There's likely more of an opportunity to turn your existing company into something that better suits your lifestyle goals rather than starting an entirely separate business on the side.
Your unique situation, industry experience, and existing business is an advantage that 99% of people who want to have a successful remote, scalable online business don't have. It would be much easier for you.
Lots of people wouldn't call my lawn care business "fastlane" but it can be managed easily, scaled up somewhat quickly, and allows me to travel and take 3 months of the year off. And if employees are doing their jobs I can peacefully avoid doing much work at all other than giving quotes for a couple hours.
Don't get me wrong, I still work. And I had to work my a$$ off in the beginning too. But, I get plenty of time for my hobbies, I get to sleep in, and I spend plenty of time with my girlfriend. I spent 2 months in Thailand and a couple weeks in India a year ago. This winter I've been skiing a lot.
Your effort is probably being wasted in many ways. I would reevaluate what benefits actually come out of you spending so much time on your work and imagine how you would run your business if you HAD to limit yourself to a couple hours of work a day.
Business changes that can add time back into your life
1. Hire employees to do the actual work
2. Hire customer service and give them an instruction manual for how to deal with customers, new leads, etc
3. Do recurring services or offer an automated quote option so you don't have to travel or waste time dealing with each new customer that will only give you income for a single job. (if you cannot do recurring services, sell to organizations or HOA's so you can sell ONCE and get a job worth 50x your normal size)
4. Stop doing work that wastes your time or causes regular problems or results in a higher rate of complaints
5. Include contracts to protect yourself from bad customers
6. Use autopayments and get customer credit cards on file so you have 0 "unpaid invoices" (useful for recurring services)
7. Change services to be only the basic work that any employee can do to cut down on training, management load per employee, and give you more peace of mind with less risk. Also cuts down on insurance in some cases. Again, recurring services are best. Schedule uncertainty is a nightmare. You always want to be able to make payroll as well.
Your unique situation, industry experience, and existing business is an advantage that 99% of people who want to have a successful remote, scalable online business don't have. It would be much easier for you.
Lots of people wouldn't call my lawn care business "fastlane" but it can be managed easily, scaled up somewhat quickly, and allows me to travel and take 3 months of the year off. And if employees are doing their jobs I can peacefully avoid doing much work at all other than giving quotes for a couple hours.
Don't get me wrong, I still work. And I had to work my a$$ off in the beginning too. But, I get plenty of time for my hobbies, I get to sleep in, and I spend plenty of time with my girlfriend. I spent 2 months in Thailand and a couple weeks in India a year ago. This winter I've been skiing a lot.
Your effort is probably being wasted in many ways. I would reevaluate what benefits actually come out of you spending so much time on your work and imagine how you would run your business if you HAD to limit yourself to a couple hours of work a day.
Business changes that can add time back into your life
1. Hire employees to do the actual work
2. Hire customer service and give them an instruction manual for how to deal with customers, new leads, etc
3. Do recurring services or offer an automated quote option so you don't have to travel or waste time dealing with each new customer that will only give you income for a single job. (if you cannot do recurring services, sell to organizations or HOA's so you can sell ONCE and get a job worth 50x your normal size)
4. Stop doing work that wastes your time or causes regular problems or results in a higher rate of complaints
5. Include contracts to protect yourself from bad customers
6. Use autopayments and get customer credit cards on file so you have 0 "unpaid invoices" (useful for recurring services)
7. Change services to be only the basic work that any employee can do to cut down on training, management load per employee, and give you more peace of mind with less risk. Also cuts down on insurance in some cases. Again, recurring services are best. Schedule uncertainty is a nightmare. You always want to be able to make payroll as well.
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