The invisible labour tax that holds women entrepreneurs back

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

Have you ever finished an entire workday feeling like you’ve been flat out, but when you look back you wonder what you actually achieved? And then you realise you booked the dentist, you remembered someone’s birthday, you organised dinner, you paid a bill, folded three loads of washing, replied to an email from the teacher at school, and you realise you’re also trying to build a business in amongst that.

Today on the podcast, I wanna talk about something that I genuinely believe is holding back so many incredible women entrepreneurs, the invisible labor tax. All right, let’s dive in.

Welcome to the Intentional Money Show, where we talk business growth, profitability, mindset, and building a wildly successful creative or digital business without sacrificing your life in the process. I’m Clare Wood, business profit coach, speaker, author, and unapologetic believer that you can build wealth and freedom doing work you genuinely love.

Each week on the podcast, we dive into the strategies and honest conversations that will help you scale sustainably, increase your profit, and build a business that actually feels good to run. Let’s grow your profit.

So what exactly is the invisible labor tax? Invisible labor isn’t just the jobs you physically do, it’s all the mental tabs that are permanently open in your brain. Like it’s remembering there’s no milk left, or remembering that your child has a dress up day at school next Friday.

It’s organizing the social calendar and following up on things that perhaps no one else in the household even knows that you’re doing because you’re basically project managing an entire household. Because many business owners work from home or have, inverted commas, “flexible hours,” what I find is that a lot of the load lands with them.

So you’re trying to build your empire, but you have this other entire full-time job on top carrying the invisible labor of the household. Women spend two to three times more time on unpaid labor work in households every week. And we wonder why so many female founders are exhausted and not reaching their full potential.

It’s because we’re programmed to be the default mental load carrier and the default parent even though we have our own goals and dreams. And what we see is that female entrepreneurs experience higher burnout rates than their male counterparts. It’s because every single day your brain starts with like 50 tabs already open before you’ve even opened your laptop.

And so of course, as a result, your creativity suffers and you feel like you’re constantly putting out fires instead of strategically leading. And often what I see with my clients is they think, “I just need another AI tool. I need a productivity hack.” But sometimes what you actually need is less on your plate.

So here’s how this flows into business. A lot of times what’s happening is you’re doing all the things. You think, “I’ll just quickly put on that load of washing, and then I can dive into work.” But we know that a stressed brain isn’t a creative brain. And so what you find is that you don’t have the capacity to create your best content.

You’re feeling too exhausted to show up and confidently sell.

Listening to this episode, maybe you’re realising that you’re the household CEO before you are behaving like a business CEO.

No AI tool or productivity hack can compensate for chronic mental overload. So how do we go about actually creating change? Now, this isn’t about blaming partners because, your partner might be really fabulous in helping out, but perhaps they’re not carrying the same level of mental load that you are.

So the first step isn’t about working out who’s to blame for this. It’s about creating awareness of the invisible labor imbalance. Because for many households, it just simply becomes the default. So the first step is making the invisible visible. Having these uncomfortable conversations, sharing how much you actually are carrying.

Because we’ve accidentally become so good at carrying everything that everyone assumes that we’re happy to. And once you’ve started to recognise how much you are actually carrying, how many tabs you’ve got open at any one time, the next step is, of course, working out how you are going to shift it up.

What are you gonna take off your plate? What are you gonna outsource? How are you gonna reallocate both labor and invisible labor in the household? So why is this so important for business growth? I think one of the biggest things like it’s one of the biggest misconceptions about business growth is that you’ve just gotta get better at marketing.

Show up on the new platform, have better messaging, and yes, of course, this matters so much. But interestingly, a lot of the work that I do with my clients before we dive into strategy is helping them to create capacity by navigating that extra silent invisible load that they’re also carrying. Sometimes the biggest shifts in profits my clients have achieved is when I support them to get support and to rebalance the household load.

Because when they have the space to grow the business, that is where the magic happens. It’s hard to thrive when you’re just keeping your head above water. So if today’s episode resonated with you, I’d love for you to take just one action this week. Have the conversation. Look honestly at the invisible labor in your household that lands with you.

Because reclaiming your power isn’t about working harder or becoming more productive. Sometimes it’s about finally putting down some of the load that you were never meant to carry alone.

And if you’re ready to grow your business, not by working harder, but by actually creating the capacity to then have the space to work on the strategy, I’d love to support you inside one of my strategy sessions. There’s a link in the show notes for today’s episode. And until next time, remember that building a profitable business doesn’t require you to sacrifice yourself in the process.

Have a beautiful week and I’ll chat to you again next week on The Intentional Money Show.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the Intentional Money Show. If you’re ready for more profit, come find me on Instagram at clare_wood_coach. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast, and I’ll chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio