Michael was working his Internet information business 60+ hours per week and making good money, but he had no time to enjoy it. The moment he launched a new product he was already knee deep in his next one. He had no sense of direction, only of acting and reacting on little more than impulse and gut instinct. And his gut was now telling him he couldn’t keep this up much longer.
Isabelle was doing virtual training and consulting. A 40 hour week seemed like a vacation since many of her weeks were close to 80 hours. She would even get up at 3 in the morning to coach people in other time zones. It was a constant race to try to keep up, and her health was starting to fail.
Many marketers can relate all too well to Michael and Isabelle. Take a look back over the previous month and ask yourself this question: Are you spending so much time working IN your business that you have no time to work ON your business?
If you’re racing from creating one product to the next, doing one product launch after the next, setting up the next JV and the next website and so forth, you’re probably doing okay financially. Not great, but okay. You’re constantly chasing that next big thing that will earn you enough to give you some breathing room. Even then, you won’t get to lounge long before it’s time to do it all again.
But for right now if you keep going, the money will continue to come in. If you stop, the money will soon stop. Am I right?
In other words, you are your business. You’ve essentially built a job for yourself and that’s not bad. But do you know what’s better? Building a BUSINESS for yourself.
You have some great ideas on the back burner that you KNOW will earn you serious income, but right now you’re so busy working in your business – treating your business like a job – that you can’t possibly start on those ideas. You don’t have the time and you certainly don’t have the energy.
But what if you could work less and earn more, while continuing to provide great value to your customers and clients? What if you could take a step back and start working ON your business for a change? And what if, in the process, you freed up a major portion of your time to pursue activities you love?
It is possible, and here’s how: First, take stock of what you’re doing right now in your day-to-day activities that drain your time and energy. These are things that need to be done, but you’re not that crazy about doing them.
Second, list the things you spend time on that don’t generate income.
Third, list the things you do that take a great amount of time but do generate income.
Fourth – and this applies only if you provide services – what services do you supply one-on-one that could be done for a much larger audience? For example, a coach might work one-on-one, but that same coach could also work with a group.
Fifth, make a list of the things you do within your business that you LOVE doing. Hopefully these are things that also make income.
Now then, your fifth list is what we call your “genius.” These are (hopefully) the things you were born to do. You’re good at them and you love doing them. You’re not going to touch this list, unless it’s to increase the time you spend on these activities.
However, the other three or four lists are about to be torn apart. Go back through these lists and for each item, decide if you’re going to ditch it or delegate it. If it’s not necessary to earn income, then obviously you’re going to ditch it. If it’s important for your business’ income but you don’t like doing it, you’re going to delegate it. Guaranteed there are plenty of people out there who will be better at these tasks than you who will be thrilled for the work. Outsource to someplace like the Philippines to find excellent workers who can perform within your budget.
Now search for ways to leverage your already existing content. For example, if you’ve written ebooks or courses on a topic, can you turn that content into a home study course or webinar series? If you coach one-on-one, can you use the same coaching materials to coach an entire group at once?
Look for ways to take your current content assets and use them for higher and more profitable purposes. If you work with brick and mortar businesses, stop seeing them one-on-one and start giving group trainings to show them what they need done to bring their businesses into the world of search and social media. While talking to 20 business owners one-on-one could take you an entire week, you can talk to twice that number in one afternoon in a classroom setting. Plus you don’t have to worry about closing – those who are interested will be eager to hire you before it’s too late and you’re booked solid.
Bottom Line: Delegate those things that aren’t your genius and leverage your assets so you get far more done in far less time.
You’ll earn more – perhaps exponentially more – and you’ll have more time to enjoy it.
And as a BIG added bonus, when the day comes to sell your business you’ll get a much better price for it, because your business will be far more profitable and not nearly so labor intensive for the new owner.
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