Clockwork

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:

  1. Create a 4D action funnel.
  2. Determine your QBR.
  3. Protect & Serve the QBR.
  4. Trash, Transfer, Trim: Create Systems & SOPs
  5. Balance the Team
  6. Target the ideal customers
  7. Work on your business not in your business and take a 4-week vacation to test the system.

Time

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 4Ds

The ideal mix according to Mike:

As a need arises, determine where it falls.

Ex: New Lead:

QBR - The Queen Bee Role

What is your most critical function?

What's your brand promise?

The QBR for FEDEX: Logistics

Savanna Bananas

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?

Effortless web publishing!

What's the ONE activity to deliver on that promise?

The one for the wallet

What is the one thing we want to be known for and what is the one thing I can do to support it?

Trash, Transfer, Trim

Target your ideal customers