When was the last time you had a holiday?

Does the thought of taking time off from your business send shivers up and down your spine because of all the extra hours you’ll have to do leading up to your holiday just to get things done? Not to mention all of the extra work you’ll need to do once you return from your holiday just to catch up?

If your business were to grind to a halt because you’re not there for a few days – then you’ve built a business that is totally reliant on you.

And, building a business that’s totally dependent on you, unfortunately only leads to exhaustion, frustration and limited income growth potential.

Here are three things you should be doing to help you take your business to the next level that won’t require you to increase the amount of hours you work. And, more importantly will enable you to take some well-deserved rest when you want.

1. Recognise the value of YOUR time

Do you know what your time is worth? Here’s a great exercise to find out.

Step 1: How much money do you want to make in your business this year?

[This your Annual Money Bold Goal.]

Step 2: How many weeks do you plan to work this year?

[Make sure you give yourself plenty of holidays to recharge your batteries!].

Step 3: How many hours do you want to work each week?

[Again, please be realistic. I don’t want you to set yourself up for burnout because you’re working too many hours.]

Step 4: Divide the amount of income you want to earn by the amount of weeks you want to work.

Step 5: Divide that amount by the number of hours you want to work each week.

The figure you end up with is what YOU need to make every hour you work if you want to reach your income goal.

Each time you’re tempted to chat on the phone, surf the internet, or spend time on social media activities that are NOT aligned with your social media strategies, think about how that’s going to affect your ability to achieve your annual bold money goal.

2. Hire a team to support YOU

To save money we can be tempted to do everything ourselves.

However, doing this is false economy. Why? Because if you’re doing all the tasks that should be outsourced to a support team that means you’re not working on income-generating tasks that will continue to drive your business forward.

Decide on the tasks that you want to outsource and start to put aside a portion of your income, specifically for your team. I would suggest at least 10-15%. Here’s an article that will help you identify the tasks you should be outsourcing.

The next time you complete that task, write down each of the steps involved to complete that task in a clear and concise manner. This document will become part of your Staff Procedural Manual, which you will give to your staff member so they can continue to manage this activity for you.

Another important step to consider before you outsource the activity is to decide what YOU will work on now that you have additional time.

Make sure you’re spending time on important activities that will help you grow your business and not on incidental tasks. Remember the hourly figure you calculated previously and ensure the activity you’re working on gets you closer to that annual bold money goal!

3. Leverage YOUR time

Building a business based on a ‘time-for-money’ business model’ is a model that many service-based solopreneurs use. Unfortunately, in the long run, this is a business model that has limited potential for growth and often ends up with the business owner becoming overworked, stressed and underpaid.

Avoid building a business that requires you to increase the number of hours you work as the only way of growing your income. Rather think about leveraging your time by adopting a ‘many-to-one’ business model.

Consider developing programs and packages where you can work with multiple people at the same time (thus increasing your number of clients and income) through group coaching, webinars or teleseminars.

Also, creating information products such as ebooks, home study courses, autoresponder courses, video and/or audio-based programs etc, is another great way to increase your income that doesn’t require your time. Create them once and you can sell your product over and over again.

Look at incorporating a recording on a previous webinar or teleseminar along with a workbook and offer this as a home study kit. And, if you have an automated shopping cart system that will take your order and send the links to your client automatically, this product can be sold again and again while you sleep.

So, just by implementing these three steps you can build a business that will not only allow you to increase your level of income but will also allow you to generate income even if you’re taking a well-deserved break. Pretty cool yes? Which step will you be implementing today?

Did you find this article helpful? Let me know what you are going to do to enable you to start freeing up your time so you can not only work on income generating tasks but also have a holiday without feeling guilty or overwhelmed.

To your business success!