Lack of time?

[Andy Black]

I’m in a group of folks trying to build subscription businesses related to renting out websites.

Someone asked what their biggest problem was and it had 54 comments.

I went through them all and was shocked to read most people said their biggest problem was lack of time.

Here was my reply:

...

I’m genuinely surprised so many people said “time”.

Do you have paying clients? Can you get them to pay for the builds?

I have a full-time freelance developer. I get clients to pay me to pay him to build their landing pages. I’m effectively getting clients to pay for my developer to build our processes, technology, and IP.

I don’t have a self-serve platform yet. I don’t even sell our landing pages from a landing page.

Are you sure you need all the things you think you need?

.

There’s a phrase I like that has a lot of truth in it: “Sales solve everything.”

Can you sell more websites or landing pages and use that revenue to pay others to do some of that stuff you shouldn’t be doing, or don’t have time for?

...

It’s often less about the resources you have and more about being resourceful.

 

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[Laughingman21]

I find most people have plenty of time. What they really lack is priorities .

 

[Andy Black]

Time Management is a Myth
(From one of the management development sessions given by a gentleman called Blaise Brosnan.)

We all have the same amount of time in a day. We can't speed it up or slow it down.

When you say you didn't have time to do something, you're really saying it wasn't important enough to do and you did something more important instead.

This is ok when I tell my wife I didn't have time to hang that shelf today. That will end better than if I said it wasn't important enough for me to do today. However, don't kid yourself and say you didn't have time to do something. Admit that it wasn't important enough and that you chose to do something else instead.

As a few of you've already mentioned, it's about prioritisation, not trying to manage time.



The Four D's

Blaise then told us of the Four D's that we should apply when a task lands on our desk:

1) Dump it

• Should we even do it? This is the most important step and probably the one we screw up the most. I'll talk more about that one in another post.

2) Delegate it

• So it needs to be done. Should YOU be doing it though? If not, delegate it to someone else.

3) Defer it.

• So it needs to be done, and it needs to be done by you. Does it need to be done immediately, or can it be deferred to another date? If it can be deferred to another date then add it into your calendar for that time and forget about it until then.

4) Do it

• Ah. So it needs to be done by you and can't be deferred. Get it done then.

(Also mentioned here.)

 

[Andy Black]

This could turn into a bit of a Blaise Brosnan thread. He’s an older gentleman and it’s such a pleasure to be at one of his workshops listening to him talk. Some of the best lines come from him when someone asks him a question.


Anyway... on the subject of “1) Dump it” ...

“The market doesn’t pay for activity.” (Blaise Brosnan)

“You can’t invoice for input.” (Blaise Brosnan)

Do you really need to:

• Read that book?
• Take that course?
• Create that portfolio website?
• Handwrite those Gary Halbert letters?
• Listen to that podcast?
• Read that email?
• Redo your logo?
• Watch those videos?
• Read all those Gold threads?
• Improve your public speaking?
• Learn web design?
• Learn graphic design?
• Get that Google certification?
• Go through that 18 hour Google Ads course?
• Build 5 websites before you get a paying client?
• Built that marketplace website?
• Create that 10 page business plan?
• Buy that domain?

Are you just consuming?

Are you being “busy”?

Can you invoice for it?

 

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[Bekit]

I went through them all and was shocked to read most people said their biggest problem was lack of time...
...I’m genuinely surprised so many people said “time”...
...Are you sure you need all the things you think you need?...

Andy, I'd love to hear you (and other forum members) elaborate on this further.

The impossibility of expanding time seems to me to be one of the biggest challenges that I face.

At the same time, I have an inkling that it's more about mindset than about a literal impossibility.

So here's where I'm coming from, and I would love for someone to point out the flaws in my thinking.

I'm working full time, 40-60 hours a week. I want to divorce my time from my money. But in order to get there, I need to take on a side hustle. And eventually, I want my side hustle to be good enough and reliable enough to make it my main hustle.

So I expand my working hours. Get less sleep. Do whatever it takes. I'm hungry.

And this is the scenario that I see before me as the inevitable path towards making this work...

Let's say that I get client work for 10 hours a week, but it only brings in 25% of what I need to quit the main gig.

Then I raise my rates and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and now I'm bringing in a total of 60% of what I need to quit the main gig.

So I raise my rates again and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and I'm close to where I need to be to quit the full-time job, but not quite. I'm also barely managing to hold it together because I don't function well on lack of sleep.

Fear starts taking center stage. "You're slipping. Your performance is suffering. People are unhappy with your work, and you can't blame them... because after all, you're not doing your best work."

But the counter argument starts, "You don't have a choice. Do or die. Make it happen. You've got to do this. Not sure how it'll work, but I'm going to go for it anyway."

And all of this is directly related to lack of time. Lack of energy. Finite amounts of capacity.

It’s often less about the resources you have and more about being resourceful.

Maybe I'm not thinking creatively enough about this. But all of the ways I can think of to bring in some immediate Monthly Recurring Revenue in the short term are still direct tradeoffs between time and money. They're not fastlane. They're "me-working-extra-hours-but-for-clients-who-keep-me-on-retainer" (and therefore I'm still not leveraging my time any more effectively).

At this point, I'm willing to put in time. Time is all I have. I don't have money yet to pay people so that I can delegate tasks to them so that I can expand my time. If grinding out the time in the short term is the cost I have to pay, I'll pay it. And I'm hoping that down the road I'll be established enough to have additional ways at my disposal to leverage my time more effectively (through creating a scalable business model).

But maybe I'm not seeing something that's available to me NOW that is scalable. Maybe I'm not thinking about this with the right kind of mindset of resourcefulness and creativity that someone else would approach this puzzle with.

What would your thought process look like in tackling something like this? What are some of the questions that you'd ask yourself to identify opportunities? What are the entrepreneurial thinking patterns and mindset traits that people have in common when they're "good at having enough time"?

I have a LOT to learn in this area... any insight would be devoured hungrily!

 

[The Abundant Man]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwYX52BP2Sk



[Intro]

[Verse 1: David Gilmour & Richard Wright]
Ticking away
The moments that make up the dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around
On a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then, one day, you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

[Instrumental Solo]

[Verse 2: David Gilmour & Richard Wright]
And you run, and you run
To catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same
In a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over
Thought I'd something more to say

["Breathe" reprise: David Gilmour]
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells

 

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[MythOfSisyphus]

There's no doubt that time is a valuable resource, but a "lack of time" is usually a lack of organisation and direction. It helps to have clear goals and clear steps to achieve them. Time becomes much more of a factor when you don't know what you're doing from day to day and you go blindly from one task to another.

This year I've probably averaged around 30 hours a week (far less than most slowlaners & sidewalkers, let alone your average entrepreneur) and have almost doubled my companies revenue per month. And yes, I have employees to help, but I managed the same kind of growth without them too.

 

[ManlyMansNegator]

Using other peoples time is how you have more time.If you delegate tasks you have more time!

 

[BlackMagician]

Many people (friends/family/neighbors/business friends) in my life told me that they don't have time.
Some months back, I decided to survey my and their time. After analyzing everything for a whole 1 month, I found that i have at-least 5 hours/day of free time. Yes 5 hrs!

For those whom i analyse and pointed out, they have at least 3 hr/day of free time. 3 hr!

That's 3x7=21.

A lot can be done in 21 hours. And this is of the busiest person i know. Some of them can squeeze 50 hours per week(i can).

I understood that it's not that we don't have time. It's that we don't prioritize things needs to be prioritize.

I can use the time browsing FB/Insta/Snapchat to read/learn.
I can use the time watching Netflix/TV, playing games for earning more bucks, work on business. (I am Gamer)
I can use the time Gossiping on useless stuffs on table to help someone and improve my life(yes helping someone improve our life for better. it's something like Karma)
I can use the dead time while travelling in Train/Bus to have meeting/call with clients.

Heck. I can use the time sitting in toilet.

and all this can be done via KE (Kinetic Execution).

KE is not just for business/entrepreneurship. We can use the same model with little tweaks in our day to day life to make our life better and make others life better.

3 A's can be used. ACT whatever is important. Assess Our current situation/life. Adjust what needs to be to change.

Hear the echos of our heart to learn & change.

PS. I am very bad with word flows. Wanted to write in easy and explainable manner but sorry for my bad English and flows.

 

[garyfritz]

We all have the same amount of time (per day, per week, etc), by definition.

The difference is in how we USE the time we have.

Some people invest lots of time into family, church, volunteering, etc.
Some people burn (waste, destroy, throw away) lots of time binge-watching the latest Show, or reading the latest news, or watching sports, or playing the latest computer games, or whatever. And while we may think they are "wasting" that time, that may be the one thing that gives them joy.
Some people spend 40+ hrs/wk paying the bills and have no energy left over for anything else.

But some people, however they do it, make BETTER AND MORE EFFICIENT USE of the time they HAVE.

This is something I have yet to master. I am a champion at wasting time. I see people who accomplish 5x more than I do and I just shake my head in wonder, admiration, and jealousy. (My mother says she has always felt the same way, so it may be partly hereditary ADD challenges.)

The challenge is to determine how much time you have available -- after required sleep, eating, child care, etc -- and decide how efficiently you can use it. Not everybody can accomplish the same amount with the same amount of time. Improving your own efficiency is the challenge, just like a runner tries to improve his time.

Some of us just plod along the track slower than others...

 

[Seth G.]

Andy, I'd love to hear you (and other forum members) elaborate on this further.

The impossibility of expanding time seems to me to be one of the biggest challenges that I face.

At the same time, I have an inkling that it's more about mindset than about a literal impossibility.

So here's where I'm coming from, and I would love for someone to point out the flaws in my thinking.

I'm working full time, 40-60 hours a week. I want to divorce my time from my money. But in order to get there, I need to take on a side hustle. And eventually, I want my side hustle to be good enough and reliable enough to make it my main hustle.

So I expand my working hours. Get less sleep. Do whatever it takes. I'm hungry.

And this is the scenario that I see before me as the inevitable path towards making this work...

Let's say that I get client work for 10 hours a week, but it only brings in 25% of what I need to quit the main gig.

Then I raise my rates and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and now I'm bringing in a total of 60% of what I need to quit the main gig.

So I raise my rates again and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and I'm close to where I need to be to quit the full-time job, but not quite. I'm also barely managing to hold it together because I don't function well on lack of sleep.

Fear starts taking center stage. "You're slipping. Your performance is suffering. People are unhappy with your work, and you can't blame them... because after all, you're not doing your best work."

But the counter argument starts, "You don't have a choice. Do or die. Make it happen. You've got to do this. Not sure how it'll work, but I'm going to go for it anyway."

And all of this is directly related to lack of time. Lack of energy. Finite amounts of capacity.


Maybe I'm not thinking creatively enough about this. But all of the ways I can think of to bring in some immediate Monthly Recurring Revenue in the short term are still direct tradeoffs between time and money. They're not fastlane. They're "me-working-extra-hours-but-for-clients-who-keep-me-on-retainer" (and therefore I'm still not leveraging my time any more effectively).

At this point, I'm willing to put in time. Time is all I have. I don't have money yet to pay people so that I can delegate tasks to them so that I can expand my time. If grinding out the time in the short term is the cost I have to pay, I'll pay it. And I'm hoping that down the road I'll be established enough to have additional ways at my disposal to leverage my time more effectively (through creating a scalable business model).

But maybe I'm not seeing something that's available to me NOW that is scalable. Maybe I'm not thinking about this with the right kind of mindset of resourcefulness and creativity that someone else would approach this puzzle with.

What would your thought process look like in tackling something like this? What are some of the questions that you'd ask yourself to identify opportunities? What are the entrepreneurial thinking patterns and mindset traits that people have in common when they're "good at having enough time"?

I have a LOT to learn in this area... any insight would be devoured hungrily!

Hang in there! That's a rough spot to be in but KEEP GOING. I can't say I have all of the challenges you're facing (so take what I say with a grain of salt and your own analysis), but I like to think I'm good at time.

This is long, but I think it's worth it. Bear with me here.

There's an old poster from big union days that goes something like:

8 Hours for Work
8 Hours for Play
8 Hours for Rest

Now, it can be viewed as 'scripted hogwash' and to a degree that's true. But let's think about that for a moment and specifically how it can be leveraged.

8 Hours for Work... if you're working a full-time job there is no easy way around this (yet). Call it 9 after commuting.

8 Hours for Rest... very dependent on who you are. I'd say I've only met a handful of people in my life who can legitimately function at a high level for a long time on 5 or fewer hours of sleep. But 6, 6.5, or 7 hours of actual sleep can happen. Let's call it 8 hours when you count falling asleep and the waking up/making coffee process.

You're down to 7 hours to 'squeeze' everything else in. What else 'needs' to be squeezed in here?

• Your Business (...)
• Your Leisure (Friends, Family, etc)
• Your Education (Books, Podcasts, etc)
• Your Health (Meditation/Exercise)

Seems a little daunting to stuff all of that into your last 7 hours because it is. In fact, it's almost unreasonable to think that you can. So, what can you do?

Here are some things I've found to be useful also working a 40-60 hour week (up to 70+ after you factor commuting). Do I do it perfectly every time? No. But I'm sure as hell trying.

1. Kill Your 'Dead Time'
   • Bring a journal and development book/audiobook (marketing, sales, strategy, mindset, etc etc) everywhere
   • Waiting in line/doctor's offices/toilet time/brushing your teeth are time sinks. But they are dead time. Read or listen to that audiobook OR work on whatever comes to mind with your business.
     
     
   • I love my 2 hours a day public transport commute to work. It's the best part of my job right now (wtf, really Seth?). Yeah really.
     
     I get 2 hours a day to listen to audiobooks, read, or work on business stuff by way of hotspots, pencils/paper, and public transportation. Don't take public transpo? Fine. Stop listening to music on your commute and start listening to audiobooks to educate yourself. Fit education or some business work here. Alternatively, listen to comedy or music and turn this into your leisure.
     
     Time commuting can be seen as 'fuuuuu*k I'm going to work' or as 'sweet, I get to listen to that new album and write and effectively get paid to do it'
     
2. Supercharge Exercise & Chores
   • Audiobooks, podcasts, inspirational stuff, whatever. Learn while you're working and doing the menial that we all need to. Dishes, clothes, weights... this is time you can listen to stuff. Have a journal close on hand so if you have an idea or something to hang onto, you can jot it down real quick.
     
     For me, doing this has made my every boring chore a lot more enjoyable(?) because I'm learning stuff and coming up with ideas while my body does autonomous things.
3. [Contentious] Stop grocery shopping in person. Grocery shop online if it is available in the area. I know, I know. They charge a small delivery fee and all that jazz. But here's the thing, how much is your time worth? I did the math and I was effectively paying myself sub-minimum wage for the privilege of saving a few bucks not online grocery shopping. Now, I spend the extra 8 or 10 bucks, click 8 buttons in about 5 minutes (as opposed to driving, getting a cart, wandering around a poorly lit store, checking prices, standing in line, checking out, loading my car, driving home, unloading, and finally getting back to my time). My groceries are delivered in a few hours and it's awesome. And all the time I would have killed shopping, I can justifiably play a game, exercise, get laid, or whatever else I want for leisure/education/business.
   
   
4. Limit yourself to 40 hours of work a week. Again, you might have to do this slowly because of bad habits that you've developed for yourself and bad expectations your bosses are having. Read 4 Hour Work Week as it gives some ideas for how to converse with bosses into wasting less time at work.
   
   Seriously. Every hour you spend over 40 hours working for someone else is an hour of your life you are effectively giving away for free to someone else for no additional benefit whatsoever. It may feel like you sometimes have 'too much work' but that's an illusion your trapped brain is telling you. Come 8 hours, come 40 hours, you are done. Period. No exceptions. This will give you two things:
   
   First - you'll get back hours and hours of your time
   Second - you'll be more efficient at work and easily fit all of the b.s. into 40 hours. I'm convinced a 30~35 hour work week would be more than sufficient in almost any salaried job these days...
   
   
5. Do not neglect yourself as a habit
   (physically, mentally, emotionally)

• Need a solid 8 hours of sleep? Get it.
• Eating like shit? Stop it.
  
• Never exercising? Get off your a$$.
• Never tried meditation/mindfulness? Download the app Insight Timer (10K+ free guided meditations from hundreds of teachers all over the world)
  
  Your vehicle (you, your brain, your body) is a vital piece of the equation. Yes, we've all had uber long days with no sleep and we all will have them. But they should be a welcome exception and not a rule, your business can't get started without you being able bodied/minded. And beyond that, how the F*ck could you enjoy yourself if you're 2/3 dead by the time you get there (if you ever do at the rate you're going).

Tools and Useful Shit

1. Physical Journal + Mechanical Pencil
   • Seriously, you can work on business stuff/ideas anywhere. Or just vent. It doubles as leisure.
     
     
2. Audio Books
   • In our vein of killing dead time. Stay educated. Educate your higher brain while your lower brain works the monotony (chores, shitting, etc)
     
     
3. Insight Timer Phone App
   • Meditation/Mindfulness. Anyone who hasn't gone down that route or has given up or who claims it doesn't work for them is cutting their feet off and bragging about the lost weight. Not learning mindfulness/meditation is as idiotic a move as not exercising. You hurt yourself.
     
     
   • This app is free and has 10,000+ meditations on every topic with filters on length and content and subject from hundreds of different guides. Have 5 minutes? perfect chunk for meditating. Want your chakras aligned? There's one for that. Don't want any chakra or chi crap? Great, there are purely secular ones too.
     
     
4. StayFocusd Chrome Extension
   • Waste too much time on Reddit, Facebook, or even this forum (sorry @MJ DeMarco)? There's an app for that. It'll block you from those sites after a time you specify for a duration you specify. Great way to stay focused.
     
     
5. Jefit Phone App or FitnessBlender Youtube
   • Exercise is to the body as meditation is to the mind. Not sure where to begin? No gym membership and no equipment? No problem! These give you exercises, routines, and the whole shebang and can be done anywhere. No membership, no equipment required necessarily. And they are free.
     
     
6. Loop Habit Tracker [Android... maybe iPhone?]
   • Great way to track and check off habits. Mine are: Meditate, Exercise, Write, Learn, and Build
     

That was long. I hope at least one thing in there you find useful. The only other thing I'd say is ease into the changes. You can try cold turkey, but that many habit changes are hard to track. Good luck sir - keep going.

 

[maverick]

It always amazes me that people are willing to work their hardest to hit a deadline imposed by their boss however fail to impose/enforce deadlines on themselves.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

When people say "I don't have the time", more times than not it's complete bullshit. They are bullshitting themselves. What they are really saying is "I don't want to make the time". A lot of people don't want to make a sacrifies temporarily either. If they need to go to get a tax return done for example but they have work, they might say something like "but I have work I haven't got the time to do it". Complete bullshit, you can tell your boss you will come in later because of these reasons. I am sure he/she will approve.

 

[superb]

On the topic of learning: How many of us are reading books just to read books? We've been told that the most successful people are always reading. So we read and there is an endless supply of books promoted in forums and on podcasts. But are the books we a reading relevant to an immediate problem that we need to solve in our business?

 

[S.Y.]

Two things that might help you @Bekit :

• Think backwards. What are you doing now that is preventing you from achieving what you want? If your aim is to dissociate your earnings from your inputs, what actions are you taking now that are preventing you from achieving that.

• Do a time audit. We all have 96 blocks of 15 min.
  • How are you spending yours? (not how do you think you are spending). You can do it for four weeks let's say. The toggl app is handy for that
  • Once you have a clear picture, how can you improve how you spend it.

Keep it up.

Act, assess and adjust.

And focus on systems.

 

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[ItsAJackal]

WOW! This thread is exactly what I needed. I found myself saying "I don't have time" this morning and then realized how much time I've wasted in the past couple of days.

I'm close to taking action on my first venture but I'm still terrified of failing. I'm standing on the high dive at the pool, and I know I've got to jump to make progess but damn it's high!

 

[Andy Black]

WOW! This thread is exactly what I needed. I found myself saying "I don't have time" this morning and then realized how much time I've wasted in the past couple of days.

I'm close to taking action on my first venture but I'm still terrified of failing. I'm standing on the high dive at the pool, and I know I've got to jump to make progess but damn it's high!

Hmmm. What does failing even mean?

You try something. It doesn’t work. You try a different way. Repeat till it works.

Failure shows us the way by showing us what’s not the way.

 

[ZCP]

Use the Chet Holmes 1 hour method. Schedule 1 hour each week to work on your most important task / business / etc. Do not let anything deter you or shift your focus from that one item. Once you see the effectiveness of 'just moving the damn ball', you will begin to put in 3 or 4 of these hours a week. Then a day. Make your first hour 'setting a schedule for my other hours' and to study the method. Then make your second hour 'what the hell should i do for these hours' and set some priorities. Schedule it now.

 

[superb]

It always amazes me that people are willing to work their hardest to hit a deadline imposed by their boss however fail to impose/enforce deadlines on themselves.

It's much easier to BS ourselves than a boss. And negotiating with ourselves against ourselves can make things more comfortable, at least for the present moment.

 

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[WJK]

I still trying to decide what I wanna be when I grow up. Yes, my real estate investments are successful but time-consuming and frustrating. Yes, my time is in very short supply.

I started a business blog this last spring. I learned WordPress to build it. I'm still floundering around trying to find my audience. I'm not sure it's worth my time to continue. Yes, I need landing pages, and I need to find a better direction -- if I continue. Is that the business you are in, Andy?

 

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[FutureLearning]

When I was working for somebody else as an employee, I thought that I don't have time at all and now as I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I feel I have all the time in the world because I just started my entrepreneurial journey hence don't have a long list of clients.

One thing I realized recently that Time is the most important commodity in the world and it's not about the time but the value that we produce within the time we have. So now I try to make the most of hours I have for work in terms of value creation.

 

[daru]

On the topic of learning: How many of us are reading books just to read books? We've been told that the most successful people are always reading. So we read and there is an endless supply of books promoted in forums and on podcasts. But are the books we a reading relevant to an immediate problem that we need to solve in our business?

Nah. But reading books just to read books instead of watching TV, scroll Facebook feeds or playing computer games I believe pays great dividends over time. And it's a investment into ones business sooner or later indirectly.

But the difference is that reading those books that don't immediately solves your business problems is NOT something you do during focused business work hours.
I see it more like a background activity. Perhaps a bit like lifting weights, meditate and eat healthy that indirectly benefits your business.

 

[The Abundant Man]

Remember both the beggar and billionaire have 24 hours in a day

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

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[Andy Black]

Using other peoples time is how you have more time.If you delegate tasks you have more time!

Exactly. If you dump it, delegate it, or defer it, then you have more time - to do the thing you should be doing.

 

[Andy Black]

I'm working full time, 40-60 hours a week. I want to divorce my time from my money. But in order to get there, I need to take on a side hustle. And eventually, I want my side hustle to be good enough and reliable enough to make it my main hustle.

So I expand my working hours. Get less sleep. Do whatever it takes. I'm hungry.

Yes, I think this is normal. I like this phrase: "You can't break tackles at marathon pace"

Let's say that I get client work for 10 hours a week, but it only brings in 25% of what I need to quit the main gig.
Then I raise my rates and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and now I'm bringing in a total of 60% of what I need to quit the main gig.
So I raise my rates again and I bring on 10 more hours a week, and I'm close to where I need to be to quit the full-time job, but not quite. I'm also barely managing to hold it together because I don't function well on lack of sleep.

The first thing you could look at is raising your Effective Hourly Rate (and NOT work any more hours).

Say you're on Upwork charging $40/hr.
Say you can only bill for half the hours you're working (because the rest of the time you're prospecting and doing admin).
Your Effective Hourly Rate is $20/hr. You're earning $200 for every 10 hours worked.

You could ask yourself "How do I make $400 for every 10 hours worked?" ("How do I raise my Effective Hourly Rate to $40/hr?").

You could spend less time prospecting and doing admin

• (Dump it? Delegate it? Defer it?).
• You could also do it more effectively? Inbound vs Outbound? Filter out poor fits.
• Position yourself to attract your ideal client. Speaking of which... I firmly believe that until you're engaging the market and getting burned as well as meeting great prospects/clients then too much time trying to figure out your ideal client is wasted time. I'm figuring out my ideal client through the process of elimination (as per the great video in this thread: Finding your focus)

You could raise your Upwork hourly rate. (How would you do that? You'd probably niche down and be "The gal who writes crypto copy", "The gal who writes About pages", or "The gal who setups up Constant Contact email sequences", rather than "The gal who writes copy".)

Listen to these two:

• www.tropicalmba.com/services
• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting

Start how you mean to continue?

• Lack of sleep isn't good.
• If it's your only way to earn more money then I humbly suggest you're doing something wrong.
• Sure, every now and then you'll have to go faster than marathon pace, and burn the midnight oil.
• I can pay my freelancers and cover my bills. I've then set the hours I'm willing to work, and if I want to grow my business in those set hours then I have to "figure it out"
• I don't subscribe to working 80 hour weeks and seeing less of my family so I can work 30 hour weeks and see more of your family. Yes, I'm blessed (not lucky) to have that choice, but I made it happen.

Set your hours and don't think of them as an unlimited resource. Your time and your health are precious.

At this point, I'm willing to put in time. Time is all I have.

Time is NOT all you have. You have skills and experience and the ability to add value. Maybe because you believe the above then you're not seeing the value you can bring to the table, and *maybe* you're not charging enough?




I'm pretty sure I posted these somewhere this week (maybe earlier in this thread even):

• "You can't invoice for input." (Blaise Brosnan)
• "The market doesn't pay for activity." (Blaise Brosnan)

We get paid by what we produce. We pay for what we consume (in time or money).

Careful of consuming too much.

• What if you already know enough?

HTH. It's a bit of a brain-dump, and I didn't answer everything. I'll come back "when I have the time" and see if I can add anything.

 

[Seth G.]

WOW! This thread is exactly what I needed. I found myself saying "I don't have time" this morning and then realized how much time I've wasted in the past couple of days.

I'm close to taking action on my first venture but I'm still terrified of failing. I'm standing on the high dive at the pool, and I know I've got to jump to make progess but damn it's high!

Just go for it. Just go for something, anything you can do right now (as long as it moves the needle).

Do whatever little thing you can do right now. There's this concept of an internal flywheel.

Accomplish a small thing... it'll give you some spiritual momentum for the next thing... and so on.

Your'e in the right place. The people on this forum reward and admire action. Everyone knows it seems scary, daunting, and difficult. That's why everyone is also stoked when someone takes a leap.

 

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[Fassina]

Install a time tracker on your computer.. I'm using rescuetime. It will show you the truth, and make sure you tag this forum as entertainment. Being here can be very valuable, but most of the time we're just hanging out.

Read checklist manifesto (HIGH priority).

You don't NEED to earn the same amount of more than your job on your side biz to quit your job, that's silly.
You need enough to pay your bills, if your bills are as high as your current income, I'm sorry to tell you but you fcked up. Fix that.

There's this author and AI researcher I like Eliezer Yudkowsky, he says 99% of personal problems can be fixed with 5 minutes of thinking. Most people can't even do that, think for 5 minutes focus on it, grab a piece of paper and a pen and think. The solution is there, you can come up with it.
PS. you might not like the answers you get, solutions have no obligation of being convenient or easy. Deal with it.

At some point in your life you need to learn to get the answers from yourself instead of from other people. Stop looking for other people for answers, you don't NEED a guru, or mentor, or guide, those are nice and can save you time but you don't NEED them.

 

[GoGetter24]

What does failing even mean?

Taking a risk and suffering losses when it doesn't go your way.

Contrary to the "fail forward" narrative of the start-your-own-business space, it is possible for attempting a business play and failing to result in negative and irreversible life-changing effects. This should always be factored in: don't risk what you can't afford to lose.

 

[Rabby]

Andy, I'd love to hear you (and other forum members) elaborate on this further.

The impossibility of expanding time seems to me to be one of the biggest challenges that I face.

...

I have a LOT to learn in this area... any insight would be devoured hungrily!

@Bekit you're right about the impossibility of expanding time. A lot of people will say "use time more efficiently" and "drop unimportant things" and such. Those are not faulty advice; but once your "time" is already optimized for productivity the advice becomes useless. You can only do so much in a period of time. And you can't "make" time, only reallocate it.

So if you can not change time, what can you change? You can change what you do in that time.

For most people freelancing, and I have been there, you have a bias toward maximizing the amount of money you can charge for a block of time. I want you to try something completely different.

Instead of using a block of time to charge money, use a block of time to create capital. Capital is freedom from labor... it is the gift given to every person in a modern society with strong property rights, if they choose to accept it. Or, bring it about. I'll elaborate on capital below.

So do less: YOUR TIME ---> INVOICE FOR RENTAL OF YOUR TIME

And do more: YOUR TIME ---> YOUR CAPITAL ---> RENTAL OR SALE OF YOUR CAPITAL

Create capital, and trade the use of that capital for money. "But I only made one capital-thing..." No problem, because your time is not tied to the one you are renting out or selling instances of. You can make more.

Without some kind of capital-creation process in your repertoire, you are treating your own life, body and time as your only asset, your only capital so to speak. You need to externalize assets. Use the ones you have already in you, and turn them into things outside yourself.

Here are some examples.

1.

You are a freelance writer specializing in sales letters, web copy, postcards, and brochures. This was me, for a while. Each week, you trade a certain number of hours for money, writing these letters and things. Or, perhaps you bill per item, charging $1,000 for a sales letter. But each letter takes you an amount of time.

Your first step, which you may have naturally started doing, is to optimize your time doing this activity. You create templates for your letters, brochures, etc, so that you can make new ones more quickly. This is actually a capital asset -- you are using a tool in the physical world to "leverage" your labor. To increase its effect with no increase in exertion on your part.

You might also make some stock paragraphs that you one-off and reuse, some questionnaires that you have your clients fill out to save time and increase the likelihood of a sale. These also become your capital.

From here, you have a few directions. If you want to delegate to other people, you can make your letter-writing process simpler and more fool-proof. You make a checklist to ensure that all attributes of each new letter are taken care of... is there a nutgraph about the product, is there an engaging title, does the first line meet the criteria for your "first line of a letter scoring system" and really "pop?"

Or, if you are not keen on the idea of hiring people to implement your system, you can sell copies of the system to DIY customers. In fact, some of those DIY customers will still want to hire you to write the letters, because after seeing your system they understand the depth of your expertise. As a side benefit, they are now willing to pay you more.

Starting as a freelance copywriter, you can end up as a publisher of copywriting templates, checklists and guidelines. In a fairly short period of time, you create this small asset which, if the market actually wants it, makes you money that is decoupled from your continued labor.

2.

You are a teacher. On the side you tutor some students and help them with test prep. Perhaps your state has an asinine math test that pulls tears from children the way a Mississippi dentist pulls teeth (sorry Mississippi dentists, I had to...).

Why are you tutoring? Well, your dream of teaching crashed into the reality that school administrators and parent don't care as much about education as you. They do care about passing tests though, and you can use that to raise money, which you think you will use to eventually "start a business."

What you don't realize is that your brain is performing translations every time you hear certain phrases. Those translations are keeping you working for money, using your time and limited lifespan. When you hear "you need capital to start a business," you automatically translate "capital" to "money." But actually, money is only one form of capital... it is a proxy for goods that serve a particular human need.*

If you can make goods that serve a particular human need, do you need "money" to start a business? No, because you can, with some level of effort, create capital that is more valuable than any amount of money you could save while tutoring students.

So you create the ACBFTFCATQ (or whatever the name of your state's tear-jerker exam is) Quick Sheet and Flashcards. Perhaps you make an online version, or a print version, or an online class, or (d) all of the above. You DM a friend who has done exactly all of this and ask for a printer recommendation, or technology advice, or whatever.

Now, instead of tutoring for $40 per hour, you have tools that do the work for you. Capital. And your students can learn from you without taking up your time. We all win.

3.

You're a carpenter taking side jobs as a handyman. Handywoman? Handylady. Anyway, clearly you are trading time and effort for money. You have some obvious capital, which magnifies the effect of your labor. A hammer, a cordless driver, a painter's knife, brushes, screwdrivers, chisels, bits, buckets.

But those are the commodity type capital. They are "the tools of the trade." You need to make some capital to free yourself from carpentry and handylady work. What to do?

You notice a "hard thing." Paintbrushes are hard to clean. It is hard and unsafe to hang drywall above "x" feet. You've noticed that you use this one trick to accomplish the task, which makes it easier. Perhaps if there were a tool, a product, a system, a process...

That is your task. Not taking on more handylady work, but working on that tool, product, system, process. Create, test, repeat. Use your handylady job as the testing ground for your product, nothing more, because the hourly pay will never free you from hourly pay.

Ok, those were the examples.

I hope that gives you something to work with, even if just a bit. I know I tend to go long when I write here, so thanks for sticking with me to the end

*Read anything written by Carl Menger. Your life, and probably the entire world, will improve immediately.

 

[Xeon]

The issue with time, I realized, is that the more you leverage your time and make the best use of it, the more you find that you need more time, because there's still a whole lot of stuff you need to do but you've already used up 17 / 24 hrs, and you need that remaining 7 hrs to sleep and eat etc.

 

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