When we start our business we often dream of creating our ideal life, carving out our time, being our own boss, and having the time, money and freedom to do what we want, with whom we want, wherever we want.
Perhaps you love to travel and want to be a suitcase entrepreneur, or maybe you love horses and want your own ranch, or you love to spend time on your boat, or maybe it’s none of the above or perhaps it’s all of the above. And my purpose in life and in business is to help entrepreneurs create their ideal day, every day.
That means you get to choose when you work, who you work with, and when, where and how you play/relax.
To make that happen, an entrepreneur needs to blend the purposeful and inspired with the practical and grounded. As the two together are the secret recipe for freedom and fulfillment.
Can every day really be ideal?
As much as I am an optimist, and believe there is good in every day and in every situation, the truth is life flows in cycles, and sometimes it’s stressful, painful moments can happen, we can experience loss, sadness, and really just need a time out.
And as wonderful as my life is, I am no exception to sorrow and sadness.
Last week, I said goodbye to my beloved pug at 16 and half years of age. This beautiful earth angel was my little soul mate, and while I knew that his passing would devastate me, there was part of me that believed it would never happen, and when it did (he went peacefully in my arms with so much love between us), the grief took me completely out. I was not prepared for how much it would affect me.
A Radical Decision
I couldn’t eat, sleep, talk, think, nor did I have any energy to get dressed, let alone work. I desperately needed a “time out” to allow myself the time I needed to grieve fully.
I made a decision to shut down my business for an entire week. Now when I say shut down, there was still work to do to keep it running in the background, which my team took over.
But I said “NO”
- To social media of any kind.
- To issuing a newsletter.
- To any phone calls or appointments.
- To my team showing up at our offices.
- To working on the new programs we are developing.
- To working on current projects.
I love my business, so in the usually happy times, it’s a continuous flow between business and personal activities. I take a lot of time for the activities I love – whether it’s riding my horse, spending time on our boat, traveling/workation, hitting the spa, or any other activity I love, I have plenty of down time and me time.
However I have never ever have shut it down completely from a marketing perspective, nor completely removed myself from the operation or service delivery. And here I was doing it for an entire week! If someone would have suggest I do it for any other reason, I would have thought them insane. I admit I was terrified, and at the same time knew it was my only choice.
Nothing Blew Up!
I have created my business to support me, to give me the time, money and freedom to spend each day as I choose, and it truly is wonderful. I just never realized that by doing so, I had also created a business that would support me 100% in one of the most painful moments in my life so far. And in those moments what I was choosing, was complete silence, complete quiet, and completely ME.
My team immediately went into action, and left me out of it. They rearranged appointments, kept in touch with our accounts receivables to ensure that income still flowed in. They made sure the financials were taken care of. They managed a huge project we currently have on the go that involves a lot of people and they coordinated it all, and none of the other parties even knew I was unavailable. My team coordinated with vendors, and saw to it that whatever we needed to keep going happened.
I didn’t open my computer or check email for almost 10 days.
When I came back to work on Monday they had prepared a couple of small lists to let me know what was the most important task for that day that needed my attention, and nothing else.
Lessons Learned
I am truly grateful to have had the space and opportunity to mourn and grieve as I needed to, without worrying, without needing to be anywhere, or be anyone, or do anything. And in the process I learned a few things.
- I need to schedule in some planned total blackout times regularly, it was very freeing, and not scary at all
- My clients are rockstars, and some of the most loving and empathetic people I know
- So is my team
- Having a business that supports an ideal lifestyle, means it also supports you when life isn’t ideal, and none of us are exempt from sad painful moments.
What about you?
None of us want to think about worst case scenarios in our lives or business. Sure, we do need to protect ourselves, and our assets with insurance, trademarks, contracts etc. And for me personally, that’s about the extent of worst case planning I want to do.
But the beauty of what happened the last couple of weeks is that I was able to take the time I needed because I had set my business up to be fully prepared for the BEST case scenarios, and because of that, it serves me through all of life’s moments. And I’d like to offer you some questions to help you prepare for the same.
- Do you have a systemic method for attracting and enrolling clients? Can you see your pipeline at least 90 days out?
- Do you have a business model that fits your desired lifestyle, or are you constantly fitting your life around your business?
- Do you keep enough cash float in your business account to cover 60 days operating expenses at all times?
- Do you have a personal savings account with at least 6 months worth of living expenses saved?
- Do you charge enough to keep your business profitable?
- Do you have a proper system to collect account payments on time and easily?
- Are you structured in a way that your business doesn’t need you all the time? Even if you are the face of the company and responsible for service delivery, can the internal operations continue without you if you need or want some time off? Do you even have structure?
- Do you personally receive all the incoming emails or do you have a general inbox that your team can review and allocate?
- Are your procedures and policies clearly understood by your team and those that represent you, so that they can make decisions in your absence?
- Do you delegate everything that is not in your zone of genius?
- Do you have good relationships with your clients, your team, and your vendors?
- Can you let go of perfectionism?
While most entrepreneurs that I know, have a business that aligns with their purpose and calling, the most successful entrepreneurs pay attention to the more practical/masculine business structures that compliment their calling.
Blending the purposeful with the practical is the secret to setting up a business that gives you the time, money and freedom to live each day as you choose, during both ideal and non ideal times in your life.
Janis Flagg
You made an excellent choice! We are humans first with feelings that affect everything we do. We should never apologize for being human.
Nafissa Shireen
Thank you Janis!