I’m going to go bold here and ask you a really important question: Aren't you tired of working so hard?

If you’re anything like me, you LOVE working. It’s hard to stop – especially when you’re wildly passionate about what you do. I mean, if we’re being honest, if they gave out awards for great ideas, you’d have an entire Hogwarts Trophy Room full of ‘em. 

But as much as you love your business, your clients, and the people you get to serve, I can bet your bottom dollar that you also value FREEDOM, flexibility, and building a business that can grow sustainably, without burning out.

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In this post, I'm handing over my 4-step framework to finally take back your time and find time freedom and balance once and for all so you can grow your business without the burnout.

And psssst: freedom looks different for everyone…

So before we get to the 4 steps to take back your time, take a minute to think about what freedom looks like for you. What will your life look like in 5, 10, 15 years from now when you've built a business to support all of your biggest dreams? How will you feel?

Now that we’ve got that figured out… 😉 JK it might take ya a bit of time! But, let’s go ahead and dive into the 4-part framework.

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An Introduction to the Take Back Your Time Framework:

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Step 1: Structure – Building Workflows

This phase of our framework is all about building workflows for every service or repeating project type that your business offers or needs to complete!

Simply put, a workflow is a step-by-step process of every single thing you do for your services or any type of repeating project you do in your business. 

If you’re a service based business, a workflow is the sequential order of every single task you need to complete, every email you need to send, every questionnaire or form or contract you need to send, every meeting you need to have, any project prep work you need to do, etc. from beginning to end of a client project. (AKA inquiry through offboarding)

If you’re an online business, you can translate this concept to any repeatable thing you do, such as creating monthly membership content, launching a course, creating shop products, creating your monthly content calendar, etc.

Basically, no matter what type of business you run, YA NEED WORKFLOWS!

To step it up a notch, a workflow is made up of "actions" (AKA things you DO), and “triggers” (AKA when an action is supposed to happen in relation to either the project date or another action being completed).

*This is VITALLY important – and I’d argue, one of the MOST important things you could do for yourself and your growing business, because workflows are TRULY the foundation for everything  you do in your business and the first step to scaling, growing a team, or increasing your capacity + revenue.

Step 2: Streamline #allthethings

Now that you know exactly WHAT needs to be done, it’s time to streamline the heck out of it. Our goal in this stage is to make every step of your workflow (be it service based, or a project or task you do for your online business) as efficient and effective as possible through the use of templates, repeatable systems, and apps so you can stop wasting time reinventing the wheel for every.single.project. 😅

In this phase, you’ll be:

• Creating email templates, questionnaire templates, contract and invoice templates, investment guide templates, client education, and other “helper” templates for all your services
• Researching apps to use to make certain manual tasks in your workflow more efficient 
• Developing productivity methods that work for you
• Brainstorming ways to conquer some roadblocks and bottlenecks in your business 
• Ultimately, asking yourself better questions regarding EVERYTHING you do, such as, "How can this task be more efficient?”

FRICK. I could talk about this legitimately all day, but moving on.

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Step 3: Systematize and Automate

This is where all the magic happens, my friend. Someone recently asked me if all my project tasks magically end up in a to-do list each day for me like "sorcery" and the answer is YES. The goal of this step is to cut your work hours down by up to 75%, and run a business that doesn't run YOU by utilizing the power of automations and organization.

Systematizing your workflows and projects means we’re going to take EVERYTHING you created in Steps 1 and 2 (the written step-by-step workflows and every file template you created), and you’re going to plug them into one of two systems:

1. For client work, your service-based workflows need to live within a CRM (AKA a client relationship management software). I use and LOVE HoneyBook (and am a certified HoneyBook Pro), and if you want to check it out, you can get 50% off here: https://lauraleecreative.com/honeybook*
   
   
2. Workflows pertaining to a non-service-based business (or really, any workflow for things you do in YOUR business – be it quarterly goal planning, launching a course, running your membership, planning a content calendar), need to live in a task management software. I personally use and am OBSESSED with ClickUp.

*If you’re a pen and paper kinda person and have an obsession with stationery like me, I hate to be the one to tell you that you cannot grow your business sustainably and with a team (effectively at least) without a digital task management system.

To check out ClickUp for FREE, click HERE*

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Step 4: SCALE

This phase is all about the steps we need to take after our workflows are created, templates are written out, and everything is input in our CRM or task management system. 

This is the phase where we create Standard Operating Procedures for our business so that we can remove ourselves as the business owner from the actual doing of the tasks. 

So, going through every action in the workflow, you’d either write a written process or record a video process of how to perform that action so it can be handed off to a team member.

It’s an optional phase, but so vital if you’re looking to grow a team or take yourself out of the day-to-day operations of your business.

The goal is to completely remove yourself from parts of your business so you can focus on money-making activities that will bring in more clients, more revenue, and get you into YOUR zone of genius; all the while growing a team, serving more clients, or taking on new passions and projects – AKA, we're bringing your vision of freedom to life. 😌

Trust me – working on the parts of your business you love and delegating the rest is a pretty awesome thing.

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In Conclusion, Dear Reader

(Bridgerton reference anyone?)

If you want to grow your business sustainably – if you want to be able to work WAY less than you are now (the methods above have helped our students and clients cut their work weeks by 75% in some cases), this is the way to get there.

And as much as I absolutely geek out about systems and workflows and efficiency, my heart for ALL of this is helping you find freedom, and pursue your passions with more ease.

My goal is that you have the knowledge and tools to build the business of your dreams AROUND the life of your dreams. I truly don’t believe that you need to make personal sacrifices for the sake of building a successful business.

And just one more little reminder: Workflows and systems will fix a time management problem, an organization problem, a communication-with-your-clients problem, a project management problem — but they will not solve a mindset problem, a “yes” problem, a boundaries problem.

So remember, even though you have free time does not mean you need to fill it with more work. Build your business to ENJOY the freedoms you receive from entrepreneurship. I’m cheering you on every step of the way.

If you’re interested in learning how to take these steps even further to truly transform your business and life and claim your time freedom, I’d love to see you on our waitlist for my signature course launching soon – Take Back Your Time: The Small Business Owner’s Complete Framework to Creating Workflows and Systems to Streamline Your Business and Get Your Life Back.

And if you’re just looking for a quickstart, you can grab my Free Guide: The Quickstart Guide to Streamlining and Optimizing Your Business!

Thanks for reading! Stop by and say hi on Instagram!