‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
When my daughter Willow started swimming lessons, we’d take her into the pool with her inflatable armbands regularly for practice. One day, she lay back and said, ‘Mama, floating is my kind of swimming.’ So zen. At four.
That sweet girl teaches me so much about the Chillpreneur way. She doesn’t expend energy without a good reason, always finds a shortcut, and she’s constantly showing the rest of the family the art of relaxation – hence her nickname, ‘Chillow.’
I’m not saying that every day in your business will be a picnic. There’s still work to do, your comfort zone will be challenged, and you can’t entirely escape the minutiae of life. But you can definitely make things easier for yourself. A true Chillpreneur business helps you create a lifestyle entirely on your own terms, which means you choose when, why, and how you work and – most importantly – how much money you make from it all.
In my experience, there are five things that make the most significant difference in creating a profitable lifestyle-driven business:
Some of what follows might sound boring or complicated, but I’ll show you how to set it up in the easiest way possible without getting stuck in perfectionism or analysis paralysis.
By the way, if your partner or parents are asking you for a business plan (because that’s what they think will make the difference), we’ll summarize everything with a three-page one later in this section. Having a sexy business plan means nothing – you’re in business when you focus on getting clients and make some money. Money trumps planning any day!
‘An average person with average talents and ambition and
average education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius
in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.’
MARY KAY ASH
Author and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss teaches us that you don’t need to be a millionaire to live like one, and many women don’t want a big, complicated company or to sell their business to an investor. Success looks different to everyone, but it’s hard to feel successful if you don’t know what that means to you.
How much money would you like to make? It’s a simple question, but often incredibly difficult for women to answer. Should you set a big stretch goal? Or be more realistic? Will you put out mixed messages to the universe if you change your income goal too often? For many women, picking a number can feel hard, and many entrepreneurs are scared to commit to a number for fear of doing it wrong or having only one shot at it. Setting goals and dreaming is free. Read that again: it doesn’t cost you anything to do it. It’s one of the most powerful manifesting tools there is, and yet we resist it for some reason.
Can you just wing it? Sure, you can. But setting an income goal will help you focus and can save you from shiny object syndrome. To build a Chillpreneur business, you have to know what you’re working for. People often assume that I’m fantastic at setting goals or that I’ve cracked the ‘perfect’ goal-setting method. Nope. There isn’t a single way to do it. How you set goals depends on you and your personality.
Don’t procrastinate over setting an income goal to the point that you never do it. You’re just picking a number, and it’s not set in concrete – you can change it at any time. If you never set a goal, how will you know when you reach it? Some women hesitate to set it for fear of not achieving it, but what are the consequences? Literally nothing bad will happen to you!
‘Goals are dreams with deadlines.’
DIANA SCHARF HUNT
A reference point can usually help you come up with a number. For example, your goal might be to earn:
It doesn’t matter which goal you choose – just get specific about it and pick a number!
Setting goals is free.
‘If you don’t like something, change it. If you
can’t change it, change your attitude.’
MAYA ANGELOU
There are many paths to the same goal, and the Chillpreneur philosophy is about finding the one that works for you, your preferences, and your personality. You can set up your business in virtually any way you like. Challenge assumptions about how things are done in your industry and give yourself permission to break the rules.
Technology has given us much more freedom in how we deliver our work, too. Traditionally, face-to-face professions such as counseling, consulting, and healing have often been locally delivered, but they can now be conducted online, which many people prefer. I’ve had kinesiology, energetic healing, and psychic readings via video-conference. Most of my coaches, suppliers, and support people live on the other side of the planet, and it works out just fine. I’ve even had fashion consultations with stylists via email. If your clients don’t like your method of doing business, they can work with someone else. There are no rules anymore. You can define any part of your business to suit yourself. Here are some things to think about:
Not how many hours you think you have to work, but what works for your lifestyle. When I first started out, I coached people six days a week from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., depending on their preferences, not realizing that I could choose. My first action was to cut down the available hours, and then I gradually eliminated Mondays and Fridays from my coaching calendar.
Maybe you have kids and can work only a few hours a day. Perhaps you’re a night owl. Guess what: you’re allowed to choose! Nobody will create that for you; you need to decide for yourself.
Do you want to see clients face-to-face or serve them exclusively over the phone or internet? Do you want to sit at a desk all day, or do you need human interaction?
I love to work by myself. I’ve never liked collaborating with teams, at work or at university (group assignments were the worst!) My only exception is cohosting retreats with people I love, which I might do once a year. Other than that, I’m perfectly happy being alone.
Others miss the water-cooler life and interaction with coworkers. If you need people around you, then consider sharing a workspace, whether it’s a coworking space, serviced offices, or a creative communal space. If you love being by yourself, make sure you designate a place that’s yours alone and set it up so it’s comfortable and you won’t be disturbed. Neither way is right or wrong – it’s just how you are.
In your journal or in a conversation with an entrepreneurial friend, answer the following questions:
‘No matter how good you have it, it’s cool to want more.’
MINDY KALING
When I was starting out in business, I was utterly seduced by the concept of total passive income. The plan was to lie on a beach and do nothing while the millions rolled in. But I couldn’t figure out a good idea, which is why my early entrepreneurial efforts failed. They were always about selling something I didn’t really care about, so I could create the life I wanted later.
Then I realized that I’m a life-long entrepreneur. Even as I’m working on my ‘early retirement’ plan, I don’t ever honestly want to retire. I’ll probably be teaching, mentoring, speaking, and writing until the day I die, just like the incredible Louise Hay. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make things easier for yourself. Creating forms of passive (or leveraged) income means that you don’t always have to spend your personal energy to make money. You can build in a buffer, so you don’t have to take on every client, or so you can take time off when life stuff gets in the way.
Investopedia defines passive income as ‘earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved.’1 Of course, for entrepreneurs, there are many different forms of passive income. For example:
First, some truth bombs from someone who has made millions in passive income. Ready? Creating passive income still requires work, sometimes a lot of work, at the start to set it up and keep it going. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? No. It’s still a highly leveraged and mostly automated way to make money, but it’s not entirely hands-off.
Let me share my own sources, and the work that goes into each one.
Both my self- and traditionally published books require me to market them, including social media promotion and regular interviews. But luckily, I don’t have to manufacture or distribute the books. My job is just to keep them top-of-mind for potential readers and update the content every few years. But the royalty money rolls in regularly, though it’s just a small amount (a few dollars) per book sold.
I have several e-courses that sell on my website, don’t require a lot of work, and are available to customers around the world, 24/7. However, the website still needs to be maintained, the content and brand need to be refreshed every few years, and, of course, there are customer service implications whenever you sell anything yourself. Still, this is so much easier than the one-on-one coaching I started out doing!
I often promote other people’s courses and get paid a commission in return. Although I don’t have to create and fulfill the course I promote, there’s quite a lot of logistical work involved in marketing and developing the affiliate relationship. This is an incredibly leveraged form of income, but it doesn’t happen by itself.
I created this course in 2012 and have since taught thousands of students. Although people can join at any time, I still have to launch and market it several times a year and spend time and money facilitating an online support group. This course, however, has helped me create millions of dollars in revenue, and I can outsource a lot of the logistics.
Now, it might be disappointing for you to hear these truths about passive income, because it’s tempting to think you can do nothing and still make millions. In my experience, that’s not the case! However, here’s some good news: it’s not as hard as the alternative. Honestly, the hardest part is going to be overcoming the blocks you have to making easier money. For example, it may feel greedy to make money without working for it. Or it may feel like cheating.
When I started my business, it was very much an hours-for-dollars model. Coach someone; earn money. In that model, you’re constantly looking for new clients. At some point, you’ll hit an income ceiling with either your pricing or ability to take on more clients. So, I decided to take what I coach and teach it in small-group programs. Initially, my courses had five participants. But that grew to 20, then 40, and then hundreds of people. The workload was mostly the same, especially the set-up and selling effort, but suddenly, I was paid a lot more money per hour.
Then something fascinating happened. I started feeling guilty about making more money for doing mostly the same or less work. I launched my first e-book and, every time someone bought it (for 10 bucks), I felt incredibly guilty, like I hadn’t earned it properly or I was ripping people off by charging for something I’d already created. I honestly felt like I had to call each purchaser and read the book to them over the phone to ‘earn’ that 10 bucks. I felt so bad that I stopped promoting my books and courses. They became incredibly hard to find on my website, and I knew I had broken links to the sales page.
All my life, I’d been hearing about this thing called passive income, so why was I sabotaging it? I’ll tell you over and over again in this book: your money blocks will come into play in virtually every area of your business. Money blocks aren’t the most important thing you need to overcome: they’re the only thing. You’re not an idiot. You can figure out how to write and publish an e-book, and you can research the steps for creating an e-course; it’s not rocket science, but if you’re still not doing it, why not?
Because you have an underlying belief that you have to work hard to earn money. It doesn’t feel like an equal exchange if someone gives you money for something you no longer have to sweat over. Making passive income goes directly against that mentality, and that’s why you resist it.
I had to get honest with myself: if I didn’t need to pull all-nighters, stopped waking up at 5 a.m. to coach clients, or stopped hustling to make money, did I really earn it with integrity? Was I disrespecting the women in my family who had to work to make money – like my mother, who cleaned houses or worked long shifts in a nursing home? Who was I to have this easy life? If you’re reading this and thinking, What is she talking about? I love making easy money! you can skip this section. But if you suspect that you’re holding yourself back, read on.
Again, I’ll be honest. Creating passive income requires a lot of groundwork at the beginning, and this is where most people get stuck. You have to build the vehicle (i.e., write the book or make the course), set up the technical systems to sell it, and create some form of marketing to let people know about it. All that stuff is easy(ish), and certainly achievable. But before you set about creating sources of passive income, you have to acknowledge your mental and energetic resistance.
Get honest and ask yourself these questions:
And then give yourself permission to go to the dark side and think about the potential negative consequences of that. Here are mine:
Patricia Lohan, a feng shui consultant, had massive blocks around making money from affiliate income, even though she was a natural and enthusiastic recommender. She told me, ‘My yoga teacher’s classes got sold out because I told everyone about her. Same with my energy healer and business coach. But every time they asked what they could do to thank me, I froze.’
Patricia’s number-one value is connection, and for her, receiving money for her natural talent felt like she was sullying her relationships by monetizing them. She had to remind herself that she would never recommend anything if she didn’t 100 percent believe in it, and that it was okay to receive in return. At first, she allowed herself to receive referrals in return, literally forcing herself to say ‘You’re welcome, and if you hear of anyone who needs feng shui, please send them my way!’ Eventually, she was able to become a successful affiliate marketer and actually receive cash in return for recommending things she would have anyway.
What about you? What are your blocks for receiving passive income? Do you have excuses like, ‘I don’t know anything!’ ‘Nobody will pay me for that!’ or ‘It sounds too hard!’ Let’s talk about how to get started, and I’ll show you that these excuses are BS.
Many women overlook potentially lucrative business opportunities because they feel too easy or obvious. You might think, Why would anyone pay me for that? But just because it’s easy and enjoyable for you, it doesn’t mean it’s easy and enjoyable for someone else. There are a lot of things you take for granted that other people need to know. You can package that knowledge in various forms (a book, a course, an audio) and solve a problem for someone.
I’ve bought products that tell me how to get a baby to sleep (because I was dying from sleep deprivation), how to groom my eyebrows into a perfect shape, and how to create a month’s worth of freezer meals (including done-for-you shopping lists). People (like me) are busy and/or lazy. Package things up for them, create extra value (like shopping lists to save them time), and make it easy for them to buy, even if they can find the same information online for free.
Sometimes customers have a desperate need for information and want a solution that works for them and their specific situation right now – like how to get their six-month-old breast-fed baby to sleep – rather than generic information that applies to everyone.
Even if your topic has been covered a million times, think about how you can create something especially for an underserved niche of a market. Your first passive income product might be a 10-page e-book or five-minute audio. In fact, I recommend going small rather than spending a ton of time and money creating a big, complicated course or mobile app that you’re not even sure people will buy. It means you can test out the topic. You don’t have to get complicated with videos or confuse yourself with the tech requirements. And, if you have a small marketing list, it’s a great way to get wins on the board and feel confident enough to go bigger next time.
Start sooner rather than later. You don’t need to be The Expert of All Experts to start, and you don’t need to create something that’s perfect. The beauty is that you can always update and refresh your content. Perfectionists rarely create passive income, because they’re always waiting, waiting, waiting for the perfect time, idea, or product.
My first passive income product was so basic: a $50 manifesting course that I filmed using my iPad. It wasn’t sexy or professional, but my audience loved the information I taught. For me, creating that course was life-changing. Waking up thinking, I made $50 while I slept was a huge mental breakthrough for my abundance. If you do it once, you’ll get addicted. A Chillpreneur doesn’t have to hustle for every dollar. It’s okay to make money-solving problems for people while you sleep!
You’re allowed to make money, even when it’s easy.
You don’t have to be the guru of all gurus and teach absolutely everything. Teach something you know – it might not be obvious to others. Don’t teach people how to create a six-figure business if you’ve never done it, because you’ll feel like a fraud (and rightly so). Teach what you know you know, even if you think it’s too basic. You’d be surprised what other people struggle with.
Write a list of everything you’ve done in the last couple of years that you could teach to somebody else. And remember, it can be very simple because people are looking for basic information (think how successful the for Dummies books are). It’s best to capture that now, while it’s still fresh in your mind. Don’t be a knowledge hoarder! Help others and make money.
In your journal or in a conversation with an entrepreneurial friend, answer these questions:
‘On the six-figure path, seeking support is
not an option, but a requirement.’
BARBARA STANNY
Remember how I told my friend James Wedmore that I bet I could get to six figures on my own? What’s so great about doing everything yourself? This is one case where rebellion is not a good business strategy.
Did you ever wish you had a clone to do your dirty work for you? You can! You’ve heard of the A-Team; well, part of running a Chillpreneur business is building a C-Team: your clone or Chillpreneur team. It’s about taking the pressure off yourself to be the Chief Everything Officer.
Amber McCue, founder of the course ‘How to Clone Yourself’ and CEO School gives us a wake-up call: ‘Self-made millionaires and billionaires outsource nine out of 10 times when there’s someone else out there who can do it better. Other people tend to try to DIY everything – that’s just not an efficient use of time.’2
Are your fears around outsourcing and delegating holding you back from making more money in your business? Almost definitely. Entrepreneurs resist building a team for many reasons:
How do you feel about managing a big team? Do you think it’s the only way to be mega-successful? Let me reassure you: I hate leading people, and I’ve always deliberately created a small, lean team for that exact reason; I reached the million-dollar revenue mark with just me, one part-time assistant, and a few key contractors.
My attitude toward hiring is always to follow the ‘eliminate, automate, and then delegate’ model. If I can eliminate tasks that nobody should be doing, then great. I’d rather automate tasks with software than add another person who I have to manage. If all else fails, I’ll hire someone, but rarely on a full-time basis. And I usually hire a contractor to batch a bunch of tasks for me, so they aren’t an ongoing employee.
It’s hard to be chill when you’re doing everything yourself, and it’s hard to be a leader when you’re wearing so many hats. It’s okay for you to focus on the things you like. Hiring people isn’t just nice to do – it’s often a symbolic action that opens up much more abundance for you. When you’ve added payroll expenses, it will force you to value your own time more and focus on income-producing activities (the things people actually pay you for). When tasks are someone else’s official job, they get done. My newsletter came out sporadically and sometimes not at all when I was responsible for it, but when I finally outsourced it to my assistant, it went out like clockwork every single week.
Put it this way: you can’t be both the show pony and the plow horse in your business. You have to choose. When Mark came into the business, I realized that he works way harder than I want to. He finds it really hard to switch off, and he loooves giving me tasks. Recently I said to him, ‘Babe, you have to stop treating me like a plow horse – I’m a thoroughbred.’ As in: you can’t keep working me in the fields all day. You have to rest me. Use me for the best and most prestigious events. Let me have time off to groom my coat… I mean, go to the hair salon. Feed and water me well.
If I have to work all day and night, I’m not only cranky, I don’t work at my best. Mark wanted me to be ‘on stage’ and be the face of the business, but he also wanted me to do everything behind the scenes, including plowing the damned field. And I’d had enough. That’s when I fully embraced the concept of hiring the right team. I got really clear on what my job was: showing up on camera and on stage and being the face of the business. Everything else could be outsourced.
Are you trying to be both the show pony and the plow horse? That’s fine at the beginning, when you’re the ‘Chief Everything Officer,’ but at some point in your business, you have to embrace the fact that even if you can do everything yourself, you shouldn’t. You might not be ready for that yet, but you have to start somewhere.
Chris Ducker, author of Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive and Build Your Dream Business, is an incredible resource for figuring out tasks to outsource. Google his ‘101 tasks to outsource to a virtual assistant’ for some ideas. He suggests that you start with a simple exercise called ‘Three Lists to Freedom,’ which involves listing things you hate doing, struggle to do, or shouldn’t be doing at all. For example:
You might hate bookkeeping, customer service, scheduling clients, or sending out your newsletter. When you hate something, you’ll probably delay taking action, get essential details wrong, or take forever to complete even simple tasks. Bogging yourself down with things that stress you out isn’t just part of being in business – it’s a self-imposed purgatory. It’s okay to find someone else who might love tackling those tasks. How awesome would it feel to take that off your plate?
One of the things I hate in business is dealing with email. It caused me so much angst that it bled into other areas of my life, and I’d think about the emails 24/7. I once heard a speaker say that if you’re thinking or worrying about someone other than your loved ones at 3 a.m., then it’s time to make a change and put boundaries in place with your clients.
I started outsourcing email to my first assistant, which took just five hours a week of her time. It didn’t break the bank, but it saved me hours of time, not to mention the mental clutter. It paid for itself a million times over because I became much more focused on income-producing activities. Life’s too short, and your energy too finite, to spend it on things you hate. Say it with me: this is not the best use of my time.
When you’re starting out, almost everything is a struggle! I spent many long nights Googling how to do something technical on my self-made website and wanting to tear my hair out. And yes, there’s satisfaction in finally mastering something, but not everything is worthy of struggle! Someone else could do it much more quickly than you. Your time is valuable, so find the path of least resistance and don’t waste your energy on things you’re just not great at.
Get honest about your weaknesses. For example, many entrepreneurs are great at starting things but terrible at finishing them (um, me). I had a friend whose online course just needed some graphic design tweaks, but she kept procrastinating about getting it to launch date because it wasn’t perfect. For some weird reason, she felt like she had to do it herself, and every month, she was losing potential sales.
If you’re struggling to finish something because it’s not in your zone of genius, outsource it to someone who is a completer/finisher. Don’t beat yourself up over it or think you ‘should’ learn how to do it. That’s not what you were put on this planet to do when someone else could do it for you. This could be a Facebook ads specialist, a launch manager, or someone to help you finish a project. Maybe you just need to hire a techy person to hook up your payment systems, so you can start receiving money. Whatever it is – stop using a lack of money as an excuse not to outsource things you struggle with. Sometimes you have to step forward in faith first, and invest in yourself so you can allow the money to flow easily.
You can’t be good at everything, and that’s okay.
In the early days, I did my own graphic design, and frankly, it was terrible. I had no business doing it and it impacted my sales. When I outsourced it to a (cheapish) designer, my business expanded because customers weren’t turned off by my amateur brand anymore.
Get honest: what do you need to give up? It could be doing your own customer service or trying to fix a broken website. Hire people to do those things so you can more easily attract new clients or take orders. Be clear about what’s an income-producing activity and what you’re doing because you’re being cheap or feel like you ‘should’. Not everything is your responsibility.
Stop thinking that hiring people is a big, dramatic, official commitment for life. The key is to figure out what’s going to make your life as easy as possible and what’s most in line with your personality. When I hire people, I see how we can make it a short-term, high-intensity project. For example, hiring someone to create a year’s worth of social media content in one go, instead of spreading it over the year.
I find decision-making pretty tricky because I second-guess myself all the time. But now that I’ve embraced outsourcing and delegating, I’ve learned to be okay with things not being 100 percent perfect. It’s honestly saved my sanity, and the results are frankly the same – if not better – than if I’d agonized over every little thing myself.
The trick is to hire experts and let them do the hard work for you. When you’re starting out, you don’t really see the cost-benefit, but trust me, having someone on your payroll will make you more conscious about creating sales. When you’re more established, the cost savings will be obvious. Sometimes that’s saving you scouring through information to find the best answer for you – other times you’re borrowing their years of expertise to get a better result.
Does being a control freak about every little thing give you or your clients the best results? Not always. Done is better than perfect. Care a little less, and you’ll gain a lot more peace of mind, plus your business will grow more quickly.
It’s okay to focus on what you’re good at and outsource the rest.
The most straightforward approach is to ask people you know, advertise in your own newsletter, or post in your business networking group. Don’t overcomplicate this. The biggest hurdle is overcoming your resistance. It helps to list all the reasons why you shouldn’t have help, before you even start the process: ‘I can’t afford it’ or ‘I don’t know what to outsource first’, or ‘I’m not good at delegating.’ Frankly, these are all BS excuses. Remember – you can’t afford not to, you can start small, and nobody is good at delegating at first. Try it out.
My biggest tip: don’t hire people like you – hire for your skill gaps and weaknesses instead. I screwed this up in the beginning because I wrote job descriptions that sounded exciting to me, regardless of the role, and so I always hired Mini-Me types who were fun to interview. Guess what? When I was working for other people, I’d get bored after six months, get a new business idea, and quit my job. That’s exactly what happened with my employees because I hired people like me. Entrepreneurs like me make shitty employees!
‘The smartest thing I ever did was to hire my weakness.’
SARA BLAKELY
Being clear about your weaknesses will pretty much write the job description for you! If you read it and think ‘yuck,’ then you’re probably on the right track to finding someone to complement your skill set perfectly! Give yourself permission: you don’t have to do everything yourself. It’s okay to have a Chillpreneur business in which you focus on doing the things you like. Start with the tiniest thing and go from there. And give yourself permission to screw it up a few times! It’s part of the journey.
In your journal or in a conversation with an entrepreneurial friend, answer these questions:
Remember: CEO doesn’t mean Chief Everything Officer.
In terms of a keyless life, I’ve really nailed it in my home life, and I actually spend more money there than in the business. I don’t have to think about annoying things like changing the toilet paper or picking up mail. My laundry fairies always deliver nice clean clothes into my drawers, and my bedsheets and towels are changed weekly without any effort on my part. My housekeeper makes me snacks, goes to the post office, or calls the handyman if something breaks. I very rarely cook, yet somehow breakfast, lunch, and dinner appear on the table each day.
Basically, I live like a 1950s dad, and I love it! My life is set up for two things: maximum quality time with my family and maximum freedom for my work. I’m not ‘too good’ to clean my own toilet, but nobody will pay me to do it, so it’s not worth spending my limited time or energy when I can outsource it. Women are taught that it’s noble to do housework for their own family but shameful, lazy, and exploitative to pay others to do it. Have you noticed that nobody judges men who live this way?
I consider my home team as important as my business team because it gives me the freedom and mental space to do my work. I outsource every boring, mundane, or unpaid task that I can think of, so I can show up and serve my family and my community in ways that are important to me. My kids don’t need to see me cook and clean to teach them how – they’ll figure it out when they move out of home (I’ll encourage them to split the cost of a cleaner with their roommates!)
Now, you might think the way I run my house is too extreme (or expensive) for you. But not so. Like anything, you can start small and upgrade as your income improves. But you have to start.
Many women cite lack of childcare as the most significant stressor holding them back from being successful in their business. So, why not invest in daycare or an in-home nanny (even for just a few hours a week)?
I often hear, ‘My husband said that when my business earns more, we can pay for childcare.’ This is the ultimate chicken and egg situation, but let me be clear: it’s going to be hard for you to gain traction in your business if you never invest any time in it. The day will never come unless you’re willing to get up at 4 a.m., and that’s not sustainable or advisable. Sleep is really, really important.
Maybe you get childcare for just a few hours a week or your partner spends a couple hours with the kids after work every day – or spends the day with them every Saturday. Childcare isn’t just your responsibility, and it’s virtually impossible to combine work and kids at the same time. It’s not fair to your kids, yourself, or your business. On the few occasions I’ve tried working while caring for the kids, it’s made me want to tear my hair out, and one of them will ultimately tell Mark, ‘Mama said the F-word a lot today!’
Every hour you spend on your business (especially if you focus on income-producing activities or on creating passive income sources) will positively impact the lives of your family members for years to come. The time you invest will exponentially increase your happiness and sense of power.
Housework isn’t your sole responsibility either – even if you’re not the main breadwinner right now. If your partner doesn’t agree to pay for a cleaner until your business earns more, it’s time for your house to get a little dirtier.
‘I’ve seen women insist on cleaning everything
in the house before they could sit down to
write… and you know it’s a funny thing about
housecleaning… it never comes to an end.’
CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS
I had a house cleaner way before we could afford it. I got sick of fights every Saturday morning about who would clean the bathroom, so we paid for two hours every two weeks, and it was life-changing for our relationship and my fledgling business. It never costs as much as you think to outsource a task like that (please pay your cleaners well), but it’s priceless in terms of what it can free up for your time and energy. If your spouse complains, remind him or her of the phrase Happy wife, happy life.
If you’re single, no one pays you to clean your toilet, either. It’s much more lucrative to spend that time on your business instead. Get a cleaner every few weeks, hire a local person to run errands for you, or invest in a local meal delivery service so you actually remember to eat. Even if you’re low on cash right now, getting a cleaner is a straightforward (and honestly cost-effective) way to take some clutter off your plate and help you focus your time on making money. This is especially important if you work from home. You shouldn’t be procrasti-cleaning during the day (even if you think it’s cathartic or meditative – seriously, there’s better therapy than cleaning).
If I had to tell you the two things you should outsource first, it would be a cleaner and someone to tackle your email inbox. Neither will break the bank but will free up so much energy for you. Start small, as your budget allows, and don’t feel guilty about it – you’re building an asset that will pay for itself eventually.
Outsourcing home tasks is highly symbolic because it means your time is worth something. Even before you have a lot of clients, the opportunity cost is too high to spend your time doing small, inexpensive (and frankly energy-sucking) jobs. Instead of cleaning your bathroom, you need to be out there getting your next client.
Working from home doesn’t automatically mean you’re the housekeeper. You are working. Even if you’re starting out, you need to have dedicated time and space to grow your business. It’s an investment in the future for your family. My hubby used to try to guilt me into picking up his dry cleaning during the day, and it required some serious boundary talks. Instead of saying yes or no, I’d simply reply, ‘I’m at work, sorry – go on your lunch break.’ After a while, he understood that my time was just as valuable as his, but I had to train him with that simple repetition.
Because I said no at the start, when my business wasn’t yet earning much money, our family is now hugely abundant. That didn’t happen because I picked up dry cleaning instead of working: it happened because of my business.
Outsourcing some household tasks will pay dividends in the future. It’s excellent practice in asking for what you want, gives you valuable lessons around boundaries and creating standards for your business, and creates a job for someone else.
In my business, we now have pretty regular standards of how things get done, so I don’t have to think about it. For example, the newsletter goes out at the same time every week, and it also gets turned into a podcast, transcript, and audio on the blog. It gets shared on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and in my private Facebook groups. None of that just ‘happens’ – I had to ask for it. And it’s the same in your household. If your family is used to life happening by magic because you do it all, it’s time for a change. Not because you’re lazy or entitled, but because you have a bigger vision for you and your family. And you need to create space for that!
So, what would you like to outsource: cleaning, errands, cooking, laundry, childcare, gardening, maintenance, food shopping? Again, just pick one thing that will free up some energy. You have permission to create an easy life for yourself, so you can focus on growing your business.
In your journal or in a conversation with an entrepreneurial friend, answer these questions:
This was a big section, and now we’re going to put it all together and create a simple business plan to keep you on track. Don’t overthink it. Tiny tweaks and baby steps over time really add up. You can download a template for the plan at Chillpreneur.com/Bonus and fill it out.
How much money would you like to make?
Pick one of the above to come up with a number and set your income goal.
My income goal: ………………………………………………………
Start small with what you know, and list your top three ideas for a passive income product.
Decide on the three things you want to outsource first by identifying what:
Create a now/next/later list that summarizes all the actions you’ll take, like the one opposite. Try not to put everything in the ‘now’ list (I see you). You can recreate this table in your journal or download a template for it at Chillpreneur.com/Bonus.
If you remember nothing else from Part II, remember this: You are the goose that lays the golden eggs. Set your business and home life up in a way that ensures you’ll keep laying them for a long, long time.