One of the reasons you might have started a business is to have more freedom. Time and financial freedom specifically.
But it’s easy to get caught in a dollars for hours mindset. If you’ve ever been employed you are familiar with this mindset which is:
If I work x amount of hours, I get x amount of money.
Having this mindset as an entrepreneur will potentially lead to an unbalanced life where work consumes you, and it will defeat your goal of having more freedom.
One of the great benefits to being a business owner is that you can build a business that suits your needs! Your work is important, but it isn’t everything. A well-balanced life is the key to true success.
Don’t miss out on the important things, like your family. You can design a business that thrives and that makes you money while you are there AND while you are away.
Now, I want to make it clear that building a successful business especially in the beginning does require a lot of work, and successful entrepreneurs have an incredibly strong work ethic and know how to put in those 14+ hour days.
This post isn’t necessarily about consistently working less, it’s about how to work smarter and more efficiently.
Here are five tips you can put into practice to help you make more money in your business by doing less:
Tip #1 Focus on the highest income and impact activities
Simply put, you always want to be productive, not busy.
An example of this would be working all day on a new design for your business cards instead of working on a higher impact higher income related task such as developing a new product to sell.
We all have the same amount of time in a day, how is it that some people seem to accomplish an astronomical amount while us mortals only get a fraction done?
It’s because they understand that making more money and making a bigger impact in a shorter amount of time comes down to identifying the tasks that generate the most return on your time investment.
Have you heard of the 80/20 principle? This principle says that 80% of your results are produced by 20% of your efforts.
Is there a client that pays you the most amount of money for the least amount of work? Is there a product of yours that provides the most revenue and takes less time to manufacture or deliver? How about the tasks you most frequently do on a daily basis. Which one of those tasks provides the biggest result or moves the ball further down the field? Is there a way you can clear the other to-dos from your schedule in order to focus more time on that task?
Find that 20% and then hone in on it!
Learn to recognize and stay away from distractions.
Also, don’t let yourself be controlled by someone else’s agenda (email, phone calls etc.) until you have accomplished your high impact tasks.
Tip #2 Delegate
High performing business owners know how to delegate. Yes this means letting go of some control, but you’re an entrepreneur, this is a required.
What lower impact tasks do you currently have on your to do list, that you can delegate to an employee?
If you don’t have employees to delegate to, consider hiring a virtual assistant. You can hire them for as little as $5 per hour overseas, or minimum wage in the United States.
If you’re thinking “I can’t afford this”… Ask yourself how much your time is worth. It might take a little time and money to train a VA or employee to do something you decide to delegate, but this means, in the long run, you can focus on your strengths and again…those high impact/income tasks.
Also, learning how to effectively delegate can help you scale your business and build a larger organization.
Tip #3 Find a mentor
Why reinvent the wheel? Think about the ideal business and lifestyle that you want, if it’s to design a business that gives you more time and financial freedom…find someone who has already accomplished that, buy them lunch, and discuss a consistent mentorship plan.
It can be hard to make wise decisions when you see the world only through your own lens of experience. A mentor can give you objective feedback and constructive criticism based on their own experiences. They can guide you around obstacles and show you the quickest way to success since they have already been there!
Without a mentor, you could potentially be wasting a lot of time, money, and effort, the opposite of making more money by doing less.
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Look at your friends, business associates and even family. Are they already living the life you want to be living?
Surround yourself with like-minded people who are headed in the same direction, or who are already there.
Tip #4 Design systems into your business
If you have been following systems for success long enough, you already know this, and you can learn more by continuing to follow us.
Systems equal consistency, and consistency equals success.
Designing a system in your business is as simple writing down and documenting the step by step process by which something in your organization gets done.
By doing this, you can insure that that task gets done the same way every time by you, or someone else you deligate it too. Doing this always guarantees the same result over and over again which saves time, effort, and money. It’s youre business, automated!
If you want to learn more about business systems and their benifits, head over to systemsforsuccess.com
Tip #5 Batching
Batching is a simple solution to accomplish frequently reoccurring tasks in a short period of time.
Take email for example. You can spend 5 to 10 minutes every hour checking and responding to email, constantly getting distracted and off track, or you can set aside 30 minutes to an hour at the end of each day where email is your only task.
That’s batching.
You could take this to the next level and only check email for an hour once every other day.
Don’t underestimate the power of batching. You barely notice it, but constant distraction from frequently reoccurring tasks adds up! You are more productive when focusing on one thing at a time unless you’re my wife, or my mother. ☺.
Bonus tip: Have a strong morning routine
Successful entrepreneurs have a strong morning routine because they know if you win the morning, you win the day.
A key to making more money by doing less is focusing daily on those high impact activities we talked about above, in tip #1. A strong morning routine will set the focus and the attitude for the rest of your day. The better you get at this, the easier it will be to stay focused and clear on what those high-income tasks are.
There is a reason 90% of highly successful entrepreneurs have a strong morning ruitine.
During your morning routine I would suggest spending time on each of these five areas:
- Read 5-10 pages of a non-fiction book that will inspire you and expand your mind.
- Spend a couple minutes reflecting on your personal goals, values, and mission statement. When these are all fresh in your mind, it’s easier to make sure that whatever you do throughout the day, has a direct impact on achieving those goals.
- Spend a couple minutes looking at some sort of vision board. I use a private Pinterest board that has images of the ideal lifestyle I am striving for. This really solidifies in your mind, the “why” behind everything you will do that day.
- Spend a few minutes in meditation. Meditation means a lot of different things to different people. For me it is an opportunity to spend a few moments in silence, clearing everything from my mind. Even 2-3 minutes of this leaves me relaxed and also fired up tackle the day.
- Exercise. This doesn’t have to be a trip to the gym, it can be 20 jumping jacks and 20 pushups…really anything to get those endorphins flowing. You will be amazed at how alive and ready for the day you feel after some physical activity.
By taking action on one or all of these tips today, you will find yourself making more money and having a higher impact by doing less.