How to design your business for flexibility
Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash
There are several surveys showing that “being your own boss” is the number one reason that people start a business. When broken down some more, it’s the prospect of more flexibility in their work and more control over their own success that appeals.
This is something that I value in my own business, with two little people at home. I write about it, not to give you the golden ticket — because I’m not sure that there is one! But to give you some ideas and things to consider if this is something you would like more of.
Running your own business comes with lots of opportunity for flexibility. However in my experience it has to be designed into your business with intent if it is to be a real benefit and allows you to earn well while having the flexibility you desire. A common challenge I see, especially for new business owners, is working in the same way as before while also taking on more responsibilities outside of work — particularly related to child care or other caring roles. This can lead to squeezing work into every bit of free time, making it hard to switch off and get the sleep needed to be able to enjoy your new found freedom.
What does flexibility mean to you?
Of all the definitions of flexibility that I read, this is the one that resonates with me the most:
For me and many of my clients this means working around the little people in our lives. I want to be able to:
spend a decent chunk of time with my kids each day
take time off or work a different schedule during school holidays
be able to make the most of unexpected school closures or look after my kids when they are sick, without it being super stressful to rearrange all the things
work with my own monthly cycle, so that towards the end of the month I can work from bed or crawl under a blanket for the afternoon!
have some flex in what I work on depending on my energy levels
On the flip side, I don’t mind working for a couple of hours one or two evenings during the week or on a Sunday afternoon.
When thinking about your own version of flexibility you might want to consider what that looks like on the scale of a year, a month and a week. From that, you will have a sense of what aspects of flexibility you want to prioritise, where you might look for support from a partner, family or otherwise and what sort of a schedule you are building your business to support.
Build your business model from there.
Now that you know what you are working towards, you can get to work on how your business will support that. Here are some things to consider:
1, What will you offer?
Many years ago I started an Artisan Granola Business. When my kids came along I really wanted to make a go of it. However after much time, effort and energy poured into it, it became obvious that the way I was running the business just wasn’t compatible with the family life I wanted at the time. Looking back, there’s a lot that I could have done to adapt it, but at the time I didn’t really consider that there was an alternative and so I passed it on to someone who is making a great job of it.
I know this sounds obvious, but like me in my granola business I think we can get stuck in thinking that there is a certain way our business should look. For example, if you are a pilates instructor then it could feel like weekly in-person classes are the obvious place to start. Likely, in the beginning, they are. However after time, you might want to explore a monthly membership, 1:1 consultations, a self study course, or building an instructors course for aspiring teachers.
If you are a website designer, you may start by doing freelance projects. Then after time, you could build online classes that teach people how to build their own websites, run a group programme where a group of people work through it together or design workbooks that allow people to do part of the work themselves before they hand it over to you.
Hopefully these examples, illustrate the point. There are many ways to adapt what you do and how you do it to better suit the hours that you want to work and when you want to work them. What can make this even better is if they also suit your customers better too!
2, Your offer schedule
At the start of the year I like to plan out what I will be offering in each month of the year. I can then plan my offers accordingly and let my clients know in advance when I’ll be taking time out. It also makes it much easier to promote and sell things, giving yourself the time and space to do so.
3, Price accordingly
The other bit of flexibility that is worth considering is how you price your services. Flexibility is of most benefit if you don’t have to sacrifice your earnings to get it. Coming up with solutions that genuinely provide a more valuable service to your customers and also provide a good income for you. It can take a while to build up to this ideal set up. In the meantime, there is always the option of mix and match — having one income stream that supports a regular monthly income and then supplementing that with the times when you want to work more.
I’m curious to know your thoughts. Designing flexibility into your business has many strands to it. If you have any reflections or questions to share, please do pop them in the comments below and I’ll get back to you.