ALL FINGERS DOWN
RDA Central West Solopreneurs Roundtable, we started with a game of “Put a Finger Down.”
Everyone closed their eyes, held up five fingers, as I read out a list of hard truths about running your own business.
By about the eighth prompt, every single hand in the room was empty. Zero fingers left.
Some of the confessions?
Put a finger down if you’ve ever wondered if you’re charging enough.
Put a finger down if you’ve chased an unpaid invoice longer than you could afford to.
Put a finger down if you’ve thought, “Fuck it, maybe I should just get a real job again.”
Put a finger down if you’ve sat down to post on social media at 9pm on a Tuesday and felt like you have absolutely nothing of value to say.
Put a finger down if you’ve said yes to a project you knew you probably shouldn’t.
Put a finger down if you’ve worked late into the night to meet a client deadline.
Put a finger down if you’ve “paid yourself” last… after the bills, the tax, and the cat food.
Cue laughter, groans, and a collective sigh of “Oh, it’s not just me”
Because here’s the truth: running a solo business means constantly wrestling with the same two beasts - time and money.
Not enough hours in the day. Not enough cash in the bank. Too many hats on your head. Too many invoices still “processing.”
And yet, there’s something liberating about admitting it out loud. Suddenly it’s less about shame and more about solidarity, and you realise you’re not failing - you’re just playing the same game as everyone else
And yes, sometimes we all run out of fingers.
We talked about biting off more than you can chew and just chewing harder.
But sometimes the smartest move isn’t to hustle harder - because as one of our participants said “I'm working 10-12 hours a day - how much harder can I hustle?” (and this was coming from a young, energetic and child-free man. “Just wait until you have kids” we all replied.)
So, if you’ve ever run out of fingers during your own mental game of “Put a Finger Down,” know this: you’re in good company.
And sometimes, the best next step isn’t to hustle harder or figure it all out alone - it’s to sit in a circle, share honestly, and realise we’re all in the same messy, brilliant, impossible boat.
Huge thank you to Kirsten Cunningham and the entire RDA Central West team for the opportunity to host this event, as well as sponsors Orange City Council for your support. And to our participants for showing up with such openness and generosity - you made my job very easy 🙏🏻
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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