You have a business that you’ve started because you want to create an additional stream of income, or because you wanted to free yourself from the daily grind of having a job. The last thing you want now is for that business to blow up and take over your life.
Unfortunately, many home-based entrepreneurs and lifestyle entrepreneurs run into that exact problem. They end up working IN their business instead of ON their business…they toil away all day and all night just to keep the business afloat.
Listen: starting and growing a business will always be hard work. A certain amount of stress and strain is a good thing because it means you’re stretching yourself to become better and you’re delivering a significant service to others.
Still, you can have a successful home business without robbing your family of quality time together. You can grow your business without burning yourself out. After all, isn’t the point of a home business to give yourself more income and personal freedom?
So, to help you with that, here are my top three tips for creating an anxiety-free business!
1. Build Your Business on Systems
There are only three simple things you need to do to create systems in your business: delegate, outsource, and re-use.
Delegate means giving tasks to your staff so that you can free up your own time. You might be avoiding this right now because you think you or your staff aren’t “ready.”
The truth is, strong delegation has nothing to do with being “ready.” Delegation is about trust. The more important tasks you give away to your staff, the more you build up your trust muscles and learn have peace of mind while they run the business for you.
Sure, your staff will sometimes need extra training to do those tasks correctly. You might even discover that you have some lazy or incompetent staff. Either way, you’ll never know until you try, and you’re much better off if you identify those staff members early and deal with them now instead of later.
Outsourcing means finding a freelancer, contractor, or service outside your business who can do what you need faster and cheaper than you can do it on your own.
For example, we have a gear store at my fitness franchise, Fit Body Boot Camp, where we design the clothing in-house because our branding team knows how to get the look and feel just right. However, we outsource the production and shipping of that gear because, again, there are services that can do that part faster and cheaper than we can.
You should seriously consider getting a virtual assistant to take care of any administrative work in your business. They’re inexpensive and can cut a lot of busy work out of your day.
Re-using means taking what worked once and letting it work for you again. For example, whenever you write a marketing email that converts well to sales, re-use it! Keep a copy of it on file and tweak it to fit other products or services in your business.
2. Structure Your Day
I’m not talking about your “work day” here. I’m talking about your entire day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep.
If you have big dreams to keep scaling your business and make multiple six and even seven figures with it, you need this. You need a well-structured day because it’s the only way you can crush your competition and continue to thrive.
And even if you just want a lifestyle business that’s easy to run, doesn’t take up a lot of time, and gives you enough extra income to live comfortably, you still need this. The discipline of structuring your time will make your work time more productive and even make your leisure time more enjoyable.
The best way to structure your day is to sit down and make a table that has a box for every 30-minute block in a 24-hour period. Yep, this should include the time when you sleep, because you’re going to plug that in as part of your schedule.
Make no mistake about it: sleep is one of the biggest factors determining your productivity and quality of life. You need to plan for it and protect it the exact same way you plan time for your business.
Once you’ve plugged in your sleep, go through those remaining blocks and plug in what time you work on your business, what time you spend with your family, what time you spend on hobbies, etc.
The beauty of this discipline is that it will remind you of how much time you actually have in a day and eliminate the anxiety of always feeling rushed.
3. Remember Why You Started
Whenever you feel overwhelmed or feel like you “have to” do all the things on your plate, just remember this: you started this for a reason.
Often, the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling passionate about what you’re doing is just a matter of framing. If you walk around with the frame of “I have to” or “I’m obligated to,” you’re going to feel frustrated because it feels like you don’t control your own life.
However, if you walk around with the frame of “I am committed to this” or “I’m doing this to create my dream life” then you’ll find yourself full of energy and capable of overcoming challenges.
The most powerful way to change your frame is to stop, take a moment to breathe, and think back to moment you first decided to start your home business. You can make this even easier for yourself by journaling about that moment and pulling out that journal whenever you need a reminder.
Use these three tips, and you’ll make more money in your home business with more time to yourself and way less anxiety!
