Time Freedom for Coaches, Course Creators, and Online Business Owners

Time Freedom. Is it a dream, or can it be your reality?

I’ve talked to so many of you, and one of the biggest motivating factors for wanting to go into business for yourself is the freedom to set your own schedule. Man, I get it. I remember working in the corporate world and feeling stifled between my work schedule and commute. The two together were a brutal combo. I worked 6:30 am – 3:00 pm by the end because it allowed me to support my East Coast team early in the day and my West Coast team during the mid part of the day. It also reduced my commute from 1:15+ to about 40 minutes each way. While I had a flexible schedule for the corporate world (so much so that I turned down a job with my favorite boss at her new company because it was 8-5 with the same long commute), it wasn’t truly freeing because of all that I gave up in exchange for that schedule and reduced commute time. 

I didn't have time freedom because I was still tied to a 40-plus-hour corporate work week. 

The corporate world offered 6 figure success but no time freedom

I got up at 4:45 am to be out the door by 5:45 to be there by 6:30. And I traveled all the time. And there were late-night calls, texts, and emails. There were weekend work expectations. All the trappings of your typical 6 figure corporate career. 

While the paycheck was nice. I often felt like it wasn't worth the trade-off. Because, honestly, it wasn't. I had no time freedom. My life was second to the needs of the company. And it wasn't just one job that was that way; it was all of them. I remember being told, "We don't take that holiday here," or, "You'll be on 6 days a week from January 1 - April 1. No, there's no comp time; it's simply necessary" or the job that had, "a little travel" that ended up having me travel about 50% of the time and every single weekend for 3 months straight.

Finding Time Freedom 

When I first started my business in 2017, I tried to run it like a corporate role would have run. I didn't build in time freedom. I tried to schedule myself to work 8-5 every day and sat in my office all day long like the good corporate employee that I was. I quickly realized that wasn't what I wanted for my life. 

But sometimes, it's hard to figure out what you want and how to get it. 

I sat out to figure out how to create a business that would allow me to earn what I was used to while working a lot less and having more freedom.

I knew that organic marketing and SEO, in particular, would be the key to time freedom for me. I'd been in SEO for years and understood how to get traffic to a website from Google. So, I set out to create a business that would work with my family and could be run in the hours I wanted to work rather than one that would take everything from me. 

Time Freedom as an online business owner has changed everything

But you know what, the time freedom that can come with an online business can change everything for you. It's been life-changing for me. Being able to set your schedule and work when it works for you is one of my favorite parts of entrepreneurial life. 

Rather than worrying about being in an office from 8-5, I can focus on getting the work done that needs to be done in a day or a week when I'm at my best. Sometimes, that means I work from 5-6:30 in the morning before my kiddo gets up for the day, and then I take a break, we have breakfast, and I drop him off at school. I resume my workday around 8. On other days, I take a workout class at 8:30 and get back to work closer to 10. When you're your own boss, you can do what works best for you. For the most part, I work school hours and a school-year schedule. I'm a morning person and tend to work early and call it a day around lunch. 

Most weeks, I try to work about 15 - 20 hours. If I've got a big project or need extra time, I scale up, and if things are slow, I scale back down. Staying organized, batching my content, blocking time out on my calendar, and being very focused during my work time helps me stay productive and on schedule. 

How do you build a business that allows you time freedom?

Not all businesses will allow you the same time freedom, so you want to think about that when you're building your business. What do you want? What's the most important for you? For me, I want a balance between work and home because, for so many years, there was no balance. I want to be able to chaperone the class field trips and volunteer at the book fair at school. I also want to be able to serve my students and clients well and teach them SEO. 

I've spent years creating an organic marketing funnel so that my business can work without me being here all the time. I've had students enroll in my SEO course while I was volunteering at school, on a field trip, and on vacation with my family. I've also had them enroll in the course when I was sitting at my computer writing blog posts or recording podcast episodes. It's not all hands off all the time but I'm currently testing out a 15-20 hour a week work week. I also take all school breaks off with my kiddo. I schedule my work to fit into our lives, and his school breaks are on the calendar before I plan my promotions or launches for the year. 

Your SEO funnel provides time freedom as an entrepreneur 

It's my organic marketing funnel, fueled by SEO, that helps me make it all work. I create content, optimize it for Google, and then Google helps people find it. Using SEO and organic marketing helps you keep more of the money you earn because you're not paying for ads, which helps you run a more profitable business. Ads aren't necessarily bad, and I run them sometimes, but most of my business comes from my organic funnels.

If you're interested in learning how to set up an organic funnel for your business to help you achieve time freedom as an online course creator, business owner, or coach, start by taking my free SEO class, and I'll walk you through how SEO works so you can start to see the process.

You, too, can have an organic marketing funnel that buys you time freedom. What would you like to be doing with your time? I've gotten into sourdough bread making this year, and I love having extra time to try new things that I never would have been able to do while I was in the corporate world. I also really like not having a long commute. My commute these days is a 15-minute round trip to drop the kiddo off at school. Yes, he could take the bus, and it would be faster for me, but he likes mom driving him, and you know what, I do, too. I love having the freedom to do things like drop him off and pick him up or take a half day off with him and go out to lunch together, all while knowing my business is still working without me right there all the time. Are you ready to find time freedom for yourself too? What can an organic marketing funnel do for you? What would you do with time freedom in your business and life?