The Freedom Formula
Freedom...I like that word.
Freedom means different things to different people. To me, it means time freedom.
Time freedom is the reason why I started my business. Can you believe my first business was an auto repair shop? When I was 24, I started that shop because I needed freedom to raise my daughter and I needed financial freedom with the place I worked without someone telling me when I should be at work. In short, I needed the flexibility.
My current business is flexible with parents because I never want them to feel the ways I felt when I was starting out. Freedom was always a very important part of my business and so it’s important to talk about how we create freedom in our business:
We create freedom with The Freedom Formula.
I heard about this formula back in January at an intensive I intended and it was really powerful.
There are seven letters in the word freedom and so this formula is seven steps. I’ve been implementing these steps these last two or three months and I really noticed a difference in my business.
The first step is to focus on activities that move the needle forward. I feel like during business hours I need to be working on things that are creating revenue. But that’s just busy work... It still has to get done, but they don’t move the needle. The primetime stuff, the actual needle mover tasks I save for the evening after business hours. The key is I make time for them.
The second step is to start prioritizing the right things. With my team in the salon, I created a checklist of things to get done when we don’t have clients. You want to prioritize your tasks based on their importance. Don't get caught in the busy work. Make sure you make time for those needle movers. It's easy to get in a busy staff because it's easy to do and the hard stuff is hard to do. You really have to push yourself so those things will get you to the freedom that you want later.
The third step is to empower others to execute for you. In other words, learn how to delegate. You can't do it all--and I’ve tried. Learning how to delegate is essential. This January, I hired an assistant, Brooke, and she’s been life changing. So it's all of those things in all of the people in our business and also my team in Fresno. Those girls make it so easy for me to be a remote: They support me. They trust me. You can't do it all in your business if you want to scale, and you shouldn’t want to do it all by yourself anyway. One of the best parts of delegating is watching other people rise and watch other people grow. Every single one of the girls on my team are not the same people they were when they joined my team. I feel so privileged to have been a part of that. Not only does it get things off your plate, it gives somebody else the opportunity to up to the occasion.
The fourth step is to eliminate anything that is not a core competency. For example, writing is not my strong suit--I write how I speak. For me, it's not my core competency. I have my daughter proofread all the stuff before we send it out, and things occasionally slip by her. That’s okay! We don't have to be experts at everything, and that has taken me a long time to come to terms with. There are a few things I'm really awesome at, and that's what I try to focus my attention on.
The fifth step is to conduct data driven marketing. If you know your numbers you can see what you can tweak or what needs your attention. In my business, we created a dashboard to track all of our social media. We’re doing that so we can see the engagement we have and track it. You've got to see the data so you know how to adjust your tactics if something isn’t working.
The sixth step is to optimize consistency for compound growth. In the last step we checked the data so now we need to assess where focus needs to go. I have a friend who does team meetings every day before they start their day, which I would love to do, however I’m not in my stores every day but I think that's really awesome. We do our team meetings every Tuesday, and if I'm not going to be in the store on Tuesday, I send a memo so I can keep my team on track for the week. It's really a time for everybody to grow together as a team and keep everyone on the same page.
The final step of the formula is to multiply profits by scaling what’s working. I like to think of it like the stock market as far as a compounding interest in how that just like how the story about where it starts with a penny and then it compounds itself in at the end of the month is worth a million dollars. It’s the same thing. You start with that penny, and you figure out how to multiply it. Stick with what works!
I think a lot of people get caught on what society expects of them. Try not to get caught up in that. Instead, figure out what's important to you but don't spend too much time with your eye off the ball.
At the end of the day, I'm no different than you guys. I'm still trying to figure all this out myself even after nineteen years of business. The industry is always changing and that's what I love about it...There's always room to grow and get better. I am constantly working on figuring out how my team can do things better and then sharing it with you.
I’ve found freedom in my business, and now I want to help others find theirs.
If you'd like to go deeper with us about this formula, you can always book a free discovery call with one of our coaches and we can see how we can help you with your business.
