Your Lifestyle Freedom Business

My grandfather had a good job with a company called Western Auto. He was a store manager and moving up fast. But he wanted to “do his own thing”. So, he bought a shoe store franchise and went into business for himself. Shortly after buying the franchise, the franchise closed so he changed the name of the store and kept going on his own. He ran that store for the next 30 years and made a decent living with it. The problem was not that he had his own business, the problem was that he worked 7 days a week for many years, 10 to 12 hour days.

So, he had not gone into business for himself, he had bought a job. A job with more risk, less pay at the beginning and a lot more hours. I guess I did get some of my grandfathers characteristics, because very early on I knew I needed to have my own business. The major difference is I did not want to work any where near those kind of hours. So I set out to design my work life and after a number of failures, I am there.

I now have a business that runs with little management. Frequently, I spend 10 to 20 hours a week in this business and it shoots off a healthy six figure net income. It took me several years to get here, but now I can go out and do it over and over again. I have created what I call a Freedom Business. Most people want to go into business for themselves so they have more freedom and control, but they end up with a lot of risk and stress and insanely long work hours. Pretty soon that business that you thought would bring freedom is a burden.

In this article, we will focus on some characteristics of a Freedom Business and in further articles we will talk about how to build one.

A Freedom Business is quick, light and nimble. This allows the business owner to move freely from one opportunity to another. If you are a big operation that specializes in only one area or one niche, than you are in trouble in the industry changes or the economy changes.

A Freedom Business focuses only on NET. Gross income is only important if you want to one day sell your business to a big corporation that has more money than sense. For your business you want net, the money left over that is profit and goes in the Hip National Bank. (your pocket!)

A Freedom Business has low fixed overhead. Fixed overhead is the enemy of this type of business because it does not allow you to make quick changes. Often you have to keep doing things the way they are just to pay the bills that fixed overhead created.

A Freedom Business is often portable and very flexible. This allows you to take longer periods of time off. You can often gun it for a period and then step back. In my business, the summer and fall are great times to earn, then from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, we take most of the time off. This allows us to structure our lifestyle to the way we want.

A Freedom Business has few to no employees. You may be surprised to see how big of an income you can build with outsourcing projects and maybe one key employee. I know several business owners that have gotten to seven figures with one employee. (I am not there yet, but coming on strong!!)

A Freedom Business can use partners but you don’t want partnerships. Here is the difference. A partner can come on for a specific purpose or a specified project, but does not retain ongoing partnership rights. These are primarily called Joint Ventures. A partnership is often doomed to failure as each parties needs and desires change.

A Freedom Business often has a Big Hit component. In my business, I keep steady and busy for most of the year. But a couple of times a year, I get a job that sends profits way up. So I would be profitable at the end of the year without these hits, but they add as much as 40% to my net profit….

A Freedom Business is designed to give you options and choices in your work life. If set up properly, it can be a machine that runs more and more efficiently and allows you more and more freedom.

We have an analyzing tool that we use with our coaching clients that shows you in a matter of minutes, if the business you are in or looking at has the potential to be a Freedom Business. This can save a lot time and energy and money chasing the wrong opportunity.

Stay strong and focused on building a Freedom Business and you can wake up living the life you have always wanted.