The Secret to Time Freedom in your Life & Business

Can you make it in the entrepreneurial world as a successful business owner with both profit and time freedom?

Most people, when they decide to quit their 9 to 5, and become an entrepreneur, have a common desire. Time freedom. They are so sick and tired of working 8 to 9 hours per day at an office with only a 30 to 60 minute lunch break and if they are lucky, 14 days of paid time off. We all know that Americans rarely take their full vacation days even if their company provides this. 

Working at an office 40 hours or more per week can feel really cumbersome. It is difficult to make time for doctor and dentist appointments. You have to do all of your grocery shopping and other errands at night or on weekends, leaving very little time for family, friends, hobbies or just relaxation. Considering how restrictive the traditional work schedule is, It is not surprising how many people long to own their own business, thinking that this will give them what they ultimately want, more time.

So why do we so often hear about people, who have ventured out on their own to start their dream business, just to find them 2 to 3 years later, working back at a job? Because most of these dreamers are solopreneurs, doing it all by themselves. And that can be a difficult path. It is lonely to start and run a business all alone and when things go wrong, you are the only one to blame. You must have an incredible amount of self-discipline and drive to stick with it and weather the storms that will inevitably come.

So how can you make it in the entrepreneurial world as a successful business owner with both profit and time freedom?

The answer, my friend, is systems and processes.

I know, you are rolling your eyes and think I’m coming out of left field with that answer. But I am serious. I have built several of my own small businesses and helped other successful entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses and I can point to systems and processes as the key to operating well.

What is a system? A system is just a series of processes or steps to accomplish a larger goal. Let’s take a real estate business. What is one of the most critical components? Being very skilled at how to step a client through their transaction from beginning to end. Your knowledge and expertise in this area will help your client feel like they are in great hands because they chose you as their agent.

So how do you even start to create a Transaction System? You simply break it down into all the tiny steps and details it takes to complete an entire real estate transaction, from meeting the potential client, to showing them potential homes, to getting under contract and ultimately, closing on their sale. Once you spend the time to break the entire process down, step by step, you can then discover the steps that must be repeated in order to close another successful transaction. If you take the time to analyze and document all of this work now, you can then discover how to set your business up on auto-pilot, thereby giving you consistency and predictability.

By eliminating the need to start all over again with each new client, you will fine tune your business machine and build in more time freedom to grow and scale even larger or just enjoy more time in your personal life. Whichever goal you have, systems and processes are the keys to getting you more of what you want.

I highly recommend the book by Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited. It tells the story of why 80% of small businesses fail, and how to ensure yours isn’t one of them by building a company that’s based on systems and not on the work of one person.

I love this quote from the book:

“I believe it’s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing. The difference between the two is living intentionally and living by accident.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 139)

If you want to run a successful business and live a life you love, it takes work and it takes intentionality. Systems are my secret to time freedom and I promise you, they work.

If you would like to learn more about some of the systems I use in my business, click here.