Many people dream of working for themselves, being their own boss, and having the freedom to only take on clients and projects they love. What they don’t realize, though, is that there is a huge difference between building a business and being self-employed.
So, let’s take a look at how to build a business for YOU.
- Business owners scale their income…Self-employed people trade dollars for hours.
- Business owners leverage the skills and talents of others… Self-employed people rely only on their own skills.
Discouraged yet?
Don’t be. Every business owner started out self-employed. Just don’t stay there.
3 Tips on How to Build a Business
These tips will help you build a sustainable business instead of just another job.
Don’t Try to Do It All Yourself
Building a sustainable business requires that you leverage the talents and time of others. While it might seem cost-effective to simply do everything yourself—especially in the start-up phase when you likely have more time than money—it’s a path to burnout and stress.
Instead, separate your tasks into those that you love and are especially suited for (such as marketing) and those you dislike and aren’t good at.
Then make a solid plan to get rid of those tasks you don’t love or ones you’re not gifted for. If you feel like you can’t afford to outsource it all right now, start with what you tend to procrastinate the most on, even if it’s just a few hours each month.
What do you put off … on a regular basis?
What is a repeatable task you can easily train a VA?
For me, I trained my VA to take over social media the way I want it done. I created spreadsheets and videos to help her get started. The first 3-4 weeks, I checked on her everyday to be sure she was doing social media the way I wanted it done.
Once I was confident she scheduled Pinterest and Facebook the same as me, I could let her take it over. Now, I check on her once a week and it saves me about two hours each week. That may not sound like much, but I can research and write a blog post in that time. . . which is a much better use of my time.
Step one on how to build a business (not a job) is to let others help you.
Don’t Allow Yourself to Work All the Time
When Steve was working at home & our kids were young, he had set times
he worked. When he was finished in the evening, he was focused on our
family. This kept our family life going well.
The beauty and trouble with working at home is the same: You live where you work.
Working & living in the same place means there’s no clear line in the sand between your work day and your home life.
Since there’s always work to do, it’s easy to find yourself working every
available moment—often to the detriment of your family relationships.
But don’t … Don’t work all the time!
“How?” you ask.
Since there’s always work to do, it’s easy to find yourself working every available moment—often to the detriment of your family relationships.
You can help avoid this by:
- Set a Work Schedule – Setting, and maintaining, clear work hours
- Shut the Door – Close your door when you’re done for the day
- Schedule Family Time – You need it, whether or not you think you do.
- Take Time for Yourself – Really!
It
may sound selfish to take time for yourself when you have so many things
to do to build a business. Let’s look at the airlines as an example.
“Put your air mask on before you help your child.” If you aren’t
breathing, you can’t help your family.
Or,
when it comes to your business . . . it you are always on edge, grumpy,
complaining because you haven’t taken time to breathe, you’re not doing
anyone, any good.
Personally, I start my day with prayer, exercise and reading … and breakfast.
OK…some strong coffee, too!
I need my time with God each morning or I will be a grouch later in the day. What do you need for yourself, to get started on the right foot?
Vacations & Downtime Are Important
When we decided to create our own businesses, we wanted freedom.
- Freedom to spend time with our family.
- Freedom to go to soccer games in the middle of the day.
- Freedom to take vacation.
- Freedom to go on a mission trip to El Salvador.
Can you relate?
What freedom do you want from your business?
In the midst of working on your business to be successful, that freedom can quickly slip away.
Don’t create a business that requires you to be “in the office” every day or you will be “chained” to your business with no freedom at all. At the start, you may need to be available more, but you should definitely be planning for the day when you can be “off the grid” for extended periods of time.
And, it’s never TOO early to start extended periods of time off.
- Find trusted assistants who can handle things when you’re not available
- Leverage automation tools such as autoresponders and autowebinar systems. I love Aweber. It’s working when I’m not.
- Create repeatable systems so you’re not always re-inventing the wheel.
If you haven’t created your digital marketing funnel that works when you’re not, I highly recommend doing so. It might take you a week to create your funnel, but it will be worth every minute. It’s one of the first tasks I encourage clients who want to know how to build a business.
While you might not be able to hit the road with no internet access for weeks at a time, at the very least you should be able to reduce your workload to a daily check-in.
Sound impossible? It’s not.
With some forethought and planning, you can create a team—and the systems they need—to successfully run your business without becoming overwhelmed and overworked.
