Can you achieve freedom in a director-owned small business? Here’s how I believe you can unlock small business freedom.

I was speaking to a friend the other day who asked me if I would employ someone. I answered that I was not planning on employing anyone and he responded:

“You will never have freedom like that”

I have thought a lot about this.

If you type freedom into Google you get two definitions:

  1. the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
  2. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

You can set up a business for many reasons, but a lot of the time it boils down to freedom. What is it that we want freedom from?

  • Money
  • Time

You want to have the financial means and autonomy to live the life you want.

Freedom is subjective and I may have a different definition to my friend.

It’s easy to think freedom is having a seven-digit bank balance, lying on a sandy beach in the Maldives sipping on Pina Coladas – not thinking a jot about work, or have any worries.

Is that realistic? I don’t think so.

Small business freedom

Freedom to me is time and money, but they can be broken into sub-freedoms:

  • To work where you want
  • To work the hours you want
  • To work with who you want
  • To wear what you want
  • To work on what you want
  • To spend quality time with family
  • To be present
  • To not grind and be stressed
  • To continue to run your business
  • To have time and space to switch off and go on holiday
  • To have the financial income to support your life

If I go through the list now.

  • I work in Costa or at home.
  • I work with cool, friendly clients who trust me, paying no more of 5-10% of total income.
  • I focus on marketing as well as client work.
  • I wear shorts, sports t-shirt, baseball cap, no pinstripe suits.
  • I spend quality time with Jesse and Amy on Fridays, evenings and weekends.
  • Most of the time I am present and rarely am I really stressed.
  • There’s recurring predictable income, where I know I can pay myself and taxes.
  • The business is paying for life: IVF, maternity shortfall, dog, baby, etc..

I have nearly all of them now, I am still learning a lot and have a way to go, but there is freedom. If it were a spectrum of 100%, I would say I am at 60-70%.

Unlocking true freedom in a director-owned small business

Does employing lead to small business freedom

Employing someone does leverage your time, it’s one of the main ways to grow a business, but it adds on stress which is hard to avoid.

If you go down the employing route, what’s the process of freedom?

Growing > growing > Growing > Growing > Freedom

What are the dream outcomes?

  1. The business doesn’t rely on you, you’re not needed in the day-to-day running of the business.
  2. You sell the business.
  3. Through income or from the sale of the business, it gives you the financial means to pay for your dream lifestyle.

To pursue freedom through growth at all costs, you need two of the three, but how long does it take, and at what price?

Sacrificing today for tomorrow

For a long time I did the grinding, employing people and sacrificing the now for an elusive date in the future with the mindset that I needed to give up something now to achieve that.

I am 36 now, or nearly 40 as my mum calls it, and I am just not prepared to sacrifice like that anymore. I want freedom in the business now, not in 10 years.

I don’t need to employ someone to achieve the freedom I want in my business, if anything employing someone would remove those freedoms in the short and medium term, and potentially indefinitely.

A business that relies on me

Can I sell my business for a high multiple of revenue? NO

Do I currently have assets that pay for my lifestyle without the need to work? NO

Does the business run by itself if I was to get hit by a bus? NO

I think that’s all ok, maybe it will change, maybe it won’t.

I want to run the business as if I were running it for 50 more years, steady and sustainable with freedom now. It doesn’t make sense to me to sacrifice now, to potentially have freedom one day in the future.

I believe you can have freedom as a director-owned small business and that’s something I am going to pursue, even if it takes 5, 10, 20 years to figure out.

If you would like to work with an accountant, who will help and support you to have freedom growing a lifestyle business, book a discovery call today.