How Can You Take A Step Back In Your Business When You Need To?

How can you take a step back in your business when you need to?

How can you take a step back in your business when you need to?

There are SO many reasons you might need to take a step back for a minute in your business, but how can you do that and not risk having no income or that all the hard work you’ve put into your business will go to waste?

This is something I’ve been learning first hand after getting Covid back in January. Thankfully, as an Enneagram 6 who is all about looking at every potential eventuality and being prepared for it I was covered. 

But there are many people who aren’t so lucky.  BUT, you can start to implement some changes right now that will really put your mind at ease if anything were to happen.

Back in January, literally as I was about to go into the launch of The Positive Pants Toolkit I caught Covid. 

I felt dreadful.  At first I thought it was just a bad cold and it just felt worse because I hadn’t had so much as a sniffle in over 2 years.

But then those pesky 2 little lines showed up on my lateral flow. I was very lucky that I only tested positive for the 5 days but it really knocked me for six and quickly turned into Labyrinthitis.

Labyrinthitis, if you haven’t heard of it, is a cross between vertigo and tinnitus.  Basically your brain feels like cotton wool, your ears are ringing all the time and you can get very dizzy or feel off balance which can also make you sick.  Kind of like motion sickness.

And since then it’s become very clear that I have long covid. 

All the fun times. 

If you’ve been listening for a while you’ll know one of the biggest things I do is always checking in with myself and my body and asking what I need and doing my best to give it to myself.

That can be tricky when your body has been screaming rest and sleep for 2 months when you’re trying to run a business.

So, I’ve been doing the bare minimum for pretty much the whole of 2022 so far in order to do what I need to do to recover. 

Which is rest, relaxation, naps, a slower pace, spending time doing gentle exercise, going with my energy when I have it and not beating myself up for the inevitable crash.

It’s felt like one step forwards, 2 steps back a lot of the time.

There are so many other reasons you might want or need to take a little bit of a step back, maternity, other illness, burnout, the state of the world, family circumstances, grief, all sorts!

The reality is, things are different when you are running a business to if you have a job with paid leave, be it sickness, maternity or compassionate.  Which I don’t think is a bad thing at all when you weigh it up with the flexibility and freedom and ability to live life on your terms in return.  

So how have I been managing to do the bare minimum for this long and what did I have in place to make it easier, and possible for me to do so?

The biggest answer to this is simple, I’ve worked hard to create recurring revenue streams in my business. 

I have been able to do the bare minimum which amounts to probably all in all a day or 2 per week, AND….still have money coming in.

I have 4-5 recurring revenue streams at the moment. I have payment plans from 1:1 clients.  I have the payment plans for The Mentorship programme that I run with the amazing Dawni Baxter and Abi Hugo.  I have my membership, The Positive Pants Toolkit app and community and I have a gratitude journal and notebook on Kindle direct publishing.

And the good news is my friend Lisa Johnson’s notorious annual Race to Recurring Revenue challenge is back on the 21st-24th March so you can learn how to do this too. I’m super excited to be partnering with her again.

Over the 4 days she’s going to help you figure out what types of recurring revenue streams are best for you, there’s a few!  The 5 step system she uses with all her clients to help them add recurring revenue to their business, there have been over 3000 of them now!  She’s going to let you know the biggest mistakes people tend to make when it comes to adding recurring revenue, so you don’t have to make them and what you might already have, either created or in your noggin, that could make you recurring revenue right now so it’s not to be missed.

You can join through my partner link at https://bit.ly/franrecurring.

Now, full transparency I don’t love a challenge.  I’ve sat in on many of them at the beginning of my journey and it felt like they were all mouth and no trousers and it drove me bonkers and I’d feel like I’d wasted my time.

I have done this challenge several times now and it’s just not like that.  Lisa gives real value!  The energy and support is off the scale and over 2,500 people joined on the first day and it’s not even on until the 21st March. 

All you need is around an hour per day, to watch the live and do the exercise, for 4 days. 

There are other things you can do outside of recurring revenue like scheduling the break and batching content so you still maintain your presence online. 

You can figure out what your bare minimum actually looks like in terms of client work, content etc, etc and see how you might be able to cover that.

Making sure that you have help in your business, like a VA for example.  It might be asking a member of your community or another business owner to do a ‘takeover’ in your groups or communities. 

Making sure you have an out of office with a clear way to contact you only in emergencies, or even have your VA contact details and then they decide if it’s an emergency and requires you. Having a VA manage your inbox can be a game changer for calming the nervous system if you’re having some time off so you don’t feel like you might miss opportunities. 

Automating what you can.

Thinking about how you can plan for less time in the business and still maintain your presence?  Yes it might have a short term effect on your engagement but what’s more important?  

Having recurring revenue has been the biggest game changer for me. It’s given me more freedom, more time, more flexibility and more peace of mind. 

I’m sure there are lots of other ways but this is what i’ve been doing whilst showing up hasn’t been so easy but the biggest thing i’m grateful for has absolutely been setting up a business model that has multiple streams of revenue and recurring revenue.

So hop on into the challenge because you have absolutely nothing to lose and might come up with a genius idea that really lights a fire in your belly.

It doesn’t matter if you have an established business or you’re brand new! I wish I’d had this training before I started my business, I might have made some very different decisions, and I certainly would have made less mistakes!

I’ll be in there too and you’re MORE than welcome to hop into my instagram inbox @imfranexcell and brainstorm with me.  I did that with people last year and I find it SO much fun coming up with ideas and where people might be leaving money on the table. So come play with me! The link to join is https://bit.ly/franrecurring  In my opinion it’s more important than ever to have recurring revenue in your business or even as a side income. It’s time to think outside the box and put yourself first! 

Fx

Fran Excell, Success Mindset Mentor at www.franexcell.com – Helping Business Owners & Executives Overcome Stress & Self Sabotage so they can get back their time, get off the emotional rollercoaster and feel more in control. 

RESOURCES:

Check out The Positive Pants Podcast Here

Download your FREE Stressed To Success Meditation Here

Join The Positive Pants Toolkit App HereBook In a Free 20 Minute Discovery Call Here