Have you found yourself craving more and more freedom in your business recently? Or, maybe you’re looking to take that leap into digital entrepreneurship but you’ve no idea where to start? You’re ready to build a freedom-first business model that actually gives you the time and wealth you’ve been craving.
Well, this is what I want to write to you about today.
What I would do to build a freedom-first business in today’s market.
“But India, surely everyone wants a freedom-first business? Is that not the point of starting an online business?”
Funny you say that, dear reader. Because I foolishly thought the same.
The Myth of “Freedom” When Starting Your Own Business
“Once I am my own boss, I’ll be able to do what I want, when I want.” How wrong I was.
Becoming your own boss actually means boundaries are even harder to uphold. There’s no “clocking in” anymore, there’s no switching off in the evenings, there’s no “guilt-free” time off. At least not for most digital entrepreneurs.
Because there is always work to be done. The to-do list seems to have a mind of its own and is repopulating faster than a Duracell Bunny.
So, what gives? If it’s not as glamorous as they all make it out to be, why bother?
Oh, dear reader. I am so happy you are here. This is why.
Why You Should Build a Freedom-First Business
When you build a business centred around freedom, you have a clear and measurable focus point to make decisions from. “Will this give me more or less freedom? Will this take away my freedom initially but then return back more tenfold?” These become the kind of questions you learn to make in your business.
Building a freedom-first business means re-calibrating your compass to point north towards freedom.
It doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice profit or cashflow, if that’s what you are thinking. So many people follow such a didactic model in their business that they leave no room for duality. It’s good to have strong morals and to follow a way of operating in your business. But no one said that you had to choose between freedom and finance.
In fact, they’re synonymous in my book.
The more you value freedom, the more you value your time. The more you value your time, the more value you make with your time. Ergo, the more you value freedom, the more money you make.
But it’s often taught the other way. Build a business that makes a boat load of money and then you’ll achieve real freedom.
Yes and no.
What if the business model you built that makes you a lot of money isn’t conducive to creating time freedom in your life? What if the business model that makes you a lot of money costs a lot of time and money to run?
You have to start as you intend to go on.
What Does a Freedom-First Business Mean?
A freedom-first business model doesn’t mean sipping margaritas on a beach from day one expecting your business to take off.
It means harmonising the blend between working hard when needed and taking quality time to enjoy the process as well.
Remember, the more you value your time, the more value you make with your time. This means you do still have to work, and work hard that is. But because your time is valued more than the hustler who works 24/7, you learn how to prioritise and work more efficiently.
This is how you build a freedom-first business model, but without expecting all the rewards with no work in return.
So, how do you know what work is most important to focus on, if you don’t have hours to spend? Well, here’s what I would do:
Define What My Unique Super-Power Is
It’s absolutely paramount to build a business that is deeply rooted and embedded in your authentic strengths and experiences. Gone are the days where you can Google search a list of the “Top Businesses to Start to Make Money” because if it is not something you are innately good at and passionate about, you will simply burn out.
To soar to the top, you need to find your zone of genius. The thing that you have an almost unfair advantage on.
Using the Japanese Ikigai method, you want to find the sweet spot between what you are good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. This blend between your passion, your mission, your profession and your vocation is the most powerful for building a business from. It comes from your dharma, your soul’s purpose.
Write down four lists – what you are good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Using a highlighter or simply circle the answers, find where there are commonalities and overlap between the lists. This is what you can build your business around. If there are several overlaps that could form two or even three different business entities (lucky you!), then choose the one that feels most compelling for you.
Decide Your Ideal Work & Life Schedule
This may change. We go through seasons of hustle and seasons of rest in business AND in life. But, we need to get clear on what our ideal looks like. This is what will help define our boundaries, our routines, our rituals.
What would an ideal working week look like for you? What do you want to have space to do monthly? Annually? What are your non-negotiables for your daily routine?
Not to mention, what personal circumstances do we need to take into consideration? Parenting responsibilities? Chronic or recurring health requirements? Additional life committments?
A freedom-first business model means the freedom to have more time and peace in your every day life. You can’t have freedom if you are always stressed trying to juggle all of your responsibilities. So having a realistic perspective on what is possible for you in your available time is key here, too. You can build an empire during nap times but that has to be taken into consideration when building the empire.
Take a peek at a day in the life of a digital CEO (pre-kids)!
Create an Irresistible Signature Offer
Whilst you might have multiple skills, there is no denying how much easier it is to grow your business to 6-figures and beyond when you hone in on one.
When you become known for your signature offer, it becomes easier to sell, and even easier to scale it, too.
The format of the signature offer may evolve and change, but the actual work that you do stays the same.
For example, coaches and consultants may start with 1:1 offerings that help one target audience with one core thing. Then once they have enough proof of concept and evidence-based findings, they can curate a curriculum for a group program. This group program can convert into a self-paced course after running several cohorts through the curriculum and learning how best to teach the content to get the most consistent results for your clients.
All through this process, you’re focused on one core offer. One core framework. And with it being only one offer to run, you can create a life of freedom around it as you grow it to 6-figures.
Not to mention, when you design it around the most irresistible component of the work that you do – in other words, the most in-demand and sorely needed offer that your ideal client just can’t say no to – you build more trust which in turn compounds into more momentum which leads to selling out your offer again and again.
It makes complete sense, so why do people not do this more? Because they’re building out their offer suite the wrong way around.
Yes, we want freedom. But freedom is pointless if you’re stressed and anxious because your business is barely surviving, let alone thriving.
But, you have to create an offer that people actually want. Meaning the very first step in your entire offer design process is defining what IS an irresistible offer for your target audience and linking it back to what you want to be known for. This is what makes your offer irresistible and signature to YOU.
You can then expand your offer suite from there, but not before you have built real proof of concept for your core offer and you can confidently and predictably sell out your offer time and time again.
Here’s the exact plan I use to launch a new offer!
Build a Rinse & Repeat Sales Ecosystem
Firstly, why rinse and repeat?
Because we are after predictable sales above all else. A freedom-first business model also means no stress, no anxiety, no feeling chained to your business. When sales aren’t predictable, our business isn’t dependable and we, as the business owner, do not feel free.
To find your rinse and repeat sales strategy requires two things.
First, understanding the buyer’s journey. This is the formulaic aspect to your sales engine. It’s what we, as marketers, can study and depend on because, to an extent, the buyer’s journey does not change.
Second, trial and error. Whilst we can use the buyer’s journey as the formula upon which we’ll establish our sales strategy, it will require tweaking to fit your business. As humans, we are very unique in our approach to life. Not only will your business have a unique blueprint to how you apply the buyer’s journey, but your audience will have their own ways of purchasing.
The only way to really learn what works is to trial and error – often.
Which means the sooner you start, the sooner you will see better and better and better results. Because it truly does only get better, even if you barely notice it to start.
Your sales ecosystem needs to have three things: a traffic source, a nurture system, and a conversion tool.
Your traffic source is how you actually get in front of your target audience, and ideally, move them from the platform you find them over to a platform you own, like an email list. The nurture system is how you build know, like, trust (KLT) so that they move through the buyer’s journey from cold to warm to hot, like an email sequence or social media platform. Your conversion tool is an asset that converts your warmest leads into “hell yes” buyers by providing them with all of the information they need to make an empowered decision, like a webinar or sales page.
An example of a sales ecosystem:
Instagram + Paid Ads (Traffic Source) > Lead Magnet + Email Sequence (Nurture System) > Webinar + Sales Page (Conversion Tool)
Leverage Systems and Automations
Most of the tasks in your business can be made 10x easier with the right system or automation.
A lot of start-up entrepreneurs or freelancers will stick to the scrappy way of operating by doing everything manually which then reinforces the belief that “it’s just quicker if I do it”.
Spoiler alert, it’s not.
Remember earlier when I said the more you value your time, the more value you’ll make with your time?
Well, the sooner you can delegate, automate or delete most of your workload, the sooner you’ll be able to concentrate all of your efforts on actually scaling your business.
Here’s a non-exclusive list of tasks that you absolutely should be delegating (D) or automating (A) in no particular order of priority:
- Client onboarding + offboarding (A/D)
- Lead generation (A)
- Lead nurturing (A)
- Inbox management (D)
- Payment processing and/or management, such as invoicing or payment reminders (A/D)
- Client enquiries + proposals, such as contracts (A)
- Call and meeting scheduling (A)
- Bookkeeping and accounting (D)
- Data tracking (A/D)
- Project management (A/D)
Your time IS money, so the sooner you remove the tasks that are detracting you from what will really move the needle in your business, the sooner you will see real growth.
The best starting point is to track your time over the course of the next 7-14 days, noting every task you do and how long you spend doing it. Then, audit and analyse this time log by determining which tasks only you can do (I mean truly ONLY you) and which tasks you consider a money-generating activity.
Try Toggle – a software that tracks your tasks for you!
Then, process each task by determining which tasks you will delegate, automate or delete.
And there you have it – my five-step process for building a freedom-first business model.
This simple process has changed the way I operate in my business, and it really does get to be easy, when you let it. The key is to have your golden compass always pointing north, towards freedom, and not getting lost along the way with distractions such as shiny object syndrome or comparison.
