I'm Aspen Peggs.
Founder of Northern Primrose. Host of Efficiently Ever After.
And someone who had to disappear from her business completely... and watched it grow anyway.
In December 2024, I had heart failure.
I didn't plan to take time away from my business. I didn't get a warning. I was just gone - completely out, no handoff, no transition plan, no gradual stepping back.
My business didn't just survive. It grew.
Not because I got lucky. Because for years I had been building something that didn't need me to be present to keep moving. Systems that worked without me explaining them. A team that knew what to do without asking. Processes that ran whether I was there or not.
That's not an accident. That's a decision you make long before you need it.
I didn't start here.
Before Northern Primrose, I spent time working in government, owned a private music school, and ran a hair salon. When I owned the music school and the salon, I was the business. There was no team to delegate to, no systems to hand things off to - just me, doing all of it, all the time. If I wasn't there, nothing moved.
That's a normal place to start. What I didn't realize then is how easy it is to carry that same pattern forward even after you've built a team around you.
In 2020 I started Northern Primrose as a solo virtual executive assistance operation. I wanted to build something different this time - not just a business that needed me, but one that could eventually run without me. That meant building systems, documenting how things worked, and hiring people I actually trusted to own their piece of it.
Today Northern Primrose is a team of 14. We serve accounting firms, marketing agencies, HR consultants, coaches, and business owners across every industry. The work is still the same: helping owners build businesses that run without them at the centre of everything.
Here's what six years of this work has taught me.
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Delegation isn't the hard part.
Most business owners know they need to delegate. The hard part is knowing what to delegate first - and setting it up so it doesn't just come back to them a week later. -
Systems don't have to be complicated.
The business owners with the most freedom aren't running the most sophisticated operations. They're running the most consistent ones. Small, repeatable, documented processes beat complex systems every time. -
You can't build this in a crisis.
The time to reduce your dependency is before you need to. Before the health event, the burnout, the opportunity that requires you to be somewhere else.
"Working with Aspen simplified things so much for my husband and I on the backend of our businesses. Aspen pays such close attention to detail and misses nothing. I not only have a beautiful blueprint to implement but also step by step processes on how to implement each item she recommended. It's fool proof, it's simple, it's seamless and it's NECESSARY for the busy business owner and entrepreneur.
She delivers far beyond what she charges for."
~Baylee Stewart, Client
Efficiently Ever After
I started the podcast because I kept having the same conversation - business owners who knew something needed to change but didn't know where to start, and weren't getting straight answers anywhere.
Efficiently Ever After is where those conversations happen on record. Efficiency, delegation, systems, and the truth about what actually works in a real business. Swearing included free of charge.
Listen on Spotify →Ready to start?
The Business Dependency Audit is free, takes five minutes, and tells you exactly where your business depends on you most.
Take the Free Audit →Or if you're ready for the next step:
Get the Business Relief Toolkit — $17 →The goal isn't to remove you from your business.
It's to make sure it never needs you for everything again.
