5 Things You Should Start Doing to Give You Freedom And Flexibility In Your Business | Ep 08

As an entrepreneur and a business owner, you are at the helm of the ship that is otherwise known as your business. You are in charge of setting its course, charting its path, and steering it along that path to get to your desired destination. All these require time, energy, and a great amount of effort that you can’t exactly delegate to anyone else. 

The good news is, there are practices, systems, and even tech that you can utilize to ensure that you, the business owner, have the freedom and the flexibility to do the ship captain’s work.

5 things you can start doing to create freedom and flexibility in your business

1. Know your business from end to end, and then train people to do the same

A lot of business owners find it difficult to delegate tasks out of fear that letting someone else handle it would lead to problems or “unnecessary” mistakes. Somebody once says, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Well, not quite so in our case. 

As entrepreneurs, this thinking that you’re the only one who can do things right will keep you stuck doing tasks that take away from your time and energy to focus on the big ticket items. You need to be thinking ahead, and in order to do that, you need to entrust the day to day tasks and processes to the team you’ve built for precisely that.

Lead by example and show them how well you know your business from end to end. Train them not just to focus on their own tasks, but rather, to have ownership of the business as a whole. This way, they work on their tasks with the big picture in mind, and you create an environment where teamwork and unity of mind drive greater productivity. 

2 Adopt this mindset: “Deliver, don’t sell”

Company culture is so important. Creating the right one for your business can spell the difference between loyal, hardworking team members and self-centered, misguided ones. One of the ways that you can create the right atmosphere within your company is by adopting the “Deliver, don’t sell” mindset.

Establish that you exist to deliver the best quality product or service in your field, versus just selling to make a profit. The former will inspire excellence and bridge gaps between teams and processes through a shared mindset. The latter will inspire short-sightedness and a “me, me, me” attitude that comes from perceived internal competition.

Setting the tone of your company culture and establishing a shared mindset will give you the peace of mind you need to turn your attention to other things without having to worry about your company crumbling to the ground without you.

3 Review your goals with your team on a regular basis

The thing about goals is, sometimes we set them...and then set them aside. As the business owner, these goals are probably always on your mind anyway, so that’s fine. But for the members of your team, it may not be as vivid in their own minds all the time. 

With all the things that happen at work day in and day out, goals can be set and then shelved until they are brought up again at the end of the quarter or of the year. It’s kind of like how we set our personal goals at the beginning of the year in January, and then forget most of them by the end of February.

Help your members out by setting regular periods to review your goals together. You could do it bi-weekly or monthly. Welcome their thoughts and ideas and invite them to collaborate in setting goals for the company and for their own respective functions. 

This is one way for you to ensure that you are all still set in the right direction, that your team members are all committed to the same goals, and that you don’t have to fear that things will go off in the wrong direction once your back is turned.

4 Guard your time for rest

Mental stress and physical fatigue do not inspire creativity. And your business needs you to stay creative. Bill Gates once shared that he never took a day off in his twenties. While that worked for him, we now know that this doesn’t, and shouldn’t, have to be the case for today’s entrepreneurs. 

One way to ensure freedom and flexibility is by practicing it intentionally through taking the time to rest. Resting shows that you are not a slave to your business. Resting shows that you can be flexible with your time and your energy. Resting shows that you are able to set the right boundaries between your time to work on your business and your time to re-energize away from it. 

In other words, resting in itself shows freedom and flexibility. If you aren’t able to set time apart to truly rest, then perhaps this is a sign to set those boundaries and stick to them. Starting this habit will surely bear good fruit for you and your company!

5 Establish reliable systems and utilize the right tech

Having people you can count on and trust is every business owner’s dream. So is developing reliable systems for business processes and utilizing the right technology to ensure that the work gets done smoothly. When I say tech, I’m referring primarily to apps. There are so many apps out there that exist to make running a business and collaborating internally so much more easier and more efficient! 

Think of these apps as tools that you put in the hands of your team members so that they can do their work excellently. The same can be said about putting the right systems in place. Striking a balance between these factors can create a harmonious and well-oiled working environment within your business, that in turn gives you….you guessed it, freedom and flexibility.

There you go, five things you can start doing to give you freedom and flexibility in your business. Let me know your own best practices?