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What does it really feel like to live life and do business on your own terms?
The average life expectancy is now 77.5
Lets say your’ 47.5 now. You do the math, this will shock you at any age.
You have 30 years left.
Subtract 20% for sleep, bathing, grooming
30-6=24 years left
Take off another 10% for personal paperwork, taxes, general keeping things organized.
24-3= 21 left
And finally another 10% for waiting in lines, driving from here to there, etc.
21-3= 18 years left!
It doesn’t matter if you’re 47 or 29, the actual time we’ve got remain is sobering
With that little time left How serious are you about creating Autonomy? Choices
How serious are you about creating choices
for yourself and your family?
Autonomy equals working when you want, with clients you want,
And enjoying the income and wealth you want
Abundant financial wealth equals choices
Last night I went for a walk with my wife, my 7 month old son Joshua and my Beagle dog, tucker.
We walked around the corner where we always go. Every night at 8:30. As we came around the corner we saw a retail store. I saw the owner coming out of the store and leaving.
I said to my wife, man this guy works too late.
It was 8:30 in the evening, and they were still out there working away. I know this isn’t abnormal either. I’ve seen him leaving that late all week..
I also know he aren’t just working late because they started late in the day either. He probably woke up at 6:00 or 7:00 and have been going all day long.
Does that sound familiar?
For some retailers this is a regular way of life.
It shouldn’t be.
Must of us have things we’d rather be doing than working at 8:30 pm. on a Friday evening.
Its nuts.
So how do you get autonomy? By creating business that works for you instead of the other way around.
You must set it up so you are not the business. If you’ve ever read the book called “The E-Myth”, Michael Gerber talks a lot about working on the business, not In the business.
You take a step back from the day to day grind and analyze what you really want your business to be like.
Do you want to take Fridays off every week.
Do you want to take a full weeks’ vacation every other month?
Do you want to stop taking phone calls every day?
Do you want to take home more money?
Anything you want, you need to build in to the operations of your company.
However, that may seem easier said than done.
The biggest part of this whole thing is making the decision. Once you have decided, then everything else falls into place.
One thing that was a huge discovery to me was that I can do business on my own terms, and as long as I tell my clients what to expect, they are totally happy with it.
It’s about setting and managing expectations. Much like you do with a customer you’re working with. If you tell the buyer it’ll be delivered in 2 days, and then you go over by 3 days, he’s ticked. But if you tell him it’ll be delivered in 9 days, and you get it done in the SAME 5 days, he’s excited and happy you got done early. (That’s a great way to wow you customers, by-the-way and it’s a whole topic for another day)
You manage expectations with customers by setting the ground rules for how you do business. Do you have any rules of who you will or won’t work with? Here are a few examples:
- We will not do business with tire kickers, know it alls, or people who disrespect my time.
- If you are just calling to get a bid and take it to another competitor, don’t bother, we’re going to be higher anyway.
- We aren’t the cheapest in town, and if you want low quality you’ll have to go somewhere else. But if you want the best possible quality furniture, at a great price, we’re the place for you.
You make the rules and tell your customers, clients and prospects who you want to work with and they’ll come to you. By the same token if you are always selling on low price, you’re going to get, by default, the guys who just care about price, and are a pain in the butt.
If you don’t want to take calls, have your secretary kindly explain why you are unavailable to take calls, or send the call to a voicemail and you call people back on YOUR OWN time. Don’t give out your cell phone. Give them the office phone number, or buy a phone number that is only a voice mail.
Start to build the expectation that you are a busy person, and you can’t be bothered during the day. You have systems to handle inquiries. You can also have an email address that gets answered by the staff, or you within 24 hours. Obviously this is not the way you want to handle customers phone calls. We cover all that in the Home Furnishings Marketing System. (which you can order at www.furnitureprofitsystems.com/orderform if you don’t currently have it)
Years ago when I first started to implement this in my old business I was concerned that my clients would be upset or leave me for someone else, because they couldn’t get a hold of me.
But just the opposite happens. People respect your time. They therefore respect you and enjoy doing business with you.
Any of you who have done coaching calls with me know, that we have a specific time planned out in advance, and if more than 5 minutes go by and you’re not on the phone, we’re done, I hang up and I’m moving on. I charge $800 per hour for my coaching time and I’m not going let someone waste it.
I don’t play phone tag. Clients can NEVER call me directly. I don’t answer my cell phone, in fact I don’t even give my cell phone number to anyone, except my friends and family.
I am not pressured to return phone calls immediately. I lay the ground rules and if someone doesn’t like it, they can go elsewhere.
However, not once has I had someone complain about the way I operate, and no one has stopped doing business with me because of it.
It is a big hurdle to get over, thinking that your clients or vendors will be upset or irritated, but I guarantee you’ll find that as long as you set up the expectations correctly, you’ll have more happy customers, and they’ll even pay you more to get access to you if they need your expertise.
All of this translates into autonomy eventually. You see, you cannot afford to BE the business. If you create a company that operates with you as the “butcher, baker and candlestick maker” you’re just building a prison, not freedom.
Start by delegating more, cross training staff so everyone can do everything (within reason). Then start to phase yourself out of the day to day, and give yourself time to work on the business, not just in it all day. This gives you the time you need to create marketing pieces and system to achieve abundant financial wealth, and remember,
Abundant Financial Wealth equals Freedom and Autonomy.
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