Are You Trapped By Your Business?

Are you past the rush of building a successful business and now trapped in the daily activities of running it? I’ve been there and it’s a position I wouldn’t wish on any entrepreneur.

Getting out of the situation wasn’t altogether simple, but it taught me some valuable lessons that I can now share with you:

Anticipate the Future When Setting Pricing

If you’re doing freelance work, there are only so many jobs that you can take on because there are only so many hours in the day. However, there are probably many pieces of those tasks that you could outsource in order to maximize your time doing only the high level creative work that you are best at doing.

If you set your pricing based only on your ability to do these tasks, you’ll probably price too low while your customers pay too much for too little of your expertise. Ask yourself, what would I have to pay someone to do ˜xyz” tasks on a consistent basis? How much time is it going to take me to convey the information to that person that they will need in order to accomplish the task?

Even if you don’t outsource parts of the project just yet, if things go well, you will soon need to.

Create Sustainable Systems

Have you ever tried to work on someone else’s home made Excel spreadsheet? Yikes. If you’re keeping track of your projects and work in a cryptic tracking system, it would probably take you more time to explain the process of using the system than it would to just do it yourself.

If you ever expect to bring anyone else into the business as a subcontractor or as an assistant, you will need systems in place that are easy to understand and work seamlessly.

For example, with my writing business, I have clients that need specific things like articles or press releases every single month. In the past, I kept track of these on a cryptic Excel sheet that only I could understand.

However, when I started bringing in subcontractors, I moved to a web based calendar system that we could all access. Presto. Now I didn’t need to email my subcontractor every time I needed a document, it would just appear in my inbox right on schedule.

Document your Processes

If you have specific processes for doing things, be sure to document your process either in writing or by using a screen capture video like Camtasia. This will come in very handy when the time comes for you to pass this duty off to another person.

For example, I have spent more than a year developing a system for submitting press releases that provides the maximum amount of news visibility and backlinks possible at the lowest cost possible.

However, once I created the system, I got bogged down with actually doing the submissions, which took approximately 1 hour per press release. Not only was it terribly boring and draining, I was spending time doing busy work rather than finding ways to improve the process. Though precise, the process isn’t difficult and could be handled by virtual assistant at a much lower cost per hour than I charge.

The thought of having to explain this whole entire process to someone was so daunting, that instead of bothering with it, I just continued doing it myself. Big waste of time. Instead, creating a screen capture tutorial that could be emailed to someone as a training and reference tool would be the ideal way to handle this.

Don’t set prices lower than what you could to find someone else to do them for

When I started my very first business building websites I made the common mistake that many new entrepreneurs make of price my services WAY too low. At the time, I was so desperate for business, that I was willing to work for peanuts just to get the job.

However, because I had to wait on the client for much of the info needed to complete the project, many of these jobs strung on and on and on. Some lasted so long that I was already moving into another business model before the old jobs were finished.

Then I had the problem of trying find someone else to take over these clients. But there was absolutely no money to pay anyone to do this. I even tried giving away the whole entire business including the website as an incentive for taking over these clients and the hopes that the new owner could upsell additional web based services. But I had trained these clients to accept such a low rate, that no respectable person in their right mind would have ever taken over the business. Bad move on my part.

Though you may be excited about your business now, it’s very likely that you will want to move on in the future. By creating a sustainable, profitable business with fluidly working systems, it will be much easier to sell the business in the future should you choose to do so.

By taking these steps, you can free up your time so that you can

• Spend more time on the most critical higher level activities
• Take on more jobs
• Have the time necessary for big-picture thinking and business building

Most importantly, when you allow yourself the time to do the tasks you are best at while outsourcing much of the busy work, you’re also more likely to remain excited about your business rather than feeling trapped by it.