The Side-Hustle Dad

Ep25
===

Recap E-Myth Roles
---

​[00:00:00]

Bryan Steele: Welcome back. I'm glad you're here with me today. If you recall from our last episode, we started talking about The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It's a fantastic book. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. But in essence, one of the core issues that I think so many small business owners struggle with, and what I think you likely struggle with sometimes yourself, is that your business was created initially out of the skill you could do, the entrepreneurial seizure.

And what we talked about is how even though it's a single person business, there are distinct roles that have to be filled. You have the [00:01:00] technician, you have the manager, and you have the entrepreneur or owner of the business. ~And even though you've got those three roles, you gotta...~ And even though you primarily do the technician role, because it's just you, you have to keep the tension on those others so that you don't get scattered, so you operate as efficiently as possible.

We talked about, last week, how to separate out those times, how to identify when you're filling which role.

Owner Identity Shift
---

Bryan Steele: And so today I wanna start diving into a couple of those other specific roles. Specifically today, I want to talk about the owner, because I think this is the area where it's hard to get past what it is that you do.

Because normally what will happen is someone will say, "Oh, what do you do?" Or, "Where do you work?" And you'll say, "Oh, I paint houses," or, "I do landscaping," or, "I resell, you know, products on eBay," [00:02:00] or whatever it might be. "I do consulting, coaching." All of those are valid answers, except they don't really get at what it is that you have created.

Because you're not just the thing you do, because you're no longer trading time for dollars. You are creating an asset. You're building a business. You are a business owner. So instead of that identity being I paint houses," your response is, "I own a house painting business." And you see that shift. It takes a mindset shift to be able to get to that point where you ~s- ~recognize, "I am not just the task, I'm the owner of a business."

Even though it's just you, that's totally fine. It elevates you, and it positions you as a person of, like, real, like, authority because you're an owner, and [00:03:00] you are. You're the one who's taking on this risk. You're the one who experienced the entrepreneurial seizure who said, "I can do this myself. I'm not gonna go just get a second job.

I'm not gonna go do DoorDash or Uber. Like, I'm going to build a business based on the skills that I have." And so that's the place that you find yourself in. ~So then ~So you are an owner, but what do you do with owner time? How do you leverage it? You know, we talked about how most of your time is still gonna be doing the task, delivering for your clients, and that makes a hundred percent sense.

Like, nobody's arguing that. But you still have to make room for the manager and the owner. So what do you do? What is the owner time spent on? How does it work? ~So we're gonna talk... So what I think about this and, sorry ~

In vs On Business
---

Bryan Steele: So what this comes down to is separating out working in your business versus working on your business.

Working in your business, [00:04:00] painting houses, meeting with people, sending invoices, email, making social media posts, marketing yourself, going to networking events, that's the in the business. That is working in your business. It's stuff you're doing to make the machine work, and that's good, and you will do that.

But working on the business is setting the strategic direction and foundation so that you know you're doing the right things when you're working in the business. You're making the business itself better. You're looking for those opportunities. So when we are in owner mode, we're no longer doing the tasks, and even though it's only gonna be, like, one, maybe two hours a week, this is something important that you must make time for.

Do not skip this because you go, "This doesn't directly make me dollars," because it's [00:05:00] going to make you more effective over time. ~So make sure you carve out this space, even though it seems small, to reflect and make sure,~ because it goes back to episode one. ~We need to regularly, ~we need to regularly make sure that the business is meeting its mission.

Whatever it is that caused you to say, "I want to build this side hustle," if that's paying for college, if that's buying a boat or going on a vacation or paying off debt, those are valid things, and we need to make sure we're reflecting and connecting what we're doing in the business to the ultimate objective that it's got for our lives.

What is the why? Why does it exist? Make that space so that you can work on it

Strategic Vision Check
---

Bryan Steele: So you might go, "Okay, I buy it, makes sense. I'm going to spend an hour a week looking at the business, how is it operating, and I'm gonna reflect and identify if it's doing the right things." So what we're gonna talk about now are what are those things to evaluate, to look into? So the [00:06:00] first, your strategic vision.

So you're gonna look at your quarterly goals, ~um,~ you're gonna be checking if what you're offering aligns with your time. Like, ~is,~ is this really the right space to be doing this business? Am I doing the right things? ~Um, ~am I running into a lot of conflicts? Do I need to be changing the way I structure my offers?

So it's strategic visioning, looking at the business, where are things at, how am I presenting myself, what does the business do? ~Does... ~Am I still pursuing this same vision? And it may shift, and that's okay. The business doesn't have to always be the same thing, but we need to make those shifts intentionally.

Because I think what happens lots of times is we start doing one thing and somebody asks for something else. Say, "Oh, can you also do this?" Well, sure, for a couple bucks, right? ~You, we keep, ~we keep just chasing kind of the next thing, and before we know it, we're just off in a ditch doing things we never anticipated.

So continuously coming back to the vision of what is it you're [00:07:00] offering, who are you really trying to help, and are you connecting to those people? So setting that vision, that strategic vision and foundation for the business. Regularly checking that, making sure you're doing the right thing. Might only take you five minutes to verify that.

But look at what you've been doing over the past month, past week. ~Make sure that everything makes sense.~

Economics and Business Model
---

Bryan Steele: The second piece is your economics, your financial situation. So, you know, how many invoices did you take in? Are you struggling with any behaviors like late payments or struggling to get people to pay?

We've talked about episodes in the past around how to make sure you get paid on time. You don't become ~a, ~a bill collector down the road, like you just work in the business. So Looking at those things, are those in the right direction? Is your income going up? Do you have a dry spell? What are the things that are happening that might need some adjustment?

Look at those carefully, make changes. Look at your business model. ~So, are you...~ How much time are you [00:08:00] spending with each client? Does that align with what they're paying you? Do certain clients take more time and effort? Are you narrowing in on the ideal client? Are you not finding the ideal client? Are you just taking on anybody?

Does your ideal client need to change based on what you're offering? So, understand your business model, what shifts and things might need to change there. That was something that was important for me. You know, early on when I was doing music production, it was like anybody who wants it. And then over time, I started realize, no, ~there's, ~there's some people I don't work well with, and so I need to make sure I'm looking at the right things.

Who are the right people to be connected to in my work? Who are people that I serve the best and the work just goes fast, that I enjoy it more? Because ~ultim- ~we don't wanna be doing things we're not interested in or that drain us. We want this to be as fulfilling as possible, otherwise it's gonna be another job, and [00:09:00] that's really not what we're aiming for here.

We want this to be a fulfilling, life-giving business that we're excited to, to grow and to pursue.

Boundaries Emergency Brake
---

Bryan Steele: And then finally, looking at your emergency brake, right? What are the boundaries that you initially put around your business? We already talked about the mission, the vision, the why, but are you starting to break any of the boundaries you set, the time that you work on the business?

Is it starting to impact time with your family? Because when it's starting to do those things, we gotta pull the brake. We gotta say, "Hey, something is not right. Something's gonna have to change so that this business doesn't ultimately consume me." Because we want it to be healthy. We want it to be something that will last longer term, at least until you achieve the goal.

And maybe in review you go, " The goal has changed. It's not the same as it was before. It's now something else." And that's okay as well, but [00:10:00] you're not going to be able to make those decisions and identify those things when you're working in your business, when you're sending client emails, when you're doing the task, when you're working in the business, shipping out product.

You're not going to think strategically about the business. You're ~n- ~not gonna think through these four things and understand, oh, I need to be doing something different. Something is going to need to change because the business is going a different direction. And so carving out this time, thinking through these things regularly gives you that owner mindset.

I'm building a business. ~You might be looking and ~you might be looking at some of these things and saying, "I'm not getting enough time in front of my ideal client. I'm not talking to enough people. Maybe I need to adjust some of the things I'm actually doing when I'm in my business so that I get more opportunities for business," or, "I'm not attracting [00:11:00] the right clients.

I need to get in new spaces around new people, grow my network." But you're not going to be thinking those things until you take this time ~Mm. You're not gonna be thinking those things until you take this time~ to work on your business.

Schedule Owner Time
---

Bryan Steele: All right, now finally, how are we gonna execute this? We talked about it last week.

You're going to set aside a quiet time free from distractions. So this is gonna look like a quiet place away from the family, a room, maybe you've got to get up early in the morning while everybody's still in bed or after everybody goes to bed to think through these things. All you need to do is one hour a week.

Start there. If you can't do one hour, take 30 minutes. It's better than nothing, and then work your way up to an hour. So take that time, make it structured, scheduled. Nothing replaces this. This is your owner time. You're not gonna do any work on the business. You're going to look at the business, and then [00:12:00] think through how you're gonna collect your reports.

So what are ~the m- ~things you'll be looking at? And a little ~bit, ~bit of this we're gonna cover next week on the manager role, because the manager's responsibility is to give you some of this information to make decisions on, but you'll be looking at things like your key performance indicators or what things you look at financially, number of projects, conversion rate, different things like that to determine, okay, what is the health of my business?

How much time am I spending working in it? What is happening? How is it aligning with my goals and my strategic vision? So make sure you set aside that time. Work on the business, not in the business. That's the big shift I want you to make, is that you're going to have to take some time to make sure that you are working in this way so that your business is more effective.

You Are the Owner
---

Bryan Steele: Because you are a business owner. ~You are not just the task you perform or the service you provide.~ You're not just the painter, [00:13:00] you're the business owner. And ~if there's nothing else you take away from that, and~ if there's nothing else you take away from today, it's that. You are a business owner. You are an entrepreneur.

You are not just the task that you do. You own a business. So think that way, carry yourself that way, and protect that owner time to make sure you get the reflection needed to make high-quality decisions that have the best impact on your and your family's future. Thanks so much, and I'll see you again next week when we talk about the manager role.

​ [00:14:00]