I believe the key to more clients, more in-come, and more time off, is making your business run like a well-oiled machine. Right now, you may be handling everything yourself, or perhaps delegating a little bit of it. The problem with that is your business is probably running YOU, as opposed to you running your business. And that probably means lots of stuff is falling through the cracks, which then means lost opportunities and fewer clients and less mo-ney coming in. In your business, Consistency is crucial; Chaos is costly (both financially and time-wise). When things run like a well-oiled machine, when everything's organized and proven, there is much less room for chaos. The goal is to have things run on their own, or by someone else, so you can focus on growing your business even more, while having more time off to enjoy yourself. Even if you don't have a full staff of people helping you, you can make your business run smoothly, with SYSTEMS. The key to systems is to not re-invent the wheel each time you do something in your business. Instead, when something works, document it, and then do it again and again. Then, it becomes a system, and if the system is good, it will create results over and over again too. You may be asking yourself, "OK, I get it. But HOW exactly do I create a system for something? I'm not sure where to start." It's actually really simple. 1. Notice what's falling through the cracks, takes up a lot of your time unnecessarily each week or creates a lot of stress for you. 2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate or put these on autopilot. 3. Then set it up so it works on its own, or can be handled easily, efficiently, and without fail. 4. Create checks and balances so you're not abdicating, but know that instead, you can breathe more easily, knowing it's all handled. Give it a try. You can systematize many things in your business and in your personal life. In your business, you can systematize each slice of your marketing pie (every slice of the pie represents a way you PULL clients in-we go in depth into this in the home study system), also your schedule, your client management, your calendar, and your email. In your personal life, you can systematize your food shopping, your doctors' appointments, your personal email, your dry-cleaning, your errands, your banking. You name it, it can probably be systematized. The beauty of everything being on autopilot or handled smoothly is that you set up the infrastructure for a FULL practice, even before you fill your practice. What happens is, when you DO hit full practice status, you will avoid all the breakdowns that cause most businesses to fail. At the same time, you make more time for marketing (the stuff that brings in clients) and for more clients as well. Your Assignment: 1. Make a long list of everything that's falling through the cracks, takes up a lot of your time unnecessarily each week, or creates a lot of stress for you. 2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate, or put these on autopilot. 3. Set it up so it works on its own or can be handled easily, efficiently, and without fail. 4. Create checks and balances so you' re not abdicating, but you can keep tabs on it regularly. You'll be amazed to see how much of a "problem-free zone" your business becomes. That will give you a lot more time to focus on building the business, a lot more room for new clients, and more time to simply enjoy yourself. You'll have more time for vacation, for self-care, and for spending yummy quality time with the people you love being with. And that's what being self-employed is really about. Copyright (c) 2007 Fabienne Fredrickson
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