Western civilization is obsessed with the concept of ‘Freedom’. We hear it almost daily from our politicians, it’s pretty much ingrained in our collective psyche. We strive for freedom in everything we do, or most of us do. Those who run their own business have the opportunity to create their own freedoms beyond the general population. Those who work for somebody else are not free as a rule, to choose what they do when they do it and why they do it.
This is why today, many employees want to win their freedom from their employers, become entrepreneurs, and start their own businesses. Wanting freedom is a universal human desire, but attaining it is the hard part. By wanting to become an entrepreneur and start your own business, you are attempting to achieve freedom from corporate employment. That’s the theory. In practice, the life of a business owner and entrepreneur is a little different. In this blog, we’ll explore what the four entrepreneurial freedoms are and why as business owners we should keep them in mind at all times.
The Four Entrepreneurial Freedoms
1. Freedom of Time. As a business owner and entrepreneur, you are free to choose how you spend your time. Think about it, you don’t have a boss saying “you need to be here at 0800, or we’re going to dock your pay”, however, you do have clients and customers demanding your time. How you manage people who demand your time is really up to you. A lot of business owners don’t get this point, they let clients call them at all hours, and they allow their time to be frittered away by others. Successful business owners manage the demands placed upon their time by others, you should too. Because the freedom of time is a fundamental freedom, you have the choice of how much you work or how little. You should really want to spend your working life doing what you really enjoy doing, as Marc Anthony said “ If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”. However, you also want the freedom to spend time not working too, so you can have a full life and pursue your other interests.
2. Freedom of Money. As an entrepreneur, you are free to earn as much or as little money as you choose. You don’t have a ceiling on how much money you can make for doing a great job, for coming up with valuable new solutions or inventions. Freedom of money is all about achieving financial freedom and is probably the number one most sought-after milestone for anyone who becomes an entrepreneur or business owner. This for most is not about being ‘rich’ (I’ve yet to meet anybody who went into business to have untold wealth) it’s about having the freedom from money worries. The freedom to be able to do what you want, right here and now without money being an obstacle.
To gain freedom of money you must understand your business, you must:-
- understand why people buy from you,
- you must know the numbers in your business,
- you must know how to price right for your products and services.
Getting these right will give you the ‘Freedom of Money’. Check out our “Pricing Cure” course at the end of this blog.
3. Freedom of Relationship. We’ve all been there, worked for that boss who was an absolute ‘A’hole’, well I certainly have and I’m sure you will have been at some time. The thing is there are certain people you love working with and there are certain people who you’d happily not work with again. When you work for an organisation or business you don’t own, you really don’t have a choice of who your co-workers are or who your boss is. However, as a business owner you not only have a choice of who your staff is (you generally employed them) you also have a choice of who your customers and clients are. Freedom of relationships is all about choosing who you want to work with, whether that be your staff or your clients. And exercising this freedom is really important for your well-being. You want to spend more and more of your time surrounded just by people you click with, whom you appreciate and who appreciate you.
3. Freedom of Purpose. Why do you do what you do? We all get so busy caught up in what we do every day, that we don’t give the time to really reflect on why we do it! I recently read, for a second time, Simon Sinek’s great book “Start with Why” and I would highly recommend it to all of you.
In the book, Simon says that is not the “what” that motivates us to jump out of bed in the mornings, it is the “why.” It is not the “what” that drives us to give great service and become an expert in our field, it is the “why.” Drop me an email and I’ll send you a copy of my book summary of Sinek’s book.
The thing is this, the business you’ve created is not just a job or a career; it’s actually a vehicle for all sorts of things that relate to your fundamental values and ideals in life. This allows you to have a tremendous sense of purpose for being on this planet. Entrepreneurs are the greatest contributors of money, opportunity, and capability to communities all over the world, in every field of human activity. As LL Cool J says:- “Do what you love; you’ll be better at it. It sounds pretty simple, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t get this one right away.”
What have all these freedoms got in common? They are all linked to choice or decision-making. As an entrepreneur you choose:-
- How you spend your time
- Your customers/clients through your marketing and pricing
- How much money you make through your knowledge and skill at business.
- And you choose your purpose
Making these decisions or choices is fundamental to you as a business owner and entrepreneur, the astonishing thing is that despite the importance of these decisions people lack a process for making them.
Twelve intensive half-day meetings.
