I know! Running a business can be stressful, hard, and downright discouraging! I mean, on top of generating income, you want to develop a solid relationship with your clients/customers. You also want to provide real value that transforms their life. For a service based business, this could mean you spend tons of hours responding to emails, answering phone calls and providing support to your clients. For a product based business, this could mean following up after a purchase to ensure your customers are satisfied and also to offer additional tips on how to maximize the use and value of the product they purchased. You might also want to follow up to upsell and further the relationship by building trust. Am I right or am I right? I thought so! So how can you do all of this while maintaining your time freedom and creating an impact? I’ll tell you exactly how I do it and what I’ve learned from some of the wealthiest, most influential business leaders.
Set Boundaries
First things first, set boundaries with your clients and with yourself. Yes! I said BOUNDARIES. As ambitious entrepreneurs, we can easily turn an 8 hour work day into 12-16 hours. We get so caught up responding to clients, checking emails, and working on small things that are unrelated to our primary goals and disconnected from the important things we should be focusing on at the moment.
By the end of the week we are tired, overworked, and stressed out. Can I get an amen?
To avoid this pattern of burn out here’s what I do:
- I set specific work hours that cater to responding to clients.
- I set specific work hours that focus on building my business.
- I stick to my daily agenda no matter what “emergencies” come up. I rarely accept last minute changes to my schedule.
Here’s the thing, last minute meetings, inquiries, and sign-ups are not a bad thing. They can support your goal of building your dream business and help you to create an impact faster because more likely than not, the people that are reaching out to you are interested in what you’re doing or want to work with you. However, these last-minute connections can become a distraction if we don’t manage them properly or create some sort of organized system to protect our time.
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I’ll admit! This is not easy. I love connecting with people, building relationships, getting to know potential clients and being completely available to current clients. However, I’ve learned through business mentors, coaches, and some of today’s leading business and money experts like Toyin Crandell, Dave Ramsey, and Oprah that if I want to scale my business I have to protect my time.
Here’s a practical example of how I do this in my coaching program 6 Weeks 1 Goal:
- I set aside specific work hours to respond to client emails, provide support, and answer any questions they have.
- I also incorporate weekly Q & A sessions for clients with immediate questions or who want direct feedback. Sometimes, if I have a busy week I use this time to respond to emails (instead of typing a response I’ll answer the person’s inquiry during the Q & A session and tell them to watch the video if they weren’t able to attend the session). This helps me to kill two birds with one stone while at the same time serves my client at a high level.
- Another thing I do is schedule all of my one-on-one coaching sessions on the same day that way I’m already in the zone of showing up ready to love on and provide feedback, support, and accountability to all of my clients. This helps me to focus on their needs and be fully present with them. Instead of thinking about everything I have to do after the call I’m completely focused on their goals, progress, barriers, and solutions. It’s so much fun and I get to build a real connection with my clients!
Having this type of workflow alleviates any pressure to respond to last-minute request (unless it’s an emergency). It also helps me to stay on top of my business goals ensuring that I meet my deadlines, show up to meetings prepared, and rock all of my obligations! Trust me, setting boundaries with yourself and with your clients/customers is the way to go! You will advance from providing mediocre service to providing exceptional service that your clients will love and remember you for!
Batch Work
Oh! Batch working has been a game changer in my life! I don’t only apply this principle to my business, I also batch work things like my laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, and so on. Anything that I can do once and then forget about for at least a week I do!
The best way to maximize your time and produce quality results is to set up a batch working system that is realistic and conducive to your lifestyle. If you’re not familiar with batch working all it is, is scheduling your time in 2 to 3-hour time blocks that are dedicated to completing a specific task. Here’s an example:
Monday Schedule
- 6am-9am is dedicated to a morning routine (this includes showers, breakfast, working out, etc)
- 9am-12pm is dedicated to personal development (this include reading, doing mindset training, discovering the latest information within your industry)
- 12:30-2:30pm is dedicated to money generating tasks (this includes setting up your marketing campaign, turning leads into clients, etc)
- 3-5pm is dedicated to checking the analytics to ensure your business plan is working (this includes checking the numbers for your ad campaigns, marketing efforts, etc)
- 5-7pm is dedicated to creating and building an impact (this includes writing blogs, planning social media content, planning major projects, collaborating with businesses and influencers, etc.)
- and so on
Automate Your Processes
Related Post: Principles For Success: Automate Your Success
Here’s A Bonus Tip:
Ask For Help
If you’re struggling to turn your business into what you thought it would be, reach out to someone you know who runs a successful, profitable business (and has time freedom) and ask them if they could meet with you for a few hours to help you set up some structure in your business that will help you to create a similar stress free lifestyle. The thing here is that you have to be humble and teachable. No one will want to help you if you’re arrogant, think you know everything, and deep down are just full of pride. You have to want help and be willing to try something new.
Another option is to hire a team to carry some of your workload. This isn’t something that you have to do when your business is starting to grow, but you will want to consider this once you are seeing a steady flow of increase and you start feeling like “this is too much!”. I haven’t yet done a lot of hiring in my business so when it comes to the hiring process I’m not the best person to ask, but James Wedmore has an awesome podcast where he talks about who to hire first and how to hire team members.
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If hiring a team is not where you’re at right now, no worries! You can always ask talented people you know for help in exchange for something of value that you can provide. What I’ve done and continue to do sometimes is partner with someone that has skills that I lack or I collaborate with someone to complete a project faster if they have tools or connections that I don’t have. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to grow your business, expand your efforts, and save your time without spending any money!
The Ultimate Challenge
Okay, now here is the ultimate challenge. I don’t want you to just read this information, nod your head and say “that was good!”. I want you to apply this! That is the only way you will really see the benefits of the wisdom that I’ve shared with you today. I believe that you have what it takes to run a business that you love and enjoy! I believe that you are capable of creating your ideal life starting today. You just have to decide that this is what you want and then take action. Don’t over think, doubt yourself, or become overwhelmed by what you think the process will be like. Just get started today. Until next time, your friend. Xo!
