The Three Freedoms

I spend quite a lot of time referring to the three freedoms in conversations with clients, and this article will help to demystify them. The Three Freedoms (for business owners, at least!) are: Time Freedom, Financial Freedom, Mind Freedom.

Financial freedom

Financial freedom is the idea that you have enough money to do the things you want. As a business owner this might look like: having sufficient funds to pay your bills on time, having enough money to pay yourself a proper wage, and invest in growth. From a personal perspective, the ‘proper wage’ will enable you to live the life you want – buy the things you want to buy, go on the holidays you wish, have a property you are comfortable in and so on. It is likely that your initial concept of financial freedom will be very different to 5 years, 10 years and 25 years down the line.

To help you reach your financial freedom goals, you will need to look at how you can grow your profit in the business to free up, and generate more, cash. Having a clear business plan, a well-thought out budget both in the business, and personally, and a tight grip on cashflow will also help reach these goals.

Time freedom

Time freedom is all about finding the right balance for your life. This will mean different things to different people. But let’s start with how it looks in your business. Time freedom from a business perspective is ensuring you have the right balance between working ‘in’ the business compared to ‘on’ the business; how much time you spend on admin or repetitive tasks; and finally, working the hours you want to work. From a personal perspective it is about have the time to do the things that matter to your outside of your business. This might be spending quality time with children, family or friends, volunteering, having sufficient holiday time to travel, training for a marathon or competition.

To help you reach your time freedom goals, the Achiever Matrix can help determine how your time is best spent. One of my favourite sayings in business is “the business there to serve you, not the other way around”. If that is not true for you, what can you do to improve your situation? Ensuring your business has the right structure, with the right people and the right systems will help ensure you can scale your business sustainably and provide you with a clear path to time freedom.

Mind freedom

Mind freedom is about ensuring things are as they should be. Achieving peace of mind both in personal life and in business. This is probably also the hardest to achieve as it is less tangible, and life presents challenges in many different ways. Dealing with those challenges in a healthy way is also part of achieving mind freedom. In your business this is likely to look like: sufficient risk management and mitigation strategies; no surprise bills or taxes; having the necessary support in place for when problems arise; and tax returns and accounts done correctly, on time and with sufficient time to prepare for tax liabilities. These will all enable you to free up your mind to be present and focus on the important things in life. It should mean low (or no!) stress and anxiety levels, getting enjoyment from your life and feeling generally satisfied that everything is ok.

To help you reach your mind freedom goals, it is important to ensure you stay on top of your paperwork, bookkeeping and cashflow to enable you to work with your accountant (and/or bookkeeper) to meet deadlines ahead of schedule. Ask for help and support when it is needed – and receive it! Jot down some things that are causing you the most stress, and consider how you would feel if those stresses were removed. Have a clearly defined vision, with SMART goals and a simple but impactful business plan. This can help keep you focused, alleviate stress and ensure you are on the path to success.

There are different ways we can help you achieve the three freedoms in your business and personal life – from coaching to business planning sessions, to bookkeeping and software recommendations. If you’d like to discuss how we can work together, please book in a Discovery Call. For clients – please do reach out via our Quick Query service and we can discuss in more detail.