As a coach, consultant or high value service provider it’s often necessary, and usually helpful, to take a step back and analyze your business from a top level perspective from time to time.
The question I always like to ask myself, and the question that helped me build my business, is “Am I acting like a business owner, or a freelancer?”
In order to build a truly life changing business, you have to be able and willing to “get the right things right” in your business, while delegating or eliminating everything else.
At the beginning of my career, I was not actually a business owner, even though if you asked me at the time, I would have definitely told you that I was.
I was a freelancer without any income predictability, or the ability to take concrete steps every day to grow my business.
It was only once I fully understood the difference, that I was able to build my business and change my future.
Here are three questions to ask yourself in order to truly evaluate your business and begin the life changing transformation from freelancer who works in your business, to business owner who works to grow your business.
1. Can I bring on five more clients next week without any issues or problems and get results for all of them?
This is a huge one, and what separates most freelancers from actual business owners. If you’re an entrepreneur who does work for clients, or who works 1-on-1 to deliver outcomes to clients, it’s almost impossible to take on five new clients in one week and still be able to function and deliver results. Five is actually a low number, I wanted to say ten clients, but, the point is the same- if you can’t bring on at least a client every single day and get results while still being able to run your business, then you are probably more of a freelancer than a business owner. Business owners can technically bring on an unlimited number of clients, while getting results for all of them and keeping their work load and daily business tasks steady and consistent.
2. Can I predict with close to 100% certainty how many new clients I will bring on next week?
Most freelancers do not have a proven, concrete way to generate new clients every week with predictability. Almost all business owners have a proven system to generate leads and new clients like clock work in their business, day in and day out. A well thought at, fully tested marketing and sales funnel is the number one thing that separates freelancers who do well, from business owners who do incredible. In your business, you absolutely need to find a way to generate interested clients 24/7. It’s the number one thing.
3. If you need to take an unplanned week off in your business, will your business continue to run smoothly?
This is another huge one, and what truly separates the freelancer from the business owner. If you need to take an unplanned break from your business tomorrow for two weeks, would you be able to do it? Most freelancers will never be able to do this. Back when I was freelancing, I literally couldn’t take a 24 hour break without 100 client emails and messages blowing me up. But, true business owners who have built their businesses the right way are able to. They are able to take long, extended breaks in their businesses and return with things running just as smoothly and profitably as when they left. Building a life changing, premium coaching, consulting or high end services business entails building out a scalable, automated business system that runs with or without you in it.
Summary: From time to time, it’s healthy and productive to look at your business from the 1,000 foot level. Ask yourself the three core questions that I ask myself, and focus on building a business for the long term, instead of working in your business.
Action Steps:
- Take a step back and look at all of the different aspects of your business objectively.
- Ask yourself my three questions in order to get into a business owners mindset.
- Put together a streamlined, proven plan to move from a freelancing mindset, to a business owners mindset.
- Work your plan every day until you have a scalable, fully built out business that will grow and thrive for the long term.
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