We all want to build a business that will give us freedom. Freedom from our everyday grind of a job, freedom to travel, financial freedom and whatever your definition of freedom is.  So we go into our business with that end in mind, not realizing that the very thing that was to free us is what can hold us back. Well how do we attain freedom?

 I’m sure most of you know that 80% of all small businesses fail.  Within the next five years 80% of those businesses fail, so you are looking at a 96% total fail rate with small business.  How does this happen? Most small business owners are stuck in the everyday minutia of the business.  Do yourself a favor and don’t let your ego get in the way of your success.  Give up some control. Most of us feel we have to do everything, or we have to micro manage the very person we hired to do the job. To avoid this make sure to find the BEST person for the job and not the subpar individual thinking you are saving money (in the long run you are wasting money with subpar help). Find the most talented and give them the space to fail and learn from those failures and take ownership in the success of the business.  Now when I say give up control that means some control, not all of it. You have to take the time to understand if there is a problem in a certain area of your business, what are the ways to solve it. More to the point what are the ways the person you hired, uses to solve that problem. Just take a day or two to learn this or you can hire a third party to do this for you. You can give up some control but not the farm.

So how do we gain this elusive freedom? There are three key ways to get this freedom we all search for.

1) Separate yourself: You have to ask yourself what is the most valuable product you have? One hint, it’s not you. The most valuable product you have is the business.  If you can separate yourself from your business and think of it as a separate entity from you, you will run it differently. You start to think of ways your business can run without you. Making sure you hire the best and brightest people to run the everyday operations of your business. You can’t do this if you are the product. Now this is not to say you can’t brand your name. Branding your name is very important in gaining credibility and maybe your very own Guru status.

2) Tracking and Reports:  Start today with tracking your business every day. Open an excel spread sheet with your dates on the left and three tracking matrix. First should be your daily leads, or how many are opting in to your mailing list every day. Second is a Daily customer line, how many of your leads turn into customers for your business. Third is how much money are you putting into the bank, tracking every cent you have in your business.  You should keep track of these three matrixes for 30-40 days and then you can create a chart and see how your business is flowing and maybe areas you need to improve on.

3) Take time off: I know this will sound a little off but do you and your business a favor and take some time off.  Taking time off helps you recharge your personal battery. This also forces you to learn to run the business without you. You begin to separate yourself from your product (your business). Taking time off can also help you gain perspective and a new way to look at how things are getting done with your business.  You should start with a couple of days,  then a week and eventually you will be able to take as much as a month off or more if you really focus on having your business run on its own.

Owning your own online business is just one vehicle to use to gain the freedom from everyday life. To gain that freedom sooner than later you need to take the steps early and think of your business as a product to build and to gain value.  I feel if you do these simple steps in your business you will find yourself on a beach somewhere while your business is making you tons of cash. Good luck.

Robert R. Thomas
Owner
The PLR Marketing Group
Only working together can we achieve the ultimate success.
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