Build a Business, Not A Hobby

Many people dream of working for themselves, being their own boss, and having the freedom to only take on clients and projects they love.

What they don’t realise, though, is that there is a huge difference between building a business and being self-employed.

Business owners have to scale their income. Self-employed people trade time and money for hours

Business owners leverage the skills and talents of others. Self-employed people rely only on their own skills.

Discouraged yet? Don’t be. These tips will help you build a sustainable business instead of creating a job for yourself that you hate.

Don’t Try to Do It All Yourself

Building a sustainable business requires that you leverage the time, skill and talents and time of others. While it might seem cost-effective to simply do everything yourself—especially in the start-up phase when you likely have more time than money—it’s a path to burnout and stress.

If you are able to instead, separate your tasks into those that you love and are especially suited for (such as marketing) and those you dislike and aren’t good at. Then make a solid plan to get those you aren’t good at off your list of things to do and hire support to outsource to. If you feel like you can’t afford to outsource it all right now, start with what you tend to procrastinate the most on, even if it’s just a few hours each month.

Don’t Allow Yourself to Work All the Time

The trouble with working at home is that you live at work. And that means that there’s no clear line in the sand between your work day and your home life.

Since there’s always work to do, it’s easy to find yourself working every available moment—often to the detriment of your family relationships.

You can help avoid this by:

Setting—and maintaining—clear work hours
Find accountability support
Making time for holidays and breaks
Adding the mute distraction button to your phone
Having an office with a door you can close
Making time to eat well and excercise
Scheduling time for family and other activities
Taking time for yourself

Wellbeing, Breaks, Holidays, Vacations and Downtime Are Important

Don’t create a business that requires you to be switch on all of the time and “in the office” every day. At the start, you may need to be available more, but you should definitely be planning for the day when you can be “off the grid” for extended periods of time.

Have trusted contractors who can handle things when you’re not available
Set up digital assets that you can utilise to serve others
Leverage automation tools such as autoresponders and autowebinar systems
Create repeatable systems so you’re not always re-inventing the wheel

While you might not be able to hit the road with no internet access for weeks at a time, at the very least, you should be able to reduce your workload to a daily check-in and hybrid working.

Sound impossible? It’s not. With some forethought and planning, you can create a team—and the systems they need—to successfully run your business without becoming overwhelmed and overworked.