Inspired by the book Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz
It's the promise of a business that generates income with minimal time on your part. It's the dream that every entrepreneur has.
I'm also going to take it one step further and apply the concept to PubWriter: A Website that Runs Itself.
Let's get to the highlights and see how we can apply these concepts to PubWriter!
A clockwork business is defined as one that runs itself. The ultimate test is being able to take 4 weeks off without impacting the business. In fact, one of the steps he recommends is scheduling a 4-week vacation to prove that it works!
There are 7 Stages to turning a business into a clockwork business:
How do you spend your time?
I was shocked to see that according to my Chrome history, on a typical day, I open my browser by 5:30am and don't close it down until nearly 9pm. Granted, there are some breaks throughout the day (typically for yoga, lunch, dinner, and social engagements). In a busy workday, I visit over 300 separate websites! It's no wonder I'm having trouble sleeping! I suspect that I hit more websites in one day than most people do in an entire week! You've probably heard the comment that we get more information in a single day than earlier generations got in an entire lifetime.
As such, I feel the curse (and the perk) of my business is rooted in opportunity overload.
The ideal mix according to Mike:
As a need arises, determine where it falls.
Ex: New Lead:
What is your most critical function?
What's your brand promise?
The QBR for FEDEX: Logistics
They sell out every single game:
It's about extraordinary family entertainment. It's about what happens between the plays.
The QBR is the activity that supports the brand promise!
Mike's brand promise is 'To Eradicate Entrepreneurial Poverty.' (Time poverty, financial poverty) ' We make entrepreneurs successful'
Mike's QBR?
Start with 6 of your activities and remove 3 of them. Eliminate the least critical. Ask yourself 'What level do I need to do these remaining activities at the make the others unnecessary?'
From the list of 3, eliminate 2 more. Find your QBR and make that your one thing.
Ask: What is the most important activity?
What do you I want to be known for?
What's the ONE activity to deliver on that promise?
What is the one thing we want to be known for and what is the one thing I can do to support it?