This is an article based on my recent virtual workshop, “Why Your Dream Business is Not Making BIG money (Yet) – 3 Steps to Build a Full-Time Business on Part Time Hours”. And wouldn’t we all just love to have more time to ourselves? Imagine being able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, without taking a cut in income. When I made the decision to approach my business this way, I had a very strong motivation – I was determined to work only three days a week, so I could spend the other four being a mom to my little girl. But this was a very conscious effort, and I’m going to share with you three of the steps that it took to get me there, and the steps you can take to get yourself in the zone of peace and prosperity as well.
Step 1 – Make your days count with high impact business-building activities. And this to me was the most important step. I had to ask myself, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, “What am I doing now that should be delegated or dropped in order for me to work part-time?” What can go… what must go so that I can accomplish this?
First, figure out what days and hours would work best for you in order to have your ideal lifestyle. Once you decide the part-time hours you want, block that time off. These are your new, dedicated work hours, and your productivity becomes magnified during these hours. Get rid of all non-service delivery tasks, for example writing copy for ads, scheduling meetings, checking your emails, networking, working on your e-zine, even sales activity. And when you work from home, like I did, you have to resist the urge to start cleaning the house, make shopping lists, and start dinner.
You will need to develop what I call a “delegation consciousness”. In every moment of every day, ask yourself, “should I be doing this?” I’ll give you an example of how this worked for me, and it was life-changing. I have an e-zine that I send out to my list, and I decided to hire a virtual assistant team to take charge of the process for me, because I was spending way too much time on it. By delegating my e-zine maintenance, that put into place a circumstance that allowed me to have a team already in place when the floodgates opened and business started pouring in. I was ready for it. I needed to push against my fears that I should do it myself and that I couldn’t afford to outsource this. And it felt great when I let go of it.
Are you making proclamations that don’t really apply to the person you are now? Maybe you’ve caught yourself being sucked into something you know isn’t the best use of your time, and you swear you’re not going to get caught up in it again. But the next time it comes up, there you go. We go to business events, read books, attend networking meetings, make cold calls… and this is ok to do once you’ve gotten your part-time hours under control. But for now, get rid of anything that is not essential to you right now. This is going to be extreme, you will be cutting back to bare minimums. But don’t just cut back, be very conscious of what you are bringing in to your business, as well.
Solutions only have the opportunity to present themselves when you make a decision. You’ll find many things that can wait if you really want to work part-time. What is the benefit of working part-time? Only you can answer that for yourself. For me, it re-energized me, and gave purpose to everything I did with my business, and allowed me to live the life I’d only dreamed of.
About the Author:
Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working
part-time.
Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.
