Transcript of Episode #7:
Stop Doing It All: Learn the Art of
Working ON Your Business,
Not IN It!

Cristina:  Hello and welcome back to the Blissful Mompreneur podcast. I’m your host, Cristina Hall and I am so grateful you are here today. I am on a mission to help mompreneurs or female entrepreneurs who hope to be moms in the future, systemize and scale their businesses to beat overwhelm and reclaim their time. Join me each week as I dive into actionable strategies and inspiring stories to support you on your journey to entrepreneurial success and work-life balance.

Have you ever felt stuck in the day-to-day operations of your business, struggling to find time for strategic planning and growth? Unless you have significant capital when you first start your business, you have no choice but to do it all. But at some point, we grow and we find ourselves still doing it all. And this was me when I was pregnant with my first child. I was pretty much still doing it all even though we had grown. I can’t recall where I first heard this idea, but when my daughter was young I needed to transition from working in my business to working on my business. At the time, this was a strange concept to me. For years, I believed I had to do everything in my business to be successful. And now I was being challenged to change that belief. But what I began to realize was that in order to grow, I had to stop spending my time on the day-to-day operations.

In the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, the author defines the two different types of business owners. The employee or self-employed owner refers to the business owners who are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of their business. This was me early on in my business. They are often the ones responsible for performing most, if not all, of the tasks required to keep the business running. These individuals may find themselves trapped in a cycle of trading time for money where their income is directly tied to the number of hours they work. The true business owner has built systems, processes, and teams that allow the business to operate smoothly and profitably without requiring their constant presence. Instead of being stuck in the employee role within their business, they are able to step into a more strategic and visionary role. They focus on high-level tasks such as goal setting, making key decisions, and planning for the future while the day-to-day operations are managed by others. Once I gave birth to my daughter and had a strong desire to spend more time with her, I really wanted to transition from the self-employed owner to a true business owner. I wanted more time freedom so that I could be the mother I always envisioned I would be. I want to have strong relationships with my children, be able to pick them up from school, be home for dinner every night, etc. This mindset shift is what allowed me to increase my revenue and give myself more time freedom.

Based on my experience, there are four key pillars to making this transition. They are 1. Change your mindset. 2. Develop Systems 3. Build a team. And 4. Delegate tasks. Let’s begin by breaking down mindset. In order to make this shift, you need to start identifying yourself as a true business owner, one whose time is extremely valuable. You are the visionary who came up with the idea to start the business. You are the one who took the risk and continues to take risks each and every day. One who deserves to only spend time on tasks in your zone of genius and delegate tasks that are not. Now if you don’t know the term zone of genius, these are the tasks that you naturally and effortlessly do well and enjoy. It takes time to start to believe these things, but they are true. If being an entrepreneur was easy, everyone would do it and yet only a small percentage of people do.

The second pillar is developing systems. Create repeatable systems and begin to document them. If you are new to the idea of documenting systems, go back and listen to episode 5 where I talk extensively about how to document systems in your business. This is huge if you want a business that operates on its own.

Pillar number three, build a team. So begin to hire help. Now start slow. Perhaps your first hire is a part-time virtual assistant that works five hours a week. As you grow, you get comfortable making this transition and you can begin to expand your team. When I started building my team, the first team member I hired was another teacher, but looking back, I think a wiser decision would have been hiring even just a part-time virtual assistant to just hand off some of the administrative work so I could continue teaching while strategically planning on how I could increase revenue.

So the fourth pillar is delegate tasks. Slowly begin handing off tasks to new team members. Start with low-level tasks, preferably ones you do not enjoy, and gradually begin handing off more and more as you get comfortable with the process. Another form of delegation is automation. If you’re not ready to start building a team, you can look into automation tools that are typically more affordable than hiring a team member and also can do wonders in giving you back some time.

If you begin to focus on these four pillars, you will slowly start to see a metamorphosis take place. Your mindset and identity will begin to shift. You will see the fog lift and you will notice that you have more time and mental bandwidth to strategize and plan what to tackle next. This will allow you to grow your business. You will continue to develop and perfect your systems. Your team will continue to grow and evolve and you will continue to delegate until you get to a point where you could go away for a month and the business would still operate fully. As someone who went through this transition, I can tell you that it is one of the best things I ever did. I now have a business that brings me so much joy and has a positive impact on so many lives, all with little input from me.

Now, unlike most episodes, I’m going to suggest that you just sit on this idea for a week or so rather than jumping into action. This is a big topic and a lot of feelings may come up. You may experience guilt, imposter syndrome, feeling overwhelmed, or fear of relinquishing control. I know for me personally, I really struggled with imposter syndrome. For many, many years, I had the belief that no one would want to work for me. Once I was able to recognize that limiting belief, that’s when building a team became so much easier, which therefore made this transition easier. If you’d like to journal, perhaps journal about the feelings that come up or talk it through with a friend. Iit can definitely be scary, but as someone who has done it, I can tell you it is so worth it. And please consider sending me a DM on Instagram at the Blissful Mompreneur. I’m happy to help in any way that I can.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the Blissful Mompreneur podcast. I hope you found the information valuable and inspiring. Remember, you have the power to step off that hamster wheel, reclaim your time, and find balance in your life. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me continue to provide valuable content to mompreneurs like you. Until next time, keep pursuing your dreams, finding joy in the journey, and creating a life and business you love. Take care and I’ll see you in the next episode.