Since becoming an entrepreneur and building a recurring cash model of business that pretty much works with out me I have come to value my time and good energy levels above all things.
No matter what venture I now embark upon or what I do on a daily basis it all revolves around making sure that I’m using my time wisely and that I’m looking after my energy levels.
This includes things like prioritizing a healthy diet, daily exercise (during working hours), relaxation techniques, spending quality time with loved ones, learning and discovering new things to do and enjoying hobbies that I love such as playing guitar and writing books.
I manage to fit these things every day as well as running and growing several companies. Now you might be asking yourself how I could possibly fit this all in… it’s actually quite simple I have built my business around systems and process that a 15 year old could run.
The Ultimate Business Is One That Works Without You
Think about Mcdonalds for a moment. What is it you are really getting when you buy one of their franchises? It’s certainly not the formula for the best hamburger in the world – far from it. You are buying a business that has one of the best systems for training and running a business in the world.
It’s so good in fact that as the owner you never need to turn up at your store unless you want to make sure it’s still there. This is what they are paying for – a proven system that handles every part of the business for them while they sit on the beach having cocktails.
The great news is that systems that a business can use to run itself without the presence of the owner like McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King can be easily setup in any business. All it takes is time and effort to create an exact blueprint of every minute detail of how to run the business so that the experience your customers have is consistent whether you are there or not.
What this really does is free up the owners time and energy to work ‘on’ the business, rather than in it. Until you can achieve this in your business, you will always be a slave to it whether it’s dealing with customers, doing sales and marketing or some other grunt work that is not the best use of your time.
Unless your a total control freak and need to micro manage every aspect of your business (and yes there are people like that out there) then I’m pretty sure you’d rather be spending your time doing whatever the heck turned you on be it for your business or other areas of your life.
For me, I have managed to systemize all my business so that they can work without me. A very wise (and wealthy) man once told me that if I couldn’t walk away from my business for 12 months without it falling apart, then I didn’t really have a business, I had a job. Those words kept echoing in my mind for years as I worked on documenting all my business process over the years.
I now have over 50 virtual assistants, some full-time and some part-time all of whom play their roles and simply follow the systems they have been trained to use, while I get to enjoy a hands-free
This has given me the luxury of enjoying a hands-free business model that I get to do as much or little work as I want and best of all frees up my time to work on new and exciting projects while taking comfort in the fact that my businesses are running themselves.
This model of business can be duplicated for any business, especially for online businesses. It’s so easy to hire really good people at a low hourly rate that are highly educated, extremely trustworthy and incredibly loyal these days that it makes it a no-brainer really.
All it requires some diligence on your part to make sure that as you build your business you get into the habit of documenting every single thing you do and then storing it in a way that makes sense to you. If we don’t do this as soon as possible then as your business grows, it invariably will exceed your ability to control it anyway.
This leaves us with just one thing to look at – and that is you. While it’s all well and good to build a business that works without you before that can happen you must ask yourself what you want your ideal life to be.
What It Takes To Build A Thriving Business
I don’t believe that business is meant to be our life, though it does and can play a significantly important role in your life. So, before you even think about building a thriving business you need to ask yourself: What do I value most? What kind of life do I want? Who do I wish to be?
Your first step is to answer these questions and get clear about your end-game before you get started. Without clarifying these things your business will simply gobble you up and spit you out a shell of the person you once were – only this time you are older and have less time to do it all over again.
Once you’re clear about your primary objectives in life, then all you need to do is provide the vehicle to make it happen – your business. You just need to take your life serious enough to create the lifestyle that’s important to you and do it with intention while building a business that can work without you. If you don’t have a plan for that, then why bother building the business this way?
You might as well just get a high paying job, because that’s all it’ll be anyway. The difference is that when you choose your preferred destiny, then your business becomes an integral part of your ideal life that you can see, feel, taste, touch and smell with all your senses that it feels like it was always a part of you.
This is how much you must want your dream – then you are ready to grow a thriving business that will continue to grow and prosper long after you have left the Earth.
