Gain Control of Your Business by Being Lazy

Recently I was reading a book that was talking about the need humans have to be able to control things. While there were several experiments cited, one of the experiments was done in a nursing home where they had some younger people visit and spend time with two groups of residents. The first group could specify when their visitor would come and see them and how long they would stay. The second group could not specify when their visitors would come nor how long they would stay. What the researchers found is that the group that had control over their visitors were happier, healthier, and were prescribed less medication than the group that could not control the visitors. 6 months after the study concluded a very sad after effect was noticed. A higher than normal percentage of the group in control of the visits passed away or became much sicker. What the researchers concluded (but hadn’t anticipated) was that being in control not only makes you happier and healthier but losing this control is much more damaging than never having the control in the first place.

Entrepreneurs Need to Control
One of the common characteristics of most entrepreneurs is their independence and need to control. When you think about it, it’s not that surprising. Some of the most oft-cited reasons for wanting to be an entrepreneur are:

• Be Your Own Boss
• Ability to Work From Home
• Set Your Own Schedule

In each of these cases, an individual is control of their work environment and their day-to-day activities. They intuitively know that gaining control makes them happier than not being in control.

The Reality of Owning Your Own Business
The realities of being a business owner don’t always match with the ideal lifestyle of the entrepreneur who is their own boss and sets their own schedule.

You’re often in a deadline business. You can never rest on your laurels. There are always deadlines to meet. Customers that leave you. Customers that pay you slowly (A few that don’t pay you at all). Projects that get canceled. Amazingly, you are always on the hot seat – even when things happen beyond your control. Client expectations are often unreasonable. Competition is stiff.

Being Lazy Gives Back Control
A Lazy Owner is business owner who has built systems and processes into their company so that they aren’t critical to the day-to-day operations of their business. They don’t “hope”. They take control by creating systems that eliminates most of the uncertainty of a business.

• Instead of hoping that existing clients give good referrals or people just happen to find you online or in the yellow pages, they create a predictable marketing system that delivers new prospects whenever they want to grow the business.
• Instead of relying on client defined projects, they create products and services that they sell. They aren’t subject to unreasonable client demands because they already have the product.
• Instead of worrying about cash flow and slow paying customers, they set up a billing process that means they get paid for the products that they provide.
• Instead of trying to count on unreliable vendors, they define the production process.

These are a just a few examples of how you can gain control of your business. By not having to work for every single prospect and every single dollar that you’re owed, you can spend your time building your business or doing whatever you want. And once you gain control over your business, and hence, your life, you will become happier. It’s just human nature.