Each year many of us set new year’s resolutions, one of which is to work less and create more balance in our personal lives. For business owners, this is a line that’s hard not to cross with constant business drama, day-to-day operations, and just keeping the business afloat.

But there is a way to create more freedom within your business and make sure it’s supporting  the lifestyle you want to create (not controlling it). In this article we explore three ways to create more freedom in your business and build a business that supports your longer term goals.

The three freedoms of business

There are three areas of business freedom that can have a dramatic impact on your lifestyle and work-life balance:

Financial freedoms

Strategies and activities that reduce financial stress and create more financial stability for your business. 

Time freedoms

Specific actions that can help you free up valuable time or maximise the time you have more effectively.

Mind freedoms

Approaches and strategies that decrease mental strain and stresses impacting your wellbeing.

By putting strategies in place for each of these stress areas, you can unlock more freedom within your business and positively impact your work-life balance.

Creating more financial freedoms

For many business owners, money is what keeps us up at night. We worry about upcoming expenses, revenue coming in, and just trying to keep our head above water.

To start your journey, ask yourself:

• What is my current cash position?

• Can I pay bills as they fall?

• Can I produce meaningful financial reports?

• Is my business delivering enough money to live my desired lifestyle?

If you answered no to any of the above, this isn’t something to worry about but rather opportunities for business improvement. This is where having your financial records up to date is essential and meeting with a business advisor such as McNamara and Company can really help.

Using your financial records, you or your business advisor can uncover where you are now and put strategies in place to help you answer ‘yes’ to the above over time.

Unlocking time freedoms

Time is the most valuable resource a business owner can have. However, there might only be one of you or a small group that can only stretch so far. 

As a business advisor, McNamara and Company often find it’s not a case of creating more time – or hiring more people – but optimising your time so you’re focusing on where it matters most.

When creating time freedoms, think about:

• How much time am I spending working in the business rather than working on the business? (i.e. dealing with the day to day rather than improvements and your goals)

• How much time do you spend on paperwork and admin each week?

• How much time would you like to spend on / in the business each week?

• How many holidays do you take a year?

Working through these with your team or business advisor, you can start to analyse where a lot of your time goes, where you want to get to, and start to either:

• Delegate: Allocating day-to-day tasks to other team members
  
  

• Reallocate: Look into services, tools or software that can decrease time spend on administrative or manual tasks
  
  

• Eliminate: Processes or procedures that could remove unnecessary steps or activities that don’t add any value to your team or time

If you’ve built your business from the ground up, letting go can be a daunting and uncomfortable process. By working with a mentor or business advisor, you can keep yourself more accountable and make sure you’re not slipping back into bad time habits.

Building mind freedoms

The Pandemic and the last couple of years has seen a renewed focus on mental wellbeing and mindfulness. That said, many business owners often feel the mental load long after they close the laptop or leave the office.

However, with many of us working hours from home or using the home office more, switching off and taking time to be mindful or mentally reset can be difficult.

To create more mind freedoms, ask yourself:

• What areas of your business are causing you the most stress?

• How much time do you spend thinking about the business when you’re not working?

• What would success look like in 12 months?

• What do you enjoy doing and helps you reset each day?

Thinking about these questions will help you identify triggers that might be stopping mind freedom as well as uncover strategies to create focus away from the daily grind.

At McNamara and Company, we often find that working through steps to unlock financial and time freedom can result in more mind freedoms naturally. Especially if you work through strategies with our business advisory team that focus on lifting business weight off your shoulders.

It’s also important to create daily routines that help your mind ‘call it a day’, such as having a cup of tea at the end of the work day or going for a walk after you send the last email. Other strategies could be turning off notifications on your phone from your email, communication tools (such as Teams or Slack), and not doing administration after a set time each day.

How does goal setting fit into creating more business freedoms?

By understanding where you are now and where you want to be, you can begin to implement strategies, plans and activities you need to get there.

Here, it’s important to make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relatable, Time Bound. This will help you create better goals for the year ahead and help you create more focus day to day in your business.

These goals are not only important to have as a business but also personally, keeping you focused for the year ahead. It can also help you and your business advisor make strategic changes to your business that not only create more personal freedom but also work towards helping you reach your goals for the year. 

Please call 03 9428 1062 or email admin@mcnamaraandco.au