I was thinking about the state of American business owners yesterday and came to the conclusion that there is a general paradigm that business owners seem to have fallen into that I call the 50 x 5 Trap.
Here it is:
- We work 50 hours per week
- For 50 weeks a year
- For 50 years
- We're only 50% engaged in our work, and
- When we're 50, we look back and wonder how we didn't achieve what we set out to
This is a sad state. Business owners usually start their businesses for one of 5 reasons:
- To make a difference
- To create a better life for themselves and their families
- To make more money
- To have more free time
- To avoid working for someone else
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs end up creating jobs rather than lives. There is so much we can do to create the kind of results we want to achieve, but we often get stuck in BAU thinking: Business As Usual. When we accept that what we're doing is the way it needs to be done, but we aren't achieving the results we want, we should seek out new opportunities for changing our businesses.
If you want more income, more time, and a better quality of life, here is my prescription for you:
- Get clear about what you want from your life. Forget about the business you're in right now. Think long-term about the kind of life you want and how much time and money you will need to have that life.
- Look objectively at your business. Can it help you reach your life goals? Will it - by itself - get you to your ultimate destination? Or is your current business just one piece in your long-term plan to get you there? Do you need to sell your business and start something else?
- Optimize your performance. Get a coach. Lance Armstrong has a whole team that helps him stay on track. He knows how to eat and workout, but he has a nutritionist and personal trainer to keep him on track and focused. We all need help. Get it. Few of us can do it all on our own. We need coaches, mentors, and mastermind groups to keep us focused, accountable, and in action.
- Optimize your business. Make the business you have all it can be. You probably think you have done this already, but I challenge you to look again. If you are working in your business instead of on it, you're not maximizing your value. Streamline, automate, eliminate, and refine processes and activities in your business so that it can run on auto-pilot (or at least with much less hands-on control). This will give you the time you want, and enables you to scale your business to achieve the income you want. It also maximizes the sale value.
- Focus on what you do best and love most. What do you do better than anyone in your company? If it's everything, then you stink at hiring. If it's nothing, then take an extended vacation - and retire. Chances are though, there are a few things you do really well. Out of those, what one or two do you most enjoy doing? Focus there and delegate and outsource the rest.
