The Answer My Body Knew First
On July 29th, 2021, byFriday officially became a real thing. On July 29th, 2026, exactly five years later, I told my team I was closing it.
When I started this company, I was a single mother who needed control over her time. I needed to be able to show up for my son first and figure out the rest around that. So byFriday was born out of necessity, and over the years, it grew into something I never could have dreamed of. While entrepreneurship was never really my intention, I took to it quickly.
My life no longer looks that way, though. I now have a partner, my son has more structure and independence than he used to, and as I settled into this new chapter, I noticed that as I continued to meet with other founders and talk with them about their businesses and their growth, I felt nothing, no spark, no excitement. It hit me that the life that built byFriday wasn't the life I was living anymore, and I wasn't excited about running it anymore either.
Here's the truth I'd been avoiding. Somewhere in the last six or seven months, I realized I loved the admin work, not the CEO work. Every time a project came in and I had to hand it to one of my incredible team members instead of doing it myself, I felt this little pang of sadness. I wanted to be the one doing the work, not managing the person doing it. So sometimes I'd take it on myself instead, but running byFriday always came first, and that work would just sit, unfinished, while my clients waited.
So one night, as I was making my lists and weighing my options and pros and cons, I let myself think the unthinkable. What if I just closed the company? Is that possible? The second I allowed myself to let that thought exist, my shoulders dropped, and I let out the biggest sigh of relief. My body knew before my brain did. As ugly as it is, this is the answer.
As I started to allow myself to fully flesh out this decision, I realized the hardest part was going to have nothing to do with logistics. It's knowing I won't see the same faces every week anymore, clients, networking partners, the other founders I've grown alongside. I've built real relationships with these people, and losing that weekly rhythm makes me sad, and if I'm honest, a little anxious too.
While this decision feels sudden and unexpected, byFriday is committed to our clients and their business success. We will be phasing out through the end of December, because I care about what happens to these businesses after I'm gone. For any client who wants it, we'll train their replacement admin ourselves, so the transition is as smooth as possible. I want to see them keep succeeding.
Practically, that means client work winds down gradually through the end of the year, and my team, Erin, Amanda, and Kelly, will move into their own next chapters starting in 2027. I'll be doing the same, seeking employment elsewhere for the stability I'm ready for now.
To byFriday, look at what we built. Four mothers who ran a real company for five years and did it well. I'm endlessly proud of that, and I'm endlessly proud of us.
