How to design your business around your life (5 questions to ask)
There is absolutely no point running a business you don’t love to work in.
Running a business is stressful and you have to enjoy what you’re doing or you may as well go and work for someone else. At least if you’re an employee in someone else’s business then they are the ones who have the stress and responsibility of finding clients and making money. All you need to do is to turn up and work on whatever it is that you’re good at.
For me running a business is all about freedom and enjoyment.
I want to make sure that:
I love what I am doing
I do challenging work that I can’t wait to get stuck in to
I work with clients that I love hanging out with
I make the money I want to make
I work the hours I want to work
And in order to achieve those goals I make sure that I proactively design my business around the life I want to live. And to do that I regularly take a few hours to sit down and answer five specific questions, which I am going to share with you in this post.
The questions below are very simple but if you take time to answer these carefully you’ll be surprised at what they uncover for you. Remember - you have a choice to make:
You can live your life by accident
OR
You can plan a life you really want to live.
The aim is to think about what you want to do in your life and how you might get there. You want to design a life that you love - not just reactively respond to every new client or opportunity that comes knocking on your door.
Answering the questions below is a process I work through regularly (around every 6 months or so). It normally takes me around 3 hours to really think through the questions in detail. So if you’re keen to try this process then block out some time, get rid of all distractions and really think about what you want from your business and your life.
1: What would my dream business and life look like?
You are completely in control of the sort of business and life you create. Don’t just settle for anything. Design your business around the life you really would love to have. Here are some things to ask yourself:
Fast forward 12 months from today. What do you see?
What would your dream life and business be like?
Do you want to travel for business or not - if so, how much?
When do you want to take breaks and holidays?
Where do you want to go?
Do you have hobbies you want to explore?
Do you want to work by yourself or have a team?
Do you want to work at home or in an office space?
Where would you love to live?
What are your health and energy levels like and what needs to improve (e.g. sleep, weight, exercise, water, alcohol consumption)?
Who do the choices you make in your life and business impact? What does it mean for them if you have better health, more money or greater personal freedom and choice?
Use these prompts to write out what has meaning for you and what your dream business and life would look like if you could design it.
2: What are the metrics?
The next step is to dig in to some of the metrics around your life and business. Here’s some prompts for this question:
How much money do you want to make?
How many clients will you need in order to make that money?
How much cash do you need to live the life you want to live (i.e. after taxes/expenses)?
Do you have savings in the bank? How much?
How much savings would you ideally like to have in the bank to feel comfortable?
Do you have debt? If so how much and when would you like this paid off?
What are you business expenses? Do they need to reduce (or perhaps even increase in order to invest in the business)?
What size team would you love to have (or would you prefer to work by yourself)?
What sort of community size do you have? Document metrics around followers - what do you have now and what would you love to have?
What would a new financial position mean to you and those around you?
Use these prompts to think carefully about what the right numbers are for you. This is not just a dream exercise - make this realistic for where you are right now. If you haven’t even started a business yet then saying you want to make 7 figures a year isn’t realistic at this point (unless you have a clear path for how to get there). Instead start with an initial goal of hitting your first 6 figures. When you do this process again in 6 months you can reassess where you’ve got to and increase your goals accordingly.
3: What does my ideal day and week look like?
Think about how your ideal day or week would look?
How many hours/days do you want to work each week?
Do you have kids and want to plan your life and business around their school hours and/or school holidays?
Are you happy to work weekends?
Do you work better in the morning or at night?
What do you want to fit in to each week (e.g. specific exercise classes, reading groups at your kids school, finishing work by 3pm, getting up early, meditation and self-care)
Think about the tasks in your life and business that are important to fit in each day and week to make you the best version of yourself.
4: Who is my dream client?
A business and life you love means you are working each day with people you like and enjoy being around. Clients come and go but you and your business are the constant - so make sure you design your business your way so you work with people you actually want to work with.
Who do you want to work with?
What is the size and scope of projects you want to work on?
Do you want to do large commercial projects or small residential projects?
What is your ideal client like? Describe them.
What problems do they have that need to be solved?
Can you help them? Do you have the skill and expertise to actually be able to help this dream client?
Again be realistic here. If you’ve never worked with a client before then going after commercial developers who are building multi-residential properties as your dream client probably isn’t a realistic place to start.
5: What do I want to create and sell?
Finally think about what you actually want to create, sell and deliver.
Last year I made the mistake of creating a product that my community had been asking me for over and over (a business coaching program). But I knew that a program like this wasn’t something that I was going to enjoy delivering as I’m the sort of person who really rebels from having specific meetings in my diary (and coaching is inherently about having meetings with people!) - so this wasn’t a good product fit for the way I wanted to run my business and I made a mistake in launching this.
So this question is about creating a business you actually enjoy working in. Ask yourself things like:
What do you enjoy creating and working on?
What do you want to sell?
Face to face or online (or both)?
Is it a packaged product or 1:1 client work?
What do you love to do?
What is your zone of genius (what are you really good at)?
What will help solve my ideal clients' problems?
Also again remember this needs to be realistic. You need to be able to see a path to your revenue goals with the products and services you develop.
How many clients would you need per month to reach your revenue goals?
How much would you need to charge each client to reach your financial goals?
Is this realistic?
What might need to change (e.g. higher fees, more clients, different type of service/product)?
Overall a dream life and business is unlikely to happen by accident. You have to set a big picture vision and you have to think about what it will take to get there.
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
