Are you feeling overwhelmed in your online business?
Are you working far too much for too little results?
Are you looking for strategies to save time so that you can spend this saved time on things that matter most to you (like spending time with your family, prioritizing self-care, seeing more clients = more money, etc.)?
Are you also looking around at all the experts, and feeling overwhelmed by the so many things you’re told you need to master and do?

If so, this article is definitely something you should read!

Reason #1: Create A Sustainable Business Strategy

Ever since I started my online health consulting practice in 2013, I heard my clients complain of overwhelm in their jobs and in their lives. Not only them, but also countless online entrepreneurs. Of course burnout and the effects of stress on the body is a topic I am fiercely interested in as it leads to many health issues in both men and women. Yet there is so much we can do to not only thrive all year round, professionally, personally, emotionally and physically!

It’s all about building a sustainable business. Something we can keep on doing all year round, that allows us to prioritize what matters to us.

If you’re not sure what matters to you, I invite you to check out the Life Audit Assessment.

Reason #2: Create A Business That Is An Extension Of Who You Are

I realised through the work I did with my friend and colleague Money & Wealth Mindset Expert Renate Schmidt that my expertise as an innovator, big picture thinker, business strategist and workflow optimization expert is not something so common. It’s something I started to do as a child, that comes very easily for me, and not so easily for others. It is easy for me to see when I get into a workflow or process what could be done differently to save time and make it more efficient. In fact, that’s what I’ve done as a child, as a student and later what I repeated in my careers, both as a process automation experts for big corporations like Ernst & Young, JP Morgan, Zurich Insurance Ltd, and in Private Equity, but also as a certified Women’s Health & Nutrition Coach/Expert, or as a business strategist & workflow optimization expert.

I love to think outside the box to create a business that is unique.

I love to think that we’re all unique in what we do and who we are, and that is what makes our clients love working with us. This is what needs sharing; not what makes us similar to everyone else.

And… I of course love to save time so that I can spend more time with my gorgeous family, with my friends, and doing the things I love!

Don’t you? 😉

A strategy needs to take into consideration both your goals, your values, your resources (financial, people, etc.), your personality and so much more. I strongly believe that a foundation to sustainable business success is creating a business that reflects who we are.

Personally, I want a business that gives me the opportunity to always learn, innovate, and also have the freedom to do the things I love! I love spending time with my kids, husband and kitties. I love spending time with my friends and colleagues. I love brainstorming with my clients plans of action that take the overwhelm out getting results and creating more of what they love. I love reading. I love watching movies and TV series. I love to learn more and more. I love to do many many things. But there are only so many hours during the day, so I had to find a way to fit more of what I love, while keeping the quality and results high. As a recovering perfectionist, that’s always something I strive for.

That’s what I’ve worked on over the past year, and that led me to create my business assessment workbook. I’ve walked some of my clients through it over the past couple of months, and the results have been incredible so far.

One of my clients, Natalie, mentioned it helped her understand better what worked in her communication style with her team, and improve not only the relationship between her and her worldwide team members, but also their productivity, as they felt she was finally “getting them”. This allowed them to feel more like they were “part of the team”, with their “feedback and ideas taken into consideration”, hence leading to more proactivity and innovation in workflows. First month of implementing some of the changes we talked about in our strategy calls, she already has saved over 15 hours in her own schedule, AND has for the first month already 1,000 USD more as passive income, without doing any Facebook ads.

Now, as business owners, we’re often in a place of do-do-do, and getting things done on time is a requisite; yet understanding our business personality will help us up-level the way we create our business from the inside out.

That’s why, as part of the business assessment workbook, and as part of the program I walked Natalie through, I am walking you through the following steps:

Step 1: Know Your Personality Type 
Step 2: Discover Your Core Values 
Step 3: Are You a Lion or a Wolf? 
Step 4: Communication Styles Matter 
Step 5: Micromanage Isn’t a Dirty Word 
Step 6: No-Sweat Networking 
Step 7: Know Your Love Language

Reason #3: Clarity Without Strategy = No Result

As online entrepreneur, we learn that our team and I should focus on many different activities:

• Working with our clients and keeping them happy (of course, #1)
• Administration
• Accounting
• Social media
• Newsletters
• Blog posts
• Updating our website
• Marketing
• Etc.

Yet, these are not strategies. These are activities which should lead us to specific results. Very often, what I’ve seen with my clients is that these activities are being performed without specific targets and purposes, hence leading them to being ineffective. When we’re clear about the goals we’re pursuing, we can be clear about the activities we should focus on. At the same time, being clear about our business personality, will allow us to know which activities we should focus on ourselves, and which we should delegate.

Think about it this way: if you’ve been told you need to become a speaker to attract more clients, yet you’re completely scared on speaking in front of a crowd, how likely are you to ever start on that goal? When you look into your business personality, and the skillsets you have, you can find ways to adapt your goals to you, make progress, AND get results.

What to do to get started?

It really all starts with you!

I personally believe that it’s okay to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zone a little, but that stretching ourselves a lot doesn’t make sense. Think about someone who hasn’t been exercising for 1-2 years and decide from one day to the next that in 1 month she’ll do a marathon. That person might go with it and do the marathon, but end up more broken than healed after she did it. Whereas by having a realistic goal and aspirations, as well as strategic planning might have been better.

You don’t want to stop doing what you love doing. You just want to do it more efficiently, while having more fun.

At least, I want to.

And the way of many of the thoughts leaders might not be your way. In the same way that one person’s food is another’s poison, one person’s winning strategy is another’s losing strategy. It’s important to look at who you are, your values, your goals, and consider all that when making a plan. That’s why I never recommend my clients the same strategy, even when they have a similar business. Just because it doesn’t make sense!

I’ll keep on adding to the topic of strategic planning to save time and earn more in future articles. If you’d like to be informed when I do so, I invite you to subscribe below. 🙂 

What's Next?

Step 1: Revise Your Expectations And Expect Resistance

If you’re familiar with the principles for successfully growing an online business, then you know that Step 1 of successfully pulling out a strategy to optimise and grow your business is to shift your mindset. I share through this blog and social media channels some tips and tools to help you with that. Yet, we all know that it takes more than just knowing what to do to actually do it.

That’s why I want to invite you to revise your expectations. Know that there will be resistance along the way. You might say to yourself “I’ll have a look tomorrow again”, “that’s not so urgent”, “I’m not sure that’s for me”, “I don’t think this will work for me”, or many other things. Often when we’re stepping out of our comfort zone (a.k.a. what we’ve been doing until now) we’re finding excuses to keep on doing what we’ve always done. The first step in success is acknowledging that. So… acknowledge where you’re at. Then…

Revise your expectations bearing in mind your goals AND your life. Not everything that I’m sharing will resonate with you. Not everything will be applicable to you either. And that’s alright! But you’ve got to start somewhere.

So, as long as you’re clear on your goals and on your vision, take a conscious decision of what you want to apply starting from today. And if you are not clear on your vision, here are a few resources you might find helpful:

• Customer Journey Review Pack,
• Plan Your Funnels And Tripwires For Profits,
• Optimised Business Academy, or
• Schedule a call with me to discuss where you're at in your business and what you should focus on.

Step 2: Carve Out Time, And Make A Plan

That’s where carving out time, and making a plan comes in. You know yourself at that stage better than I do. Use that knowledge to implement a plan of action that will help you start making positive changes into your life, that will soon bring positive changes in your business and in your life.

If you're stuck wondering what to do next, I invite you to join the FREE Optimised Business Membership.

Step 3: Just start

There’s no tomorrow in success. Any successful path starts today, with a small change that you keep on building onto. Commit to starting today with ONE small thing, and share with me in the comments what it is. This commitment will help you start – and keep – taking action!

Step 4: Get Support!

We tend to want to do things on our own. I’m not stranger to that either. But I’ve learnt over time, and I’ve seen both with my personal coaching clients and professional mentoring clients, as well as with myself, that getting support helps to really create the change we’re after. So, if you’re stuck wondering what’s next, and you know you need help, I invite you to check out the many online resources I have created to help you save time and achieve faster growth in your business: Free articles, online membership, online books and courses. If you’d like private mentoring for your business strategy, you can also book a call with me to discuss the different mentoring options that are available for your special needs.

Step 5: Please Share!

If you like what I'm sharing, please do me a favour and share it with friends or colleagues you know would benefit from it! The more we are on this journey, the greater the collaborations, co-creation and achievements!