Trading time for money is crazy – let’s all stop
You know this – trading your time for money is crazy. You know that you want to stop trading time for money, but you’ve somehow got stuck on the hamster wheel of client work and billable days.
I know this addiction only too well. We’ve all been there. We set up our business, offering our services for sale and after a while we’ve built a reputation, got some connections and some regular clients.
We get used to a certain income, and there we are, running around the hamster wheel. We spend our time on projects for clients and always have that existential fear of the feast or famine that could be around the corner.
Let’s break free from the trap of trading time for money
To break free of the hamster wheel, let’s change the mindset of how we make our money. To be free of the trap of trading time for money, we need to move away from that crappy fixed idea of our work being an exchange of time for money. It is entirely possible to separate out how we spend our time and how money ends up in our bank account.
In the trading time for money model, we sell x number of days of our time to help a client send an invoice and then receive money.
In the new model, we spend an intense period of time working out in-depth how to help many clients and packaging this magic into our products. Then we attract many clients to buy from us – we build our tribe. And then, eventually, we sell some products, then some more, and it builds over time.
Change how you spend your time
There’s nothing passive about this
I won’t lie. There’s just as much work involved in making and selling products as there is when you sell services. Possibly more, especially at the beginning.
But when you break free from the trading your time for money model, you regain control over your own time. You start to be able to schedule what you want to do when you need to do it.
So, instead of being booked up with client meetings, you get to choose when you do certain tasks. This gives you a beautiful freedom. And it provides the power to prioritise your way and fit the tasks around how you want to work.
Work when you want
If you’re a night owl, you can put your music on and put your head down till 3am if you want to. No one will know or care. Maybe you have more energy in the mornings than after lunch. Or you have some days when you’re on fire…and others when you’re a slumpy sleepyhead, and it feels like someone has switched your brain off. All the productivity books tell you to play to your strengths – but that’s not so easy if you’re running your own business and selling your time for money.
And if you have unexpected calls on your time (when you get the phone call from the school to say they have a poorly kid for you to pick up, for example), instead of that embarrassing call to your client to say you have to reschedule, you can move your task to the next available space. And then concentrate on being fully present with your child who needs a cuddle and some Calpol.
Control what you do
When you combine working how you want to work with your day being filled with (mostly) activities you actively enjoy doing, this is no longer working for a living. This is fun that makes money.
Which one of these calendar views do you prefer?
Stop trading time for money
When we trade time for money, we often end up having to do work a certain way because the client wants it done that way. Boring. I specialise in working with people who have developed expertise in their specialist subjects. Every week, I talk to someone frustrated because they’re caught doing client work that is boring for them now.
A massive mindset move
Maybe we move you completely out of the picture. Your brand… your products do what’s needed. These are stand-alone products, that don’t use up any of your time.
And then this means that you’ve finally reached that stage of working on the business, not in the business. Which, of course, is the stage just before being able to sell your company. Or at least take a month off to do something fun.
The big step forward I see with clients is where they have changed their mindset so that instead of you being a servant for your client, your products become the answer to their problem. Instead of doing something for them (being a servant, sorry, freelancer), you become the trusted guide.
Of course, the answer isn’t just “make some products”
Adventures in Products is all about helping people like you to productise your expertise instead of being a fancy freelancer or consultant. But I’m not just suggesting that the way to stop trading time for money is to make products. It is, but you know that already. If it was that simple, you wouldn’t need me, and you wouldn’t be reading this article. You’d be busy creating and marketing your products.
Instead of that (to be honest) facile answer, “Make some digital products”, I’ll take you on a little tour of what your business could be like if you were to stop trading time for money and adopt a different business model instead. And then I’ll take you through your options, cut through the bullshit about making products and get you into action.
Let’s emulate rich people for a moment
I’ve noticed something different about my clients who are already rich. Rich people don’t tend to trade their time for money. They are not rushing to get enough money to pay the rent, and they’re taking the long view. Rich people leverage their assets rather than selling their time.
You may not own a load of property assets, shares or an art portfolio, but I believe your head is full of intellectual property we can leverage. We need the assets in your brain, or your “magic”, as I call it.
Rich people often have multiple business interests making money for them at the same time. They have fingers in many pies. We need to work on developing your product ecosystem, so you have multiple income streams coming in at different rates. We need products where you can work with many people at the same time, rather than the freelancer’s serial monogamy of one client at a time. A product based business allows you to client stack.
Focus on high-value
One of the factors that keeps good people in the trap of trading time for money is the lack of a clear way out of that trap. You don’t want to walk into another trap of selling low-value products such as online courses and e-books. That is not what productising is about.
Focus instead on high-value products. Of course, you might include some lower-priced tripwire products in your product ecosystem to help build your tribe and develop trust with your clients. But 80% of your turnover should come from higher-value products.
Read The Most Profitable Digital Products to Sell
How to get started – join us
Let’s get you off that trading time for money hamster wheel and on to creating your own products. Every month, I run a productising workshop online. They’re all free and come with a replay if you can’t make it on the day. Your first step might be just to book yourself a place on the next productising workshop so you can come along and get some ideas for your next move.
Here are other lovely examples of productised services
How Tim Healey built his product ecosystem
Has your turnover plateaued out?
