The not-so-obvious rules for building an online business that gives you freedom

Building an online business is a journey—one that doesn't happen overnight. But I've learned a few tips and tricks along the way to help you get there quicker. In today's episode, I share 5 of these tips to help you create that “off-grid” long term sustainability and freedom you crave:

– Why doing what you've always done is not going to get you to where you want to go (or you'd be there already!).
– The short-term and long-term action steps you can take right now to pass the “off-grid test”.
– Why spending more time on your lead magnet will better set you up for long-term growth (instead of spending all that time editing that reel).
– How prioritising the important things can save you time and money in the future.

SHOW LINKS:
– Download my workbook – Escape the Messy Middle: DM me EMM on Instagram stephtaylor.co or download it here
– Learn more about Offer Less, Sell More: DM me OLSM on Instagram stephtaylor.co or follow the link: https://stephtaylor.co/OLSM

 

Today I'm sharing the not-so-obvious rules for building an online business that gives you freedom. Now, it might seem like the pathway to building freedom in your business is just to have more and do more of the things that you are already doing and the things that you already have in your business.

So it might seem like the pathway is to just get more clients to get more followers so that you can get more clients to create more courses, and to have more launches. And unfortunately, that is not usually the case. The solution isn't to do more. The solution is to do things differently.

 

Rule #1: Something needs to change.

And if you are at the point in your business where you are pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, and you can't stop because if you stop, your income will stop, then you've probably realised that the solution isn't to get more clients. It isn't to do more marketing or more of anything. 

If you're at the stage where you are struggling to get clients and that's your biggest challenge, then the solution probably isn't to do more of what you're already doing either and even though the challenge in both of these cases is totally different, the solution in both cases isn't to do more of what you're already doing. You know, as they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

So for something to change in your business, something needs to change. 

 

Rule #2: You don't truly have a long-term sustainable business until you can pass the off-grid test.

Now, what I call the off-grid test is where you are maintaining high client satisfaction and high profitability when you're off the grid, so your business is still ticking along, generating a profit, and your clients are still happy. 

Now, this happens in stages in your business. At the start, you might feel a little bit like you are riding a bicycle. You're pedaling all the time, but it stops when you stop pedaling, and then you might progress to an e-bike where you've got some systems and a VA to help you pedal a little bit, then you might progress to a car, which you know it runs, but it still needs you there pressing the accelerator, changing those gears. And then that final stage is the self-driving car, it runs itself. It steers itself even when you are not there in the driver's seat. 

Now, if you're thinking about, well, this is so unattainable. Do I need to wait until I have that self-driving car of a business before I can take time off? The good news is, no, you don't, but you do need to do a couple of little things to prepare to take some time off in the short term.

Like if you're wanting to take a few weeks off right now and you don't have the time to get all of those foundations in place because it's not something that happens quickly. So if you're wanting to take a few weeks off in the short term, two questions to ask yourself. So firstly, what are all the things that need to happen while I'm away from my laptop? And then for each of those things, ask yourself, will we prepare it? Will we delegate it, will we automate it or will we delete it? 

So everything needs to either be done ahead of time, somebody else needs to do it, it needs to be automated, or it needs to be removed completely. 

 

Rule #3: Long-term growth comes at the expense of short-term wins. 

For example, creating processes in your business that take up time in the short term time that you could spend on marketing and sales that get you clients right now but it means that in the longer term when you bring in that new hire, they can hit the ground running because you've set them up for success with those processes.

Another example, spending more time creating a lead magnet than editing a reel. Yes, your reel might deliver some quick wins might feel really good when you get those views and those likes, but that lead magnet is going to grow your email list for years to come. 

 

Rule #4: You can't always prioritise the fun things in your business and ignore the boring, less shiny things.

This is such a huge mistake I see all the time. It's focusing on the fun and shiny short-term things over the long-term, important things. You've got to prioritise the important things, even if they're not as much fun at the moment because they're the things that will save you pain in the future. 

 

Rule #5: It's a journey and it's not going to happen overnight.

I've been doing this business thing for a while now. Like this particular business I've been doing for five years, and only in the last maybe three years or so have I had both time freedom and financial freedom. But the two years before that were spent laying the foundations for the business that I have now. They were spent creating courses, lead magnets, and building this podcast's listener base.

So if you are expecting it all to happen really quickly, it's unlikely. I had really quick growth at the start of 2020, but this wasn't an accident. It was because I'd spent the years prior to that laying the foundations for that kind of growth, and even then, I still made a ton of mistakes with that growth.

One of the biggest ones was that I was literally selling thousands of my A to Z podcast Launch Plan course, thousands of copies. And these people were asking me for other ways they could work with me, and I had nothing else to sell them. And it was only when sales from that offer started to slow down that I realised I hadn't built a sustainable business yet.

Yes, I was making a million dollars a year in my business, but it was all tied to one offer, which meant that I needed to spend huge amounts of time. Budget energy to keep bringing in that never-ending flow of new leads to keep making sales. And that was exhausting and it was expensive, right? So that's when I took a step back and I started designing my office suite. I designed it intentionally this time, and I created new ways for somebody to work with me, and that is how it worked. So by doing this, I built this consistently profitable business that didn't just rely on one product. 

 

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