Letting Go of “Scaling” for Scaling’s Sake

We’ve been sitting with this one for a while.

Three years into running DoGoodBiz Studio, we’re finally ready to talk about something quietly unraveling behind the scenes: the scaling myth.

Somewhere along the way, the business world decided that “growth” meant more.
More clients. More team members. More offers.
More purchases. More visibility. More followers.
More money. More content. More of everything.

We’re taught that if we’re not expanding, we’re falling behind. That staying small means playing small. That slowing down means losing relevance. That if you’re not growing, you’re failing.

But what if chasing more is what’s burning us out and leaving us feeling unfulfilled?
What if scaling too fast, or for the wrong reasons, leads us away from the work that matters most?

In this article, we’re pulling back the curtain on our last three years in business… what happened when we scaled up, why it nearly broke us, and how we’re building something slower, deeper, and more sustainable now.

What Our Studio Learned About Growth

When we launched DoGoodBiz Studio, we were a small, lean team of two. We were building something from the ground up, trying to stay as intentional as possible. The pace felt doable. The work felt exciting.

At the time, there weren’t many examples of the kind of studio I envisioned. Sure, there were plenty of agencies and micro-agencies out there… but most of them didn’t feel like models I wanted to follow. A lot of traditional agency structures rely on exploiting their teams, paying creatives far too little while charging clients extremely high rates that make their services inaccessible to many.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to approach things differently.

I didn’t want to build a business that replicated those same outdated and hurtful dynamics. I wanted to develop a new way… one that prioritized accessibility, inclusion, and fairness for both our clients and our collaborators. A way of working that felt human-first, sustainable, and aligned with the kind of impact I wanted to make.

This was my first time stepping into the role of running a micro-agency, and like most things in small business, I had to figure it out as I went. Those first few years felt experimental in the best (and sometimes messiest) way. I tried different ideas. Tested new offers. Said yes to a wide range of projects. And in doing so, I gathered the lessons I needed to move forward with a much clearer understanding of how I want our studio to operate.

Pretty quickly into becoming a studio, the work took off. Before we even hit our first anniversary, the inquiries were flooding in. We booked out our retainer client slots and started saying yes to more projects, more clients, more deliverables. And because we believed that this was what success was supposed to look like, we kept expanding.

By year two, we had grown to a team of nearly ten subcontractors. Our calendar was packed. Our services were booked out. And for a moment, it felt exciting.

Until it wasn’t.

Behind the scenes, we were struggling. As the founder, I found myself slipping into a role I never set out to hold: manager, overseer, coordinator. I was spending more time managing the people and the process than being immersed in the creative work I love.

We were over-delivering and undercharging. I was exhausted. We were saying yes when we needed to say no. And we were working with clients who didn’t always respect our time, boundaries, or humanity.

We started to feel disconnected from the purpose that brought us here in the first place.

If I’m being honest? I don’t want to be a “boss.” I didn’t start this studio to build a hierarchy. I started it to create. To collaborate. To do meaningful work alongside people who care about impact. But somewhere along the way, in following the growth path we thought we were supposed to pursue, I had slowly outsourced myself out of the very parts of the business that brought me the most joy.

And I know I’m not the only one who’s felt this… that moment when the business you built starts pulling you away from the very thing you built it for.

Eventually, we had to wake up to the cost of growth for growth’s sake. And that required a hard, ongoing unlearning of what we thought “success” was supposed to look like.

Here’s what we learned the hard way:

Scaling isn’t always sustainable.
Sure, growth looks shiny on the outside—but unchecked expansion can come at the expense of your boundaries, energy, and purpose. Not all of us want to build a big team. Not all of us want to manage. And that’s okay. For me, staying connected to the actual creative work is what keeps me grounded. I had to realize that scaling up doesn’t always equal growing well.

More clients ≠ more impact.
I used to believe that the more people we served, the more difference we made. But there’s a threshold. When you cross it, quality suffers. Depth suffers. You suffer.

For most of my career, it’s been hard to turn away work… I’ve had the classic freelancer fear of the dry season. But trying to serve everyone doesn’t necessarily help anyone. Impact isn’t just about volume. It’s about presence, care, and intentionality. That was a hard but necessary shift to make.

Saying yes to everything is a fast track to burnout.
Especially when those yeses are fueled by fear—fear of letting someone down, of losing a client, of not being good enough.

In our studio, we ran into serious scope creep. Because we loved our clients, we’d say yes to just about anything, and often wouldn’t charge for the extras. Over time, I was paying my team more than we were making. And while I’m deeply committed to fair pay (our subcontractors earn $50+/hr minimum), the math just wasn’t mathing.

Eventually, we had to let go of a few clients who consistently pushed boundaries. We rewrote our client agreements. We firmed up our processes. It was hard, but essential.

Not charging enough hurts everyone.
While we’ve always prioritized ethical, accessible pricing through a budget-based model, we weren’t charging enough for high-touch services like marketing management. These retainers demanded hours of behind-the-scenes work, and it left little space for creative exploration, innovation, or developing new offers. We reached a breaking point and made a bold decision: to stop publicly offering marketing and brand management services. Now, we only take on these clients through direct referral…and only when it’s the right fit.

So much of our early growth was unintentional. It was reactive. It was driven by the momentum of what was working, not always by what was right for us.

But we’ve since reclaimed our clarity.

We’ve started asking:

“What does sustainability actually look like for us?”
“How do we protect our creativity?”
“What kind of studio do we want to be and what example do we want to set?”

The truth is, chasing “bigger” nearly broke us.
But coming back to why we do what we do in the first place? That’s what’s setting us free.

This next era of DoGoodBiz Studio is about redefining growth on our terms.
Staying small enough to stay in love with what we do.
Deepening, not just expanding.
And choosing sustainability over scale, every time.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Scaling

If you’re in a season of considering expansion, pause here first. Use these questions as journal prompts, team conversation starters, or part of your decision-making process to check in with what really matters.

Is this expansion aligned with our current capacity… or are we stretching beyond what feels supportive?
→ Consider your time, energy, and resources. What would this expansion require of you that you’re not currently holding?

Are we adding more because we truly want to, or because we feel like we should?
→ Check your motivation. Is this rooted in desire and purpose, or fear, comparison, or pressure?

Do we have the systems and support in place to hold this growth well?
→ Make a list of what would need to be updated or fortified, team capacity, processes, communication, and boundaries, before growing.

Will this help us go deeper in our mission, or just wider in our reach?
→ Expansion without depth can create disconnection. Ask: Does this help us serve better, not just serve more?

What’s the true cost of this growth: energetically, emotionally, and financially?
→ Consider both the short-term and long-term impacts. What might you need to say no to in order to say yes to this?

When growth is intentional, it strengthens your foundation.
When it’s reactive, it can pull you away from everything you’re working to build.

What We’re Saying No To (And Why)

Over the last year, we’ve been in a process of intentional unscaling. And honestly? It’s been one of the most liberating choices we’ve made as a studio.

We began letting go of everything that tethered us to extractive business norms: systems built on burnout, overwork, and never-enoughness.

Here’s what we’ve chosen to walk away from:

• Offering services that drained our energy and forced us to work more than we were being compensated properly for

• Taking on clients who didn’t respect us, the way we work or the values we hold

• Measuring success by how “booked and busy” we appeared

• Equating our worth with our productivity, income, or the amount we could take on

Instead, we’re re-centering around what matters most:
A way of working that supports aliveness, not just output.
Creative expression that isn’t tied to constant commodification.
Work rhythms that leave space for art, community, activism, and rest.
A studio that serves people and planet, not just profit.

This isn’t just about shifting our approach to business; it’s about reclaiming how we live, create, and contribute… and our relationship to work itself.

Creative Liberation as Business Strategy

As we step into this new chapter, where we just finished refreshing our brand, releasing a newly updated website, and updating our offerings, we’re building a business model that centers:

• Creative liberation: Honoring art, play, curiosity, and rest as essential to business… not just bonuses.

• Reciprocity over extraction: We’re done with grind culture. We’re leaning into a gift economy lens that values mutual benefit and shared care.

• Human-first: No more strategies that rely on urgency, scarcity, or constant attention-grabbing tactics. We believe in cultivating real, honest connections.

• Purpose before profit: Our work is rooted in advocacy, sustainability, and collective impact. We want our business to be part of a bigger movement for people and planet.

This is the era of intentional, relational, soul-led creative work.

What’s Next for DoGoodBiz Studio?

We’re still designing for others.
Still crafting brand experiences that are interesting as heck.
Still creating and supporting others with big ideas with our whole hearts.

But now we’re doing it at a pace that honors our energy…
and with people who care just as deeply about building something impactful as we do.

If you’ve been questioning the pressure to scale, consider this your permission slip:
Grow in your own way.
At your own pace.
On your own terms.

Smaller can be deeper.
Slower can be more sustainable.
Aligned will always matter more than endless.

Curious what it looks like to build a business differently?
Subscribe to our Field Notes for more behind-the-scenes reflections on creative liberation, slow and sustainable business, and what it looks like to build something impact-driven.

Until next time…

Natalie Brite - DoGoodBiz Studio