Posted by James Cooper
No
tes from operating a business remotely from anywhere
in the world working only 8 hours per week...
Current Location: Jersey, Channel Islands
It is now over 1 year since I jumped on a plane leaving the traditional 9 to 5, 5 day working week behind to "do" Lifestyle Design. To do what you might ask? Well... to do whatever I wanted really. The idea; do whatever I wanted, when I wanted, wherever in the world I wanted, while working on my business only a few hours a week from a remote location to keep the cash flow rolling on. If you're reading this article you might have a bunch of questions; mainly how did you do that? And what exactly did you do?
Please, note... I'm not claiming to be some super human guru who's living a billionaires lifestyle. I'm no scam artist asking you to buy my $100 magic pill and all your dreams will come true. What I believe is that business can help you shape your ideal lifestyle.... And too many small business owners in this world started their business with a dream, which along the way got lost... my point is.... If you want to change, and you want to live your ideal lifestyle (whatever that is) I might have a few tips to help you along the way.
Over the years I've spoken to hundreds of business owners and everyone has a different ideal lifestyle. Some want all the toys life has to offer and there for need their business to produce way more net profit than others. Others may simply want to have the security of steady monthly income from their business with the flexibility to go on regular long holidays and impromptu 3 day weekends without the business falling apart. You see, once you have defined your ideal lifestyle, it just boils down to 2 things to actually live that lifestyle;
1. How much money you need each month
2. How many hours per week you work
As I said, it's different for everyone. But once you attach figures to each of these points - figures that you actually calculated would be required to live your ideal lifestyle - then you know what the goal of your business is! How many small business owners actually know the end goal of their business and have a timeframe to achieve it? In my experience, very few! Do this alone and you'll be ahead of the pack and on the way to improved business results simply because you now have focus.
How to do Lifestyle Design
The how is simple, the world is full of how to... it is the implementation and execution that is not easy. Follow the mimosaPLANET Lifestyle Design Plan. This blog also has a heap of information regarding individual strategies and tactics to implement to improve business results in a wide range of areas.
What I did during a Year of Lifestyle Design
Here's a snapshot of my year...
In the last year I have lived between 1 and 3 months in each of the following locations...
• Whitsundays, Australia. Sailing and sun in paradise.
• Sydney, Australia. Partied like a celebrity for my mates 30th birthday at some of Sydney's hottest clubs.
• Stavanger, Norway. Stood on a cliff with a 1000m vertical drop to the fjord below.
• London, United Kingdom. Shopped like a pro with the xmas lights on Oxford & Regent St.
• Sydney, Australia. Back to Sydney for the beaches & witnessed the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge New Year Eve fireworks.
• Geneva, Switzerland. Developed an unhealthy watch obsession, and Geneva made an excellent base to hit the Alps for snowboarding.
• London, United Kingdom. Back to London to think about the future...
In the last year I have also visited;
• Auckland, New Zealand - Was back 3 times to visit friends and family.
• Queenstown, New Zealand
• Brisbane, Australia
• Gold Coast, Australia
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Oslo, Norway
• Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Chamonix, France
• The Swiss Riviera, Switzerland
• Jersey, Channel Islands
I think that's quite a bit packed into 1 year!
Does lifestyle design work? Absolutely. Can anyone do it? In theory, yes. In reality, no. Only people who; i) believe it is possible, ii) would like to be different to everyone else, and iii) have a strong desire to achieve it will actually do what it takes to ‘do it'. Anyone that says "I can't do that because...[insert excuse]", is right... that is their reality.... So they won't do it.
Furthermore I'd like to stress it is not about travel or doing any of the things I did or do (I can hear people screaming "I have kids and this and that and blah blah"), it is all about - WHAT YOU WANT! It's about designing YOUR ideal lifestyle and using your business as the vehicle to achieve that.
What next...
Here's the thing... I've lived a certain lifestyle for the last year, now I CHOOSE to live a different lifestyle... It's time to challenge myself mentally by driving the business to a new level, which I find exciting because I've had so much time to refresh and recharge. It's time to live in one city - London - for an extended period and experience other things.
Take away Action Points
• Define your ideal lifestyle
• Quantify it into Money & Time
• Follow the lifestyle design plan
Posted by James Cooper
Lifestyle Design Plan - An Overview for Small Business Owners
How to operate your business remotely from anywhere in the world working only 8 hours per week...
Current location - Stavanger, Norway.
If you want to design a better lifestyle for you and your family, then this article is for you.
It's good to be back writing articles, this is my first article in more than a year. Why? Well, I've been experiencing exciting new things and enjoying life... living my preferred lifestyle by choice, by design. In fact over the last 6 months I've been living abroad and operating my business remotely. Why? Because I wanted to live in a tropical location in another country and go sailing for 3 months working only 8 hours a week while still keeping my business running smoothly. Too many people say that they would love to do something but can't do it because....[insert excuse]. I decided to prove to myself, clients and other small business owners that this is possible, so I booked a one-way flight, implemented some changes and just did it.
In this article I'll share with you some key lessons I've learnt and a 3-6 month Action Plan we've created to help other business owners design their business to deliver the lifestyle they want, we call it our Lifestyle Design Plan.
Background
I first heard about the term ‘lifestyle design' when I read Tim Ferris' great book The 4 Hour Work Week. Tim talks about how insane the whole current way of working is for 99% of the population, you know... the whole 40-80 hours per week gig for 40 years until you retire. Tim asks, why not have some fun during your life and experience whatever it is you want to do now not later. He goes on to talk about how he turned his business into a vehicle that he could operate from anywhere in the world while working only 4 hours per week. I thought to myself, "I can do that, that would be great fun, and what better way to show other business owners that you really can achieve whatever it is you want through your business", so I got less than a ¼ way through the book, and I knew what I wanted to do... it had something to do with living in a tropical location, plenty of hot sunny days, idyllic blue waters and sailing. I got online, and found that the Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia fit the bill, and booked my one-way flight.
I wanted to enjoy the summer in Auckland, New Zealand (my home at the time) first, so on the 1stof Oct I booked my flight for exactly 6 months out, leaving on the 1st of April. This meant; 1) I could enjoy the summer at home first and keep the sun rolling on by leaving just when Autumn was about to kick in, 2) it also meant I had 6 months to implement the changes required in my business.
So, for 3 months I lived in the Whitsundays and operated my business on 8 hours a week via systems and processes. The rest of the time I relaxed in the sun, did some sailing and contemplated my place in the universe. I then moved to Sydney, Australia for some more excitement that city life can offer, I ripped back into working some more hours because I had many ideas to implement and plenty of energy (thanks to 3 mths of time to relax, think and recharge), and I'm currently in Europe for 6 weeks.
Ok, now for the good stuff....
How can you implement changes to your business so you can do whatever it is that you want to do? The answer... the mimosaPLANET Lifestyle Design Plan!
(NOTE: you don't have to live abroad, remote working can be at home or at a holiday home or it could just mean far greater flexibility in your business giving you the ability to take a week or 2 off at short notice or long weekends or spending much more time with family or becoming really good at your favorite hobby or whatever you want)
The mimosaPLANET Lifestyle Design Plan
We've developed an 11 Step Process which can be implemented over 3 or 6 months. Heck, if you're really keen it could be implemented over a couple of weeks.
But first set some specific goals for how you want your lifestyle to be in 3 or 6 months time. Specific goals in 3 areas; what you want to DO, what you want to HAVE, and who you want to BE.
Over the next few weeks I'll post more blog articles focusing on the different steps. But first here are the overall steps of the plan...
Step 1: Time Log (capture what it is that you do with your time for a week)
Step 2: Time Audit (analyse your tasks to determine what is important and what is costing you time)
Step 3: Document Business Process - Current Work Flow (record, in flow chart form, how you do everything now; your marketing process, order or sales process, service fulfilment or product delivery process, accounting process, etc)
Step 4: Eliminate | Automate | Delegate (take what you have discovered so far and determine what you will do with each Role, Process or Task; Eliminate, Automate or Delegate)
Step 5: New Business Architecture (design the high level make up of your business, how will it work mostly without your time. Don't worry about the exact details yet)
Step 6: Document Business Process - New Work Flow (now link together the details into your new business processes, recreate new business processes that run without you)
Step 7: Supporting Documents, Forms, Templates, Collateral & How To's (create all the necessary collateral for the new business architecture and processes)
Step 8: Implement (implement the new Business Architecture & Processes across your business)
Step 9: Trial - 1 or 2 Weeks (take a holiday for 1 or 2 weeks, only working the scheduled number of hours you have set for yourself, 4 or 8 or 20 or 0 or whatever)
Step 10: Review | Tune | Implement (take the lessons you have learnt from your 1 or 2 week trial and adjust as required to iron out any mishaps or bottle necks)
Step 11: Execute New Schedule (Start living your new lifestyle)
Key Lessons in Lifestyle Design
Here are a few lessons I learnt...
- IMPLEMENTING CHANGES IN YOUR BUSINESS:
- Less is more. So much of what you do on a day to day basis just doesn't matter. You can most likely cut your working hours in half immediately by not doing half of what you normally do and still get the same results. In fact my business expanded while cutting the hours to 8 per week.
- LIVING YOUR NEW SCHEDULE:
- Get a new hobby or two. With all this free time you'll get bored very quickly.
- Find some new friends. You'll find most of your friends are busy working and "can't" join you.
In summary, this was my experience, and it'll be different for everyone. Here's a point I'd like to stress:
Others will say that "this won't work with my business"... but this is exactly the point.... If this is you saying this... well... of course it doesn't work with your business otherwise you'd be doing it now, right? ... you need to change your business, change its architecture, its design! I named mimosaPLANET after the mimosa tree, this tree is very adaptive in nature, it will change to suit the environment. This is true, now more than ever before, in business. We must change and adapt to the ever changing environment in which we operate. Change and adapt or get the same average results or worse... face extinction!
Take away Action Points
- Read Tim's book The 4 Hour Work Week.
- Recognise THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT and ANYONE can do whatever they want to in this world.
- Set a goal for what you want your life to be like in 3 or 6 months time. What you want to DO, what you want to HAVE, and who you want to BE.
- List then implement changes; TODAY, TOMORROW, and OVER THE NEXT 3-6 MONTHS
Go for it!
