genuinely impactful goal for New Year Round 2, then I’m letting you in on how I conduct a sustainability audit on my business.

My first new goal is to get MORE takeout coffee. Yes it costs £3.50 but also yes it makes me happy, gets me outside, and is a worthwhile cost for a good start to my day. Here’s to the small wins!

Let me take you back to my A-Level Psychology class.

Creating a sustainable business means building something that you, as the founder, both desire and enjoy doing.

Of course, sustainability involves many layers. Regardless of how much you enjoy or want to do something, working 20 hours daily, 7 days a week, isn’t sustainable. Conversely, if you’re just beginning and only work two hours for three days a week, that probably won’t be financially sustainable. (If you discover that perfect balance, please share more.)

Without disclaiming every other aspect that makes a business successful, I choose to focus on how you can sustain your engagement with your business, whatever rollercoasters entrepreneurship will inevitably present. And the best way to do this is to reference Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT was initially developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in the 1970’s, and is one of the most studied frameworks of human motivation.

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The framework is based on the idea that extrinsic rewards (like money or praise) can actually reduce intrinsic motivation. Instead, what truly sustains engagement and loyalty is the satisfaction of three universal psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

In simple terms, as a founder, relying solely on money is unlikely to keep you motivated or energised. You can’t create a sustainable business if it compromises your sense of autonomy, competence, or relatedness. And this feeling of suffocation from unmet needs causes many businesses to stall.

So how do you build a business that feels sustainable?

You need to ensure you are meeting all of your autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs as a founder or employee.

That’s quite a broad statement, though. So, to help me reflect on the sustainability of my own business, I developed a sort of quiz that I score myself on, using SDT. I’ve outlined 5 questions within of the 3 needs, covering the main areas of business that I foresee as the most important:

• Vision & direction

• Day-to-day work

• Services & offers

• Learning & growth

• Energy & wellbeing

I try to ensure I am always scoring at least 3 out of 5 in each area, but as expected, when I return to this quiz because I not feeling quite aligned with my business, inevitably one (or more) of my scores has dropped below that 3/5 target.

Mostly I resolve it by getting outside for a long (preferably) sunny walk, but an online quiz does help me to confirm that need!

Autonomy: Feeling that you’re in control

You need to make sure your offers and processes align with your values. If you’re building a business that forces you into things you don’t enjoy or believe in, your motivation will collapse, and you won’t succeed.

Score yourself out of 5:

1. Am I shaping a business aligned with my unique values?

2. Does my schedule feel like a choice and right for me, or am I reacting to demands/ expectations?

3. Do these offers feel true to me, or am I forcing myself into models that I don’t enjoy?

4. Do I get to choose what I learn?

5. Am I setting boundaries that protect my freedom?

For me, autonomy looks like offering services I genuinely believe in, and prioritising the small things I know make a big difference to my mindset.

I will (almost) always get out for a walk pre-work, even if it means starting work a little later than I had planned. And I make sure I truly believe in the services that I offer, so I can feel excited by them.

I genuinely enjoy hosting workshops and supporting people with brainstorming. My number one advice is always to find something you enjoy doing!

Competence: Making your work challenging but achievable.

Your services need to stretch your ability to stay energised and interested, but you still need to be confident in your skills so you can feel good about your work. This is about finding the right balance between work that nudges you to constantly improve your own capabilities without drowning yourself.

Score yourself out of 5:

1. Do I have clarity in my goals and know the steps to get there?

2. Do I have systems that help me feel effective?

3. Do I feel confident I can deliver what I’m selling, with room to stretch?

4. Am I developing skills that make me feel more capable and energised?

5. Am I creating routines that help me feel strong rather than depleted?

One of my main motivations for going self-employed was to stretch myself further and see what I could be capable of. But there’s definitely balance within that. For me, I want to make sure I am continually learning for both now and the future, as growing my skill set in all directions helps me feel increasingly competent.

So, I challenge myself to learn something new each month that I know I will enjoy, whether or not it’s directly related to my work. But I also encourage myself to reflect quarterly on my work from the same time period, one year prior. Meaning I can truly see how far I’ve come, and prove to myself how my skills are developing. (This is also then a great reminder to myself that I need to increase my prices in line with my increasing skills, again reaffirming my competence to myself!).

Relatedness: Our universal need to feel belonging

You can’t build success in a vacuum, but this looks different for everyone. If you’re an extroverted person, look for services that ensure you’ll have regular contact with people, ideally even in person. If you’re more introverted, focus on how you can set up mentors or peer networks in a similar position to you to still keep that connection.

Score yourself out of 5:

1. Do I have peers or mentors I can test ideas with so I’m not carrying vision alone?

2. Do I have accountability or co-working rhythms that make the work less isolating?

3. Am I building offers that connect me with people I actually want to work with?

4. Do I have communities or programmes that make growth feel shared?

5. Am I spending enough time with people outside my business to feel balanced?

For transparency, this is the one area that I am currently struggling with, largely because I find it the hardest to control. When I am especially busy with work, I often find my social life is the first to drop. And whilst I am lucky enough to work with great clients, I do struggle with having local friends available for co-working (curse the corporate world for getting people back into the office!).

So, without boring you with the exact details, this is my ‘New Year 2.0’ goal to focus on building in less of a vacuum and re-focusing on connections more.

My infamous winter sangria recipe. Great for making friends on a Saturday evening, less so Sunday morning. And not one for co-working.

Are you building a sustainable business?

As a complete disclaimer, the irony of me writing this at 10pm the night before I hit publish (it’s currently 2nd March and my 10 subscribers will hopefully be reading this on the 3rd March), is not lost on me. But building a business is a journey, and building a sustainable one is simply an even longer path. Soon, I will be back to writing this a whole week in advance and spending my Monday night finishing off Bridgerton instead. Alas!

But for now, I’d love to hear what else you’re doing to build a business that’s sustainable for the you of today and the you of the future. And this is a reminder to both myself and you that your happiness in your work is just as important as your customers’ happiness.

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