We opened our small business because we wanted to control how much income we made, our work schedules, and we wanted to run a business that maybe wasn’t so dependent on us. The “promised land” of mental freedom, time freedom, and financial freedom was what we chased.
When I speak to small business owners, the number one problem they’re trying to solve is more time. They want the freedom of time in their schedule to do the things they want to do, be with their families, and not be locked into the 9-5 life they abruptly chose to walk away from. But the lack of money or the dependency of the business means they are stuck.
Let’s talk about the order of events when it comes to gaining the freedom you want from your small business.
First, Make Enough Money
If time is the objective, we can’t just walk away from the business once we open it. We can’t just bring in nominal numbers of clients and a small trickle of dollars, and call it day. The business needs to be built so there is stability and predictability to the income coming in. This is the number one problem small business owners skip: Securing income that’s both predictable and stable in their business.
Sometimes that requires a structural change, sometimes that just requires some hard work to get the business to the level it needs to be in order to take the next step. Just because the business is open and you’ve become a “small business owner” doesn’t mean you get to skip the step of building that business to financially support you.
Until that predictable and stable income is created, expect to pour some hard work and time into your business. You’re the only one who can create this initial change – not your employees. You’ve got to be the CEO in this scenario.
Then, Leverage Your Time
Once you have enough income coming in to produce stability and predictability, we can now focus to building a team and using that money to leverage your time. This means that you’ll look at all the tasks you are performing on a daily basis, and start to hire for the lowest valued tasks on that list. Maybe it’s bringing on new team members, or maybe it’s simply hiring a VA to help behind the scenes.
Either way, it’s time to start learning how to build systems and procedures into your business, so you can delegate and not abdicate. Abdication will cause headaches when you try to take the next step, which is often what happens.
Secondary to this, once we have hires in place to take over the lower-valued tasks on your plate, you can shift your attention to sales and marketing and continue to pour into building more financial security and predictability into your business. By controlling the sales and marketing efforts, you will continue to bring in money to support your new hires, but also build your own income greater.
In this stage, you might work a little less, but your efforts will be more concentrated. This is key. You’ve bought yourself some time, but it doesn’t mean you completely disappear from the business. You are being more efficient with your time and efforts.
Last, Earn Mental Freedom
Once the business is built to be bringing in the income to support itself, your team, and your own needs, you’ve got a team in place to handle the roles and tasks that are no longer worth your time, and your business is reinforced with Staff Feedback Loops, your business should be in a position to allow you to step away and pursue the mental freedom you were searching for initially.
This is a great time to throw the “Bus Test” in – leaving your business for a couple of days, letting the staff be as is, and making no contact with you unless the place is literally burning down. This will unveil the holes in the systems, or show you that you’ve done a great job locking down all the procedural necessities.
To achieve a high level of this freedom, the business should be able to market and grow without you, or very little involvement from you. This goes without saying though – you cannot skip ahead to this step without having the prior steps in place. Don’t make that mistake, or your business will not grow, and you will start all over from the beginning!
The most common problem I see with small business owners is they try to skip to Step 3, before they have Step 1 at a level that is sustainable. You have to progress in this order so you cover your bases behind you. Grow the business. Leverage your time. Then and only then, can you step away and test the waters.
If you’re caught in the middle of this and want to build a way that will get you to the freedom you desire faster, jump in on a 15-minute Brainstorm Session, and let’s see what’s working and what’s not working in your business right now. We’ll cover where your biggest opportunities are in the next 90 days, and identify the bottlenecks stopping you from getting there. We’ll come up with a 3-step Game Plan that you can take and implement immediately in your business to help you get moving in the right direction. Grab a Brainstorm Session here.