Why Comfort Is Holding Women Back in Business

At the moment, my diary is full of back-to-back one-to-one strategy sessions. Long intense conversations. Big thinking. Strategy. Whiteboards, notebooks, and that pivitol moment of recognition when someone realises they’ve outgrown the version of the business they’re currently running.

It’s one of my favourite ways to work, because when you sit with women one-to-one like that, patterns emerge very quickly. Not surface-level patterns about marketing or pricing, but deeper, more human ones about motivation, identity, and what success really looks like and what really drives growth.

The pattern I’m seeing at this level is so blatent, it’s impossible to ignore.

The biggest danger to a woman in business is Comfort.

The Hidden Driver Behind Many Successful Businesses

Most women don’t start businesses just because they just fancy it. There is usually something much deeper underneath that decision, and often that reason is about proving a point.

Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes it’s deeply buried. But when we talk long enough, it usually surfaces. A relationship where they weren’t taken seriously or had autonomy. Parents who didn’t believe in them. A workplace that underestimated them. A version of themselves they no longer wanted to be.

I’m no exception to this. I became a teenage mother and for a long time I wanted success to speak louder than that label ever could. I wanted my career to prove that I was capable, intelligent, and driven, I wasn’t going to be that stereotype that everyone had put on me. That motivation served me well. It pushed me to work hard, to qualify, to progress, and to build something successful. It’s still there in parts of me nearly 3 decades later.

I see the same thing in so many of the women I work with.

That “point to prove” energy is powerful. It gets businesses off the ground. It builds momentum. It keeps people going when things feel hard.

In the early stages, it is often exactly what’s needed.

When the Business Works, the Point is Proven… and Growth Slows

The problem is that motivation doesn’t always evolve at the same pace as the business.

What I often see in those one-to-one sessions is a woman who has built something that works. The business is profitable. It looks successful from the outside. There is stability and security. And yet, there is also a sense of flatness, restlessness, or frustration that they can’t quite put their finger on.

When we explore it, it usually comes back to this: the point has been proven.

They’ve shown they can do it. They’ve built the thing. They’ve created something real. And without consciously choosing a new reason to grow, the business quietly settles into ‘maintenance mode’.

Welcome ‘comfort’

There is no dramatic decision to stop, it’s not even conscious, but there is a subtle shift. Fewer risks. Safer decisions. A reluctance to stretch in new ways, and motivation slows. Growth becomes optional rather than essential.

Why Comfort Feels So Convincing

Comfort is persuasive because it feels sensible.

From a psychological perspective, our brains are wired to seek safety and efficiency. Familiar routines require less energy. Predictable outcomes feel reassuring. When the business is no longer threatening our security or identity, staying where we are feels… logical.

For many women, comfort also feels deserved. After years of pushing, proving, and carrying responsibility, there can be an unspoken belief that wanting more is unnecessary or even selfish.

What isn’t realised is that comfort is not neutral.

While it offers short-term relief, sometimes even peace, it often comes at the cost of long-term fulfilment. Over time, women begin to feel constrained by the very businesses they once worked so hard to build. Once the motivation has gone, it doesn’t actually serve a purpose anymore.

When Motivation Needs to Change

One of the most important shifts I support women through is recognising that the reason they started is not always the reason they continue.

Early motivation is often externally driven. It’s about validation, credibility, or security. Later growth requires something different. A deeper sense of purpose. A clearer vision. A connection to the life the business is meant to support.

This doesn’t mean chasing growth for the sake of it. It means asking better, more explorative questions.

Who am I becoming as this business grows?
What does success look like now, not five years ago?
What am I holding back from because it feels uncomfortable rather than impossible?

When women reconnect with these questions, motivation tends to return naturally. Not as pressure like before, but as direction.

Moving Beyond Comfort Without Burning Out

Pushing beyond comfort doesn’t actually mean working harder or doing more for the sake of it. In fact, that often reinforces the problem.

Sustainable growth comes from alignment. From understanding what actually matters now, and allowing the business to evolve alongside the person running it.

In practice, moving beyond comfort often has very little to do with working harder. It tends to show up in the decisions women hesitate over, the ones that ask them to be more visible, to take up more space, or to be seen as the person in charge rather than the one doing everything well. It might mean saying yes to opportunities that feel exposing, charging more than feels comfortable, stepping into leadership rather than staying in delivery, or changing ways of working that once felt sensible but now quietly cap growth.

None of this feels dramatic in the moment, but it often feels unsettling. Growth at this stage usually brings a low-level discomfort that can be mistaken for something going wrong. Learning to recognise that feeling as part of expansion, rather than a sign of failure or risk, is what allows women to keep moving forward instead of retreating back to what feels familiar.

Comfort Is Not the Enemy… Staying There Is a Choice

Comfort itself isn’t wrong. Many women have built businesses that support their lives well, and that is something to be respected.

But when comfort becomes a place you stay despite a quiet sense that more is possible, it deserves to be questioned.

That feeling of restlessness is not a lack of gratitude, it’s often a sign that the business has outgrown the reason it was created, and a new, more aligned purpose needs to be defined.