How To Create Freedom Through Structure in Your Business
Feb 05, by Tanya Alvarez
Photo by Alexandre Croussette on Unsplash
Let me guess. You started a business because you want freedom.
You have all these ideas in your head, but everybody has ideas…
What you lack is execution.
Why? Because most of your day is spent in reaction mode. You’re left feeling anxious. Without peace of mind. You’re alone with your thoughts.
So what do you do? You hop on Instagram. You fire up your favorite business podcast. You pick up a copy of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek…
The problem: None of these things will help you. If anything, they’ll send you even further off course.
No. If freedom is what you really want, then the thing you need to start embracing is structure.
Start By Analyzing Your Time
People take a very long time to make a decision when they’re comfortable where they are.
Take Ethan, an entrepreneur I know. Ethan used to work on his business only when it best suited him. When the energy struck. When the right podcast caught his ear and turned him highly motivated.
This strategy left Ethan in a place of very little progress. In a place where he was unable to see projects through to completion. What he needed most was a sense of urgency.
Coincidentally, that’s exactly what Ethan created for himself. He quit his day job. Now, he’s fully on his own. He has no choice but to be decisive…
Don’t be like Ethan. Don’t quit your job until you’re ready.
But, if you’re going to pursue a business, remember this:
How you spend your time really matters.
Any entrepreneur can put in a 14-hour day; but if you spend that time doing nothing but busy work, it won’t move your company forward. Analyze your time. Realize when you aren’t doing anything with it.
It’s an exercise we do in Owners^UP. We track how business owners spend their time. It’s important. It helps.
Embrace Systems & Routines
As an entrepreneur, you get lots of ideas. You want to build an online course. You want to create passive income. You want to work remotely.
You can do those things. All of them. Once you have structure.
Take Jen, for instance. A member of Owners^UP, Jen loves yoga. She ultimately quit her job so she could capitalize on opportunities. Opportunities to go to events, travel… to live a life of freedom through her work.
What Jen realized, however, was that by living that life, work had taken center stage. Being in social media, the lines between work and life became blurred. She started to burn out. What felt like freedom was actually the opposite. She felt a need to set boundaries for herself, so she didn’t end up working 24/7.
That outlook changed for her once we got her thinking about systems. Knowing what steps needed to be done. Documenting different processes. Getting things to where she could delegate and outsource.
Suddenly, going on a yoga retreat didn’t seem so daunting.
It’s about working hard and understanding that the people who’ve done it right did it through structurally sound systems. It takes time. No one can do it for you. You can’t outsource without structure.
This is where we lead most of our members. The first thing we do is facilitate their documentation and structure. We get them writing their goals. Tracking and reviewing their day-to-day.
Do you keep your calendar updated? Do you have any routines? Set those things and stick to them. The easiest promises to break are to ourselves.
Surrender… to having goals, having a schedule, having a routine. You’ll create more time for yourself. More time to innovate and grow.
My Challenge To You
Now that you’re ready, it’s time to start making moves.
Here’s a little actionable advice:
- Plan out your month’s goals. Take a step back from your day-to-day and really think about what you’d like to achieve over the next 30 days.
- Write out each step and track how long they’d take. This will help give you a sense of what exactly it’s going to take if you’re to reach your goals.
- Track everything in your calendar. Add in the individual steps you took that month to give yourself a complete picture of how you spent each day.
You need to start setting your goals. You need to know where you’re spending your time. You need to know where to put your time effectively.
Only then can you create freedom through your business.