What Should I Stop Doing in My Business to Increase Revenue?

Everyone asks what to add. Nobody asks what to subtract. Here's what I quit — and why the money followed.

What I Quit (And Why the Money Followed)

We have this collective obsession with adding. We add more content to our calendars, more offers to our websites, more tools to our tech stack, and more hustle to our already exhausting weeks. We think that if we just do more, we'll finally hit that revenue goal.

But let me tell you a truth that nobody shares when you start a business: real growth usually comes from subtracting.

A few years ago, I hit a wall. I was working all the time, my revenue was stagnant, and I was completely fried. I decided to run an experiment. Instead of asking, "What should I add?", I asked, "What can I stop doing right now?"

Here are five things I completely quit. In every single case, my revenue either stayed exactly the same or went up. And in every single case, my sanity improved dramatically.

1. I Stopped Posting Daily Without a Strategy

I was convinced that if I didn't show up on social media every single day, the algorithm would punish me and my business would dry up. So, I was throwing up random quotes, behind-the-scenes coffee cup photos, and whatever else I could think of just to check the box.

It was exhausting. And you know what? It wasn't converting. So I cut back to posting three times a week, but with a highly specific strategy and a clear call-to-action (CTA). My engagement dipped slightly, but my bookings didn't change at all. It turns out, nobody was hiring me because of my Wednesday Instagram Story. They were hiring me because my core message resonated. Quality absolutely trumps quantity.

2. I Stopped Getting on Discovery Calls with Everyone

If someone had a pulse and an email address, I would get on a 45-minute Zoom call with them. I thought I was being accessible. In reality, I was letting people use my calendar for free consulting disguised as a "discovery call."

I finally added a short application form that people had to fill out before they could book a call. The people who were serious happily took the three minutes to fill it out. The people who were just looking for free advice disappeared. My calendar opened up by six hours a week, and my close rate on the calls I actually took skyrocketed.

3. I Stopped the Endless 1:1 "Coffee Chats"

This one hurt, because I genuinely like people. But I was spending hours every week in virtual coffee chats that felt productive but were actually just a comfortable way to avoid doing hard revenue-generating tasks.

I realized I couldn't scale 1:1 networking. So, I replaced those endless individual chats with a monthly group Q&A session. It served the exact same purpose—building community and answering questions—but it took a fraction of the time. Plus, it positioned me as an authority rather than just a friendly peer.

4. I Stopped Rewriting My Website Constantly

Every time I had a slow week, I would convince myself that my website was the problem. I would spend hours tweaking the copy on my About page or changing the hex codes on my buttons. It was a classic procrastination tactic.

I finally forced myself to stop. I picked a "good enough" version of my site, left it completely alone, and focused all that energy on driving actual traffic to it. The "perfect website" was an illusion that was costing me the clients who would have happily bought from the "good enough" one.

5. I Stopped Checking Analytics Daily

I used to start every morning by checking my Stripe dashboard, my email open rates, and my social media reach. If the numbers were down, I would spiral into a "my business is failing" panic by 9:30 AM. It made me incredibly reactive.

I switched to checking my metrics once a week during my CEO time. Daily checks give you anxiety; weekly reviews give you trends. You can't make strategic decisions based on a Tuesday dip, but you can absolutely make them based on a month-long pattern.

Subtraction is a Growth Strategy

We need to stop wearing exhaustion as a badge of honor. Your business capacity is a container. If it is filled to the brim with low-ROI tasks, you literally have no room to welcome in high-ROI clients or creative ideas.

The next time you are tempted to add something new to your plate, stop and ask yourself first: What can I remove? The answer might just be the thing that finally moves the needle.

Addition is easy. Subtraction requires courage.

Stop trying to out-work a broken business model. Remove the friction, protect your energy, and watch your revenue follow.

Heidi

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