The Fastest Way to Earn True Freedom in Your Business

If the mere thought of all the roles and responsibilities you have in your business makes your head spin, you probably need some ideas to reduce your stress and increase your freedom. In this article, Randy Stanbury, CEO, and Founder of 4 Level Coach breaks down a simple three-step approach that works for both your personal and professional life. It’s how Lee-Anne Arkell, founder of Peekaboo Child Care, built an empire in an industry where she had no experience. These clear simple steps can get you off the hamster wheel in your business and help you acquire the freedom you’ve been fighting for.

It’s a struggle owning a business. You wear so many different hats that oftentimes you’re left feeling…well, exhausted! Trust me, I understand. In the beginning, being an owner also means being an operator, a bookkeeper, policymaker, trainer, etc. Sometimes it can be difficult to find any time to be a spouse, parent, or just an individual. I sat down with Lee-Anne Arkell, founder of Peekaboo Child Care, and learned how she was able to create freedom in her business. There were a lot of invaluable gems in our conversation, but I’ve extracted three simple steps, or “actions that you can use today to stop the day-to-day grind and immediately begin moving towards freedom in your business.

Action #1: Defining Your Freedom

Let’s face it, as humans, we want to be the best. This is especially true for entrepreneurs and business owners. I know I used to hate admitting when someone was better at something than I was. While I was speaking with Lee-Anne, she admitted something very interesting to me, she entered her business knowing she wasn’t the best. Now, contrary to what you may think, this actually started Lee-Anne off with a huge advantage, she knew she needed to surround herself with people who were better than she was.

I tell my coaching clients all the time, we have to be open. We need to have open minds and be open to accepting the fact that we do not know everything nor are we the best at everything. This is the only way to grow, survive, succeed, and thrive. Lee-Anne figured this out extremely early. She decided she wanted more than just jobs…or “roles” in her business… she wanted to own her business. Lee-Anne answered a question I ask a lot of my coaching clients;

“what functions in your business are you performing

that would be better performed if you hired a specialist?”

So, she wrote out the jobs that she wanted to stop doing, things like cleaning the facilities or cooking. When she hired out for these positions, she took a load off of her plate and had her first taste of freedom for herself. Lee-Anne continued to do this as her business grew until she was left with the one job she loved doing — growing her business.

Additionally, she figured out how to remove herself from her business’ day-to-day operations. Her business functioned without her direct involvement. Lee-Anne created her own freedom, piece by piece over time, by taking more and more from her plate and giving it to her specialized hires.

Action #2: Tackle Your Tasks and Ensure Your New Hires’ Success

Once you’re aware and open-minded enough to allow other people to help you run your business…and you have attained a certain level of growth that will allow you to put key personnel in the right positions to help you, what’s next? Well, you need to ensure their success and that is done in a few ways:

• Policies and Procedures- having clear policies and procedures is absolutely essential. Lee-Anne put it really simply, “make the expectation clear, this will allow for clear guidelines of performance.”
• Collaboration- you have worked to get the right people in the right positions to help you run your business, so you can focus on growing it. One thing to remember when you hit this stage of business development is to remain open-minded. Remember, you aren’t always the best or smartest, so maybe your ideas aren’t always the best either. I liked Lee-Anne’s approach to this principle, she wasn’t only open enough to hear her employees’ suggestions when it came to policies, procedures, or ideas, she seriously considered making their adjustments, changes, and improvements. This brought her employees into the fold as members of a team and allowed Lee-Anne to keep her own ego in check. Ultimately, the result was that the best ideas shaped the company’s trajectory. Remember these people are specialists in their respective fields.
• Setting Up the Proper Systems- The development, refinement, and adherence to the proper systems will help your new hires seamlessly fold into the operations of your business. This will allow for your business to function with or without your presence. One obvious thing Lee-Anne became painfully aware of was that she couldn’t physically be in multiple places at once as her business grew. When I talk to my clients about 10Xing or even just doubling their business, the development of these proper systems is a necessity for the success of this process.

Now I know some of this may seem difficult or overwhelming. I am asking you to be open-minded, to check your ego, and in some cases to look at spending money on key personnel as an investment that will have immeasurable returns. Some of this can be daunting, I said it was simple, not easy. It all starts with one action. They say the best time to plant an oak tree was 100 years ago, the second-best time is now. If you want some help planting your oak tree, 4 Level Coach would be happy to help you with that.

Action #3: Earn Your Freedom, Through Short-Term Sacrifice

One extremely common trait among entrepreneurs and business owners is their willingness to sacrifice short term pleasure, for the long-term goal of building their dream business. When I started my business in 1995 out of my bedroom, I sold my car and rode a bike every day to work. Lee-Anne sacrificed big family vacations and new cars. I know you are in some way making sacrifices. However, are the sacrifices you’re making helping you move closer to the freedom you desire?

Many entrepreneurs and business owners start-up thinking, “I just want to make a living for myself, create a small business, have my own job opportunity and freedom.” I know, I started that way too! But the problem is the freedom never comes unless you get to a certain point of growth. It is extremely important to get some growth so that you have some resources to put the right people in place and start developing teams to allow you to reach that freedom. As business owners and entrepreneurs, we need to maintain a growth mindset.

Eventually, what ends up happening as you taste more and more freedom is the growth mindset will need to evolve. You will need to earn your freedom through your initial sacrifices. You will have to give up the idea you are the best at everything. You have to sacrifice some earnings to hire specialists. You will have to reinvest in your business, sacrificing the immediate pleasures you want. You may be thinking, “Randy, what is it I get from this?” Well, with a lot of patience, diligence, and hard work, YOU WILL EARN YOUR FREEDOM and be well on your way to 10Xing your current business.

Lee-Anne and I uncover a lot more gems that can give you the freedom you are looking for in your professional and personal life. The ones detailed in this article are only a few of them.

If these steps left you wanting more, Then head over to www.4levelcoach.com/randy-stanbury/podcast and listen to the entire podcast where Lee-Anne and I share even more tips and tactics than those summarized in this article — and detail how anyone can follow these steps and obtain the freedom in their business they never thought was possible.