Self-employment—The upside
No 9-to-5 grind. No unreasonable boss or cranky co-workers. No career-ending deadlines hanging over your head.
Being self-employed sounds like freedom. It sounds like the opportunity to be in control of your life, your direction, and your destiny. You fit what’s most important into your day by setting your own priorities. You have the flexibility to care for your family and be there for your children. To live your passion. To enhance your talents. To share your gifts with others.
You set your work schedule.
That’s the upside.
The downside
The downside is that when you work for yourself, it’s still work. In order to make money and opportunities happen, you still have to spend time, invest money, and do some strategic planning. Otherwise your self-employment is a hobby in disguise.
What’s your “why”
Understand deeply and intimately why you want to run your own business. Only if you understand your “why” will your commitment be strong enough to overcome all the challenges you encounter on your road to self-employment success.
Make a plan
One of the most important decisions you’ll make, after you decide you want your business to be successful, is when you will do the work. You will, you must, not an option, need to invest time into your business. The trick to figuring out how to invest the time necessary to create success is by answering the questions:
How do I fit self-employment into my life? How do I prevent life’s other details from derailing and distracting me from the success I desire in my business? How can I set priorities that make money and allow me the time to do other important things in my life?
Start with the Power of 2
In 2 minutes, you can…
It only takes two minutes to make the decision of when you’ll work and what you’ll do with your time. Put it in your calendar, set a reminder. Then plan the time. Before you start work, what do you need to do to keep your children busy? What do you need to put in the crockpot to make your day run smoother? What do you need to do to keep from being distracted? For example; shut down Facebook, turn off the sound on your phone, don’t schedule any other appointments during your work hours.
You didn’t surf the net and have long personal calls when you worked for someone else, did you? No. Then don’t do it when you’re working for yourself.
Commit 2 hours to your business
Will you work one day a week, several days a week, or every day a week? Daytime or evenings? Decide what works for your life. Make a commitment to devote a 2-hour block of time each work day to your business.
In these 2 hours, dedicate all your energy to work. In order to maximize your time, do the following:
- Income producing activities. Who can you share your products with this week, today? Make calls. Make contacts. Make appointments. Use social media wisely to help build your business.
- Customer service. Are your current clients happy with the products they purchased from you? Do you have a special coming up they might enjoy? Do they need anything else? Do they know anyone who might be able to use your products? Call them and ask.
- Know your products and business. Educate yourself so you can share your products and business as an expert in your field.
Make money with 2 activities
The only two activities that make money are:
- Communicating with people via a device, or
- Speaking with people face-to-face.
No clever Facebook post, no flier, no video, no creative sample packaging will make you money.
You may be arguing in your head against this statement. But when you think about it, most of the time you’re doing “creative marketing” things to avoid sending that message or making that phone call. Set a timer for the posts and packaging. Get them done quickly.
Plan on spending 80% of your time on income producing activities; communicating with people. That is the ONLY TIME you close deals, make money, and build your business.
Limit it to 2
One of the greatest lessons you can learn is to stop doing things that eat up your time. Sometimes these things feel like research. But you’re not generating income. They are distractions.
For instance, getting involved in online business groups in your field may be a good idea. But be careful. Most groups do a lot of socializing. After reading through many groups, narrow your association to 2 groups.
The groups that will help you are the ones full of people succeeding in your field. They share ideas and tips that may help you get to that next level in your business. Visit 2 times a week and scroll through to see what’s new, how others are earning promotions, and how they are increasing their sales.
Be strategic about your visits. Visit when you’re discouraged or when you’re stuck and need fresh ideas. When you’re online, set a timer so your day isn’t sucked into the vacuum of computer never-never land.
Spend your time on income producing activities.
Business boosting – Time saving solutions
Schedule your business time as if you’re working a job where you’re accountable to a company and a boss who monitors your performance.
You are. Work as hard for yourself as you work for others.
Focus on business. Spend time doing activities that earn money. Change your life with the Power of 2, and you’ll see amazing results.
For more business boosting, time saving ideas, sign up for our free webinar. It will be on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. Click here to sign up.