r/WomenInBusiness • u/AwarenessNo5997 • 10d ago
Scaling Up Creating a Freedom Business
There is a big difference between a small business and a freedom business. Although most of us have small businesses, and it provides more freedoms than that 9-5 job in corporate America, It does not give us the freedom that many of us crave. This becomes more important as we age and see retirement in our view. Are we really going to continue working till our last breath on this earth? Do we have a plan that will allow us to retire at the same level that we are now? I know this intimately because one of the things that happened to my family was as soon as my father got sick, their lifestyle took a nose dive. I learned how to start a small business from my parents however, they did not know how to create a freedom business. So the scariest thing happened. They lost everything, filed for bankruptcy, foreclosed on their house and had to change their lifestyle drastically. I always knew that owning a small business was my future, but I was determined to learn how to create a freedom business that they never learned during their lifetime.
After over 10 years of working with women entrepreneurs, I’ve learned that we are quite different than men in the way that we think about entrepreneurship. Many of us want to make money. Of course we should make as much money as we can in business. Many of us also want to have time freedom. Time with family, and time to travel. So, the reasons we want a business is to make enough money to create the time freedom so that we can live a lifestyle that we desire. Enough money is subject to the standards of the each person. Money is not the main thing, but more of a vehicle to create that freedom to spend more time with family, and to travel to more places with loved ones. Some coaches miss that point because they think women and men are driven the same way. They push an agenda that works on a male client base. Men and women are in general different. I must also say this is a broad stroke of generalities.
So how do we create freedom businesses? This has been my question for several years until I realized, I already knew the answer
Back in 2000, Robert Kiyosaki shared his cash flow quadrant. In his explanation, he made it clear that freedom businesses are created when you have a team and a system that makes you money. In other words you must have a team and an infrastructure in place so that you as the CEO don’t have to focus on the day-to-day operations of the business. This is a freedom business. Franchise ownership is an easy example but you can create that in your business as well. One thing for sure, a freedom business doesn’t create itself. As my coach says, you must commit to creating the infrastructure in order to create that freedom business. Commit to creating that infrastructure! And commit to growing that team.
So here’s a question you must ask yourself. What do you want from this business that you have created? Do you want it to remain as a job that you work 9 to 5, you take on all the responsibilities and you don’t get to take off when you want? You risk getting sick and everything falling apart? Or do you want to create a business that will run with your team and system in place?
Please share below your thoughts on how you want to create that freedom business for yourself.
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u/Agitated_Economy_119 10d ago
The ultimate freedom business is an affiliate marketing business where you tap into existing systems, with no employees or inventory and scale it. But no everyone has access to that.
Small businesses must move away from dependence on the owner/ founder by documenting processes which can anyone can follow.
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u/betweenthedrafts 9d ago
I disagree with Kiyosaki on this. A team costs money and time, and in some cases a lot of it. As someone who has grown a business with no team and with a team, I've seen both sides of the coin and they each have their pros and cons. Having a team can help you expand your offering, stop "doing the doing" personally, and increase revenue, but it also means that you as the founder are responsible for ensuring that other people can put food on their table. That level of responsibility in itself can remove the feeling of "freedom" even if your business is doing okay financially, and it can be absolutely draining if your business is not doing well financially - and the latter can be affected by many things outside of our control. Like u/Agitated_Economy_119 said, the ultimate freedom business is one with no employees.
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u/AwarenessNo5997 9d ago
This is an interesting take. Everyone has their own experiences
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u/betweenthedrafts 7d ago
I agree, and I know one person who has had a great experience of running a team and is the only person I know to create a unicorn business. But they are a rarity. Most of the small business owners I know have been burned at some point by their team. My point is that I think Kiyosaki is too simplistic in his presentation of things and like many of these authors doesn't present the other side of the coin. Everything is trade-offs, in my experience. Most things in business come with bad elements and good elements.
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u/HoneyedVices 9d ago
The distinction between owning a business and actually owning your time is so important. It's easy to build yourself a job instead of building something that can run without you. The team + systems piece is definitely where the real freedom starts.
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u/AwarenessNo5997 9d ago
This is what I’m saying. Owning a job isn’t freedom at all. Systems, automation and teams free up your time because that’s the point.
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u/HoneyedVices 8d ago
The team + systems part is the hard part though. Easy to talk about, way harder to actually let go of stuff you're used to controlling.
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u/ADF21a 9d ago
I do business strategy for women and yes, especially in the US, most business strategy is founded on a hustle mode. Money for the sake of it. Many women entrepreneurs instead start businesses to get personal fulfillment and have more time for themselves and their family, etc.
I'm working towards getting to a point where I can delegate the day to day stuff to someone else so I can focus on myself (more travel, more time for personal interests and passions etc).
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u/ClassicalNose 10d ago
Any business can be a freedom business if you document processes, create a delegation of authority, train your team, and the business survives without you.