The Surprising Way I Found More Freedom As a Business Owner

What values define you? These values can define how you work and play in life. For me, one of my most significant values is freedom. Our team calls it my “freedom gene.” It is a value so innate to who I am that I must have been born with it. Do you have a strong “freedom gene” like I do?

My freedom gene does not look the same as it did when I was younger. It has evolved over time.

As a child, I wanted MY freedom. That would manifest as me wanting to do what I wanted to do when, where, how, and for whom I wanted to do them for. I would kick and scream when forced into something I didn’t choose. (I know some of you are chuckling as you see me as a little girl acting like that.)

This led me to be a young adult driven by my whims. Choosing what to do based on how I felt and how much I liked something.? Being led by my whims created many fires in my first business and personal life. It caused a lot of stress. Even worse, I found that the fires I created made my freedom slip further and further away. I ended up knee-deep in roles like “Chief Bottle Washer” and “Main Fire-Putter-Outer” instead of the roles I enjoyed. This period of my entrepreneurial journey had me question whether I really wanted to own my own business or if I really wanted to “shut this puppy down” and close my business.

My friends and family saw how miserable I was while running my first business. They would comment on my predicament, offer suggestions for improvement, send lifelines to make a difference and share ways to improve my business. You can imagine how I felt about that!? My freedom gene went into full-on rebel mode! It was kicking, screaming, and unhappy even though I probably stayed outwardly calm.?

I decided this freedom gene was not working with me to achieve my goals and realized I had to change.?

The change I made might surprise you because it feels counterintuitive. I realized that I needed more structure to have more freedom.?

We are talking about a structure that included task management, time blocking on my calendar to focus on myself, and creating processes that fuel the business. Adding these new methods of structure in place fostered focus and discipline. Things like task management, “eating the frog” on unpleasant tasks, managing my attention, and focusing on the right things. It helps me do enough prep work to make it easy to work when I didn’t feel like making a decision.??

This stretches into our team. As much as we can, our team works diligently at getting things done in the most positive, low-stress way possible, reducing problems, not creating them. Using structure for processes and systems made it so that others could take ownership and responsibility to get things done in a way congruent with my vision. Using structure gave me more freedom!!

In my first business, I acted like many other businesses I saw. “I don’t have time to create structure.” It always felt like we had more important things to do than worry about structure. But the truth is twofold - the structure will set you free, and without it, your business (and you) will struggle to meet your potential.

Today, if you could see our team's structure to take one piece of content such as this weekly note to you, you likely would first be in awe. Then, you might slip into overwhelm until you understand how it all works together. After sitting with it for a while, you’d see how happy our team is and how much time it frees, taking away the stress and worry.

This is one of the biggest reasons business owners shy away from the structure - it FEELS too big. There is a lot to think about and get documented. I’m here to tell you that taking the time to do so will make you feel more free than before. You don’t have to worry about missing something or forgetting to do something. You don’t have to worry that someone is not doing their part. Your business becomes structured and organized in a way that FEELS good.?

One of our alumni clients said it well when they said, “What I never expected from working with Your Biz Rules is that I would have a newfound sense of peace and calm.? It’s not that I never expect a problem to pop up; I am confident that we can handle it and move on.”

People also shy away from the structure because they fear losing individuality or expressing themselves through work. The prevailing thought is that we are robots if we all do things the same way. Who wants that? In reality, having structure for the things that need to be done releases time for creativity and growth.?

Leaning into any of these excuses also means time slips by as we constantly reinvent the wheel. We lose ground with our clients, and the business can never enjoy economies of scale.

Before you say it, it is more than just product-based that can achieve economies of scale.?

Service-based businesses can also achieve economies of scale. How is that possible? You guessed it: creating structure.?

The structure involved in organizing your services while still producing unique solutions for your clients makes it easy to create scalability for your business. It makes it so you can get more done with your available resources. It makes it so you can “move the needle” in your business quicker and more profitably with more reliable delivery. This means your precious resources of time, money, and people are better utilized.?

Instead of starting fires, you have the structure to handle them.?

Instead of burning yourself and your team out, you have a plan.?

Instead of burning through team member after team member, each person knows their place.?

Let me finish up with this thought. The hardest part isn’t getting started.??

• You likely could identify things in your business that need to be more productive, efficient, or better.? This could be in any area of your business - marketing, sales, delivery, operations, profit, cash flow, or growth.?
• You probably know the basics of the structure you need, even if you don’t realize it right now.? (If you don’t know how to verbalize that, my team and I are skilled at pulling that out of your brain and getting it on paper.)

The hardest part will be keeping focus, staying on track to follow the structure, and trusting it to produce the desired change.? That is the most challenging part we see for our clients. That is what we are here for To identify the improvements, co-develop the structures that will bring solutions, partner with you to implement them, and show up to help keep everyone accountable.??

For some people, it is easy to get started. For others, it is hard for most to stick with it long enough to turn new processes into a habit. Turning that into the default way of doing things is even more challenging.? Without the tension created by staying accountable to someone, people tend to start spinning their wheels until they get stuck in a rut.??

Expect better than that for yourself and your business.?

Start enjoying more freedom, and let us help you structure your business to get there quicker and more profitably.

If you are looking to create more predictable profits so you can grow and scale without burnout, let’s chat. Feel free to send me a DM or find time on my calendar so that we can make it happen.