If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you have a business, not an Empire. Later in this article I will explain this in more detail, and give you counsel on how to change your status and results.
Are clients and potential clients calling your personal cell phone? Are you getting notifications popping up on your personal phone? Notifications from your business email, public business page, and Facebook private message? If so, you are mixing business with pleasure, and this is detrimental to your success.
In my blog article, One Word Will Transform Your Business, I compared a business to an Empire. There were several great concepts to get your wheels turning and look at your future in an entirely new light. However, the bases behind the article is a business keeps you a small band in a small town, never truly hitting the big stages. While an Empire positions you to impact millions, and perhaps even billions of people, Empires set you apart from every struggling entrepreneur who quits their nine-to-five for a loose dream, and sets you up for financial freedom (residuals). All-in-all, an Empire gives you what you truly desire to obtain in life: T.I.M.E. = Time, Impact, Money, Excitement.
If you are one who is still operating your company around the clock, and are always accessible due to running your company through your personal cell phone, then you have a business, not an Empire. Think about it. Look at large corporations. Corporations who make an obscene amount of money, and who are not in the same playing field as your local coffee shop. When people call the office, does it ring through to the CEO’s cell phone? Absolutely not! If your vision is to enlarge your territory, why then are you operating from your personal cell phone? Why are you open and available around the clock?
I will tell you why. It is more than likely because:
- You need the business so desperately, you must remain available at all times in hopes of gaining a new client.
- You don’t know your value, so you are free for the pickins.
- You began your business with your personal cell number and have grown so large, it would be impossible to change numbers now.
Your truth is, you are valuable and you are in demand. Perhaps, you just don’t know it yet, because your bank account is showing it to you. When building your Empire, you must behave as you want to be, not as though you view it to be. Perhaps your phone isn’t currently ringing off the hook. That’s okay, because soon it will be (if you make some much needed changes), and you must be prepared for the growth. Moreover, perception is everything. If you look free, you look cheap. When you look cheap, you lose value. When you lose value, people don’t hire you.
On the flip side, if your time is worth $300 plus an hour, you have a proper business phone operation set in place, and you don’t respond within seconds of being reached out to, you reflect to the world that you are in demand, powerful, and worth investing in.
My counsel to you is:
- Have set business hours. Mine are 8am-5pm, lunch break between 12pm-1pm. I block my schedule each day from 8am-9am, so nobody can schedule a coaching call, and I can use this time to respond to messages from the night before.
- Go to Google.com/Voice and set up a business phone number. This number will ring through to your cell phone. When you answer the call, it will tell you who the call is from, and then give you the option to either answer it or send it to voicemail. If it is after hours, send it to voicemail. To take advantage of this free service, you must have a gmail account. Also, be sure your gmail account is a paid account that allows you to have your domain name as your email. For example, Info@ElenaTransform.com. Watch this video to learn how to set up your email with your domain.
- As your business grows, your Facebook friends request will work overtime. Before you know it, you will max out your friends at the 5,000 mark. Now, please understand, these people are not your friends; rather, they are watching you and considering hiring you. Moreover, these so called friends are from around the world…so, you truly never know who is watching. So, do you really want to post pictures of your kids, date night, and your political agenda? Absolutely not! Begin now, opening a Facebook page up that remains your personal at all times. No clients or potential clients can be added. Only let one personal account be overtaken, and use it to get people to follow your business page and to follow you as a business person. By doing this, you will have a personal business page, a business page, and a personal page. Your personal page is for your private life outside of business (no professionalism needed).
- Turn off notifications to your email, personal business page, and private messenger after closing hours. This way you are not tempted to look and respond. Remain professional by only operating during business hours. Trust me, I learned this one the hard way. I would simply look to see what a client wanted, and then by the next business day, since I already opened the message, I forgot about responding to it. K.I.S.S…Keep It Simple Silly. Turn off the notifications to avoid temptation, then open and respond during business hours.
Be sure to leave your comment below, share this article on your business page to help your clients, and read my blog article One Word Will Transform Your Business so you can continue to set up your Empire for success.
This article was written with me in mind! The type of business I run doesn’t allow me to separate business time from personal time. It’s like I’m always on the clock.
How do I run a people serving agency and shut down when I never know when it’ll be a teenage girl or teen mom in need? I’ve tried redirecting calls and FB messages; however, people see me as the face of the agency, so they continue to reach out to me for everything.
I’ve hired trusted and competent staff, so I can attempt to implement some of the things you listed in this article! Thank you, Elena
Thank you for your comments. Please remember, if you are worn out, you cannot offer your best to others. Many large companies run a 24 hour operating system, and it sounds as though this is what your company should also run. However, my counsel to you is, assign someone else to take the calls after 5pm. As the Founder/CEO of your company, you must step away and take care of you, so you are better for everyone else. Also, knowing that you are the face of the company, makes you that much more valuable. Think about large corporations–Empires–do people see the face of the company on demand? No, they don’t. I hope this reply helps you!