162: How to get your time back in business (without hiring a team)

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I’m talking about the system that can give you your time back in business (without needing to hire a big team, work longer hours or constantly feel like you’re trying to keep up!).

The truth is… most entrepreneurs don’t actually have a time problem, they have a dependency problem.

Their business depends on them for everything (sales, content creation, client delivery, customer support and generating income) and when everything relies on you showing up every single day, burnout becomes inevitable.

In this episode, I’m sharing the mindset shift and simple business systems that helped me stop constantly trading time for money and start building a scalable online business that actually supports my life instead of consuming it.

I also share my simple 4-step system I use in my own business to create more freedom, leverage and breathing room.

So if you’re tired of feeling like your business constantly needs you, exhausted from always being “on” or ready to build a business that gives you more freedom instead of less then this episode is for you.

Transcript

Karen [00:00:01]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 162. And in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the system that can give you back your time in business without needing to hire a big team, work longer hours, or constantly feel like you're trying to keep up. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is the show that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income, and of course, time freedom. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting the play button to listen to today's episode. So today I want to dive into and talk about the system that is going to give you back your time in business with without you needing to hire a big team or work longer hours or just feel like you are on a hamster wheel having to keep up all of the time.

Karen [00:01:09]:
Because the reality is a lot of business owners right now are exhausted. They're busy all the time, they've got a full diary and they've got a never ending to do list. And somehow it still feels like there's never enough time. There's always too much to do. And the problem is that people think that the problem is that they need to be doing more, they need to work harder, they need to post more content, they need to take on more clients, they need to be more visible, they need to be online longer. And I think the reality is with this that eventually you do hit a wall. You get to a point where you just fall out of love with your business and you decide that you've had enough. And then what can happen, worst case scenario is that you end up clos closing your business down, walking away from your dream and going back to work in the very place that you started at the beginning, that you were trying to get away from.

Karen [00:02:14]:
Because you cannot create freedom in your business if everything is dependent on you, if it's dependent on you having to show up all the time. So in this episode, I really want to walk you through a shift that for me changed everything. And this system helped me to stop constantly trading my time for money and start building a business that actually supported my life instead of consuming it. Now, I think it's important to say first that a lot of entrepreneurs do not have a time problem. They have a dependency problem. Their business depends on them for everything. Sales depend on them. Content depends on them.

Karen [00:03:03]:
Delivery depends on them. Customer support, Customer support depends on them. The income that they make depends on them being present. And when that happens, they are the engine of their business. And the moment they stop, everything either slows down or it comes to a halt. And what that does is it creates a pressure because suddenly every single day feels urgent, every task in your business feels important, and you start living in this constant reactive mode of having to react to things that come in, instead of intentionally building something that is sustainable. And all that does in reality is just create another version of a job that you've most likely just tried to get away from in the first place. So a few months ago, one of my really close friends who was running her business shut up shop and went back to work.

Karen [00:04:17]:
After 10 years of running her business, being highly successful in her business, winning multiple awards, being recognized in her industry as one of the most valuable and sought after thought leaders, closed her business because she found herself in burnout. And the reality of her situation came because she was constantly working with clients and having to keep that pipeline of client work going. And what that did is that it. Unfortunately, because of the demands on her time and because of the reality of her business, she found herself in burnout. And I think really she got to a point in her business where she just got fed up of being pulled in every direction by her clients, having those demands made of her, and constantly having to give her time over and over again. Which meant that when life happened in her personal life, and there were things that happened with her family or on a personal level, she couldn't take the time to focus on it because she was constantly being pulled every which way by the pressure of her business. And I think after 10 years she just had enough and. And she literally closed her business down, shut up shop, and she's gone back to work.

Karen [00:06:14]:
She's gone back to that 9 to 5 that originally she tried to escape from, which is such a shame because she was doing amazing. But I think the reality of the situation was that because everything was on her, her time was how she made money. So when she had that demand on her time, she had to show up for it, because that's what people were paying for. So instead of building in on scalable offers that she could sell and repeat that didn't require her to be there, she continued to focus on delivering her time as a way of making income. And over time it just wears away. You get to a point where you just become burnt out because of being pulled in every which direction all of the time. So I wanted to share this because this is a stark reality of what can happen when we are running our businesses and we don't have other solutions available that give us back our freedom. And I know I've shared on this podcast many times of my own experience going into lockdown in 2020, having a.

Karen [00:07:48]:
Having a full quota of creative projects on the go, and getting to a point where I was totally burnt out. And I completely fell out of love with my business. And I did have those moments where I questioned whether my business was the right thing that I should be doing, whether I wanted to do it. And this was something that I love doing. I used to wake up every single day with a real bounce in my step because I wanted, I wanted to meet with my clients, I wanted to deliver the work, I wanted to do all that thing. That was what I enjoyed. But my business got me to a point where it exhausted me. It took from me rather than giving me what I really needed.

Karen [00:08:33]:
I had no freedom. It felt heavy. So I do understand from a personal perspective what running a business can be like. And I think for me, I made those decisions back in 2020, that I was going to build a different business mod, one that didn't require me to be there. Because I knew that if I continued down the road I was going, I would shut up shop, I would go back to work and I would have to walk away from my dream. So this, I feel, is so important when it comes to thinking long term and building something sustainably. So I want to talk about the thing that changes everything and that are systems. Not complicated corporate systems, not huge automations or systems that need a massive team.

Karen [00:09:29]:
I'm talking about simple systems that remove unnecessary pressure from your business, systems that allow your business to continue moving when you're not constantly on, when you are spending time with your favorite people and you know that you've got things working for you in your business. And I think the biggest shift that you can make is to stop relying on live energy for all your income. That is a massive shift to make. It's a different perspective on how you see your business. And it can take time. Even if you're curious and you're not ready for this, then just knowing there's a different way can make a massive difference. So if you need to be there for every call, every meeting you need, you're constantly delivering content, you're constantly answering DMS online, and you are the person that is constantly having to follow up, then there's no getting away from me. You're always going to be busy and it will lead to burnout.

Karen [00:10:40]:
It will lead to burnout because everything is on you. And we want to avoid burnout. Burnout is not a good place to be. It is horrible. It takes you to that dark place where you start questioning yourself and everything that you're doing. And it's that moment of, I can't do this, I don't want to do this. I'm giving it all up. And you want to avoid that at all cost.

Karen [00:11:04]:
So you want to be thinking about what assets can you build in your business that's going to start giving you time back, that's going to start removing the pressure from you, because you're setting up systems to help you, to support you, so that you can move your business forward. Things that continue working after you create them. So it could be an online course, it could be a membership, it could be a digital product, it could be an automated nurture sequence, it could be a webinar replay, it could be a lead magnet, it could be a really simple sales funnel. These things work differently because instead of repeatedly delivering the same information over and over again, you build it once and then you allow it to keep supporting people repeatedly. And you're not there having to do that. So you can have all of this stuff go on in the background and you get that freedom back. Because you can then focus on the things that give you joy, that lift you up, the things that you want to do, the things that you started your business for in the first place. And I think that is a game changer.

Karen [00:12:20]:
Now. The important part to know or the important thing to note is this isn't really about becoming passive. I think the online space sometimes sells this unrealistic idea that you create this one thing and then you sit back on a beach drinking pina coladas forever with everything going on and you making a ton of money. That's not reality. And I'm not selling that. I. What is realistic is creating leverage. And what I mean by that is your effort stops being directly tied to every single pound that you make.

Karen [00:13:03]:
And that's the shift. That's what you need to make in your business. Because right now, a lot of entrepreneurs are trapped in the cycle of they work to earn. If they stop, their income drops. And that is where it gets really exhausting. By building scalable systems, it changes the model to creating something that you then automate so you can sell repeatedly and then you can improve it over time. And that's completely different. It's a completely different business model.

Karen [00:13:40]:
It creates breathing room and it gives you space to think strategically again so you can create new things. You can rest, take Time out and enjoy your business. That's why you've created your business is so that you can have this thing that you, you enjoy that brings you joy. You know it's doing good, you know you're helping, you know you're being of service. But most importantly, you love doing it because it brings you that joy. So I want to share my four part system so that you can actually take action on this. So if you want to create more freedom in your business, then you need a basic ecosystem that works together. So you want to have content that attracts people.

Karen [00:14:32]:
So the first step is attract. What I'm talking about is not creating random content. You're not posting just for visibility, you're posting for purpose. Content that speaks directly to a problem that your audience is experiencing. This is where things like podcasts come into play. LinkedIn posts, Instagram content, YouTube videos, and blogs become really powerful because this content becomes the front door to your business. The second step is about capture. The second step is about capturing.

Karen [00:15:15]:
You need a way to move people off social media into your world, because followers are not the same as leads. So think about creating either a freebie, a webinar, maybe even a simple checklist, a guide, or a mini training, something valuable that brings people into your world. This is where building your email list is essential. Because platforms are going to change all the time and we do not own them, which means we have no authority on them. The gods of Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn can change the algorithms in a heartbeat. And all of that effort that you're putting in to be seen can go overnight. So what we have to do is we have to bring people from those platforms into our world so that we are building a really valuable business asset that we can leverage. So we need to focus on how we're going to capture those leads.

Karen [00:16:17]:
The third step is all about nurturing, building the relationship with your audience. Now this is the piece that I think a lot of people skip. They post content, they offer a freebie, and then they disappear. But people often need a lot of nurturing before they buy. They need to build the trust and that clarity of what it is you're about and the confidence that you are the person to listen to. And they need to be educated as well, because they might not be at a stage where they're aware of their problem. And then they need to feel connected, connected to you. You are their person.

Karen [00:16:57]:
And this is where systems are going to save you time. Because instead of manually explaining everything every single day, when somebody comes into your world, you can have your email, your podcast episodes, trainings and systems that do that work for you. And it just becomes a really powerful way to grow your business. And then step four is about selling. You need a simple offer path, not 47 different offers, not complicated funnels, just a really simple clear next step. Something that solves a specific problem and ideally something that doesn't require you to personally deliver every sale live. So having that system in place is, well, will save you a, a huge amount of time. And that's where scalable offers become really powerful.

Karen [00:17:55]:
I talk about building scalable offers in your business all of the time. I, I talk about it when I go networking, I talk about it when I have one to ones. I talk about it all the time because this is where life becomes easier. This is where you get to take something off your shelf and you get to sell it without having to do any work because you've done the work, you've built it. Once it's built, you get to sell it on repeat because they allow your business to continue generating revenue beyond your available hours. So I just want to give you an example of what that is like for me in my business. So the way I attract my audience is of course through this podcast. But I also have a blog.

Karen [00:18:45]:
I also deliver content online and I have an email list. Now I capture leads through a many different ways. Actually I have a freebie. I have, well, I have multiple freebies. I have a freebie called 10 Steps to Online course Success. I deliver webinars and I have other things as well. I've got training on my website, I've got lots of different things. So I use those assets to capture people, people in my business.

Karen [00:19:17]:
Then step three, the nurture process. I have automated email sequence set up so when somebody downloads my free guide they will instantly get an email and then thereafter they will get a series of emails that starts to build that know like and trust. And then the way I sell in step four is through those emails I then provide pathways to an offer. So if somebody is downloading my 10 steps to online Course success, I have a really low cost offer that they can buy called the Easy Course Kickstarter kit. It's only 27 pound. And they then are invited to purchase because that is the next logical step for them after they've downloaded my freebie. And this system is set up so that it works in the background so I don't have to be there to deliver each component opponent of that system. Now what I want to really sort of say is that I feel like social media, there's a lot of noise on social media and it can make people feel like they need a big team, they need a va, a social media manager, a funnel expert, a tech team, a course team.

Karen [00:20:41]:
You don't in the beginning, simplicity wins. In fact, some of the best systems are those that are basic. That's the truth. You just need a landing page, an email sequence, a low ticket digital product, a nurture process, and a clear customer journey. They're the key components because that alone can completely change how your business operates. The systems that you start to implement are going to reduce decision fatigue, they're going to reduce repetition, and they're going to reduce chaos in your business. And chaos is often what leads to burnout. So we want to avoid that now.

Karen [00:21:25]:
The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is trying to scale in chaos. They add more platforms, they add more offers, they have more ideas, they, they bolt on a lot more things to manage and they never pause to build a solid infrastructure underneath their. And eventually everything will start to feel heavy because nothing is quite working, but there's a lot of noise going on. Now what I encourage you to think about is taking the smarter approach. Focus on simplicity first, systemize second, and scale third. Because that order really, really matters. Freedom is built through simplicity and repeatability. It's not about constantly working hard.

Karen [00:22:15]:
We have work smarter, not harder. So if you are feeling overwhelmed today, I want you to just take a moment and really think about how you want your business to feel. If your business feels like it constantly needs you to be there, if you feel like you're always working but you're never getting ahead, you're never making that income and you're just tired, then I want you to know that it's not about you working harder. You're working hard enough. You just need better systems. You need a business model that supports your life instead of consuming it. And the beautiful thing about this is that it doesn't need to be built overnight. You can start small, build one system at a time, one offer at a time, one automation at a time, and then one scalable asset at a time.

Karen [00:23:07]:
And over time, these things will compound and eventually you stop building a business that relies entirely on your presence and start building a business that gives you back your freedom. So if you want to build a business that is freedom focused and gives you what you need, then focus on the systems. 

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope this has given you some clarity and sparked some new ideas for your business. Now if you found this helpful, then I would love you to share with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who's building their online business because this might be what they need to hear here today. 

And if this episode has you thinking that you aren't ready to start building out these systems and create scalable offers in your business, then I want to invite you to join my membership. Sell your Brilliance Online by going to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/membership. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.