Today, we're going to talk about the entrepreneur's 4 primary focus areas. Most entrepreneurs are really focused on 4 things, and if they can do these things and constantly improve them, life gets better, and if they can't, it doesn't.

There's an acronym I want to use for this: LIFE.

Lifestyle

Most entrepreneurs are looking for a certain lifestyle. They were working for somebody else before, and they said, “I want to have control over my lifestyle, my time freedom, be able to come and go when I please, and I actually want to be able to afford a certain level of lifestyle with regards to making more money, being able to afford nicer things, afford more freedom, travel, and so on.” Most people don’t feel they can get this as an employee.

Income

Entrepreneurs are usually looking for more income. Whatever they were doing before, they probably thought they could make more money as an entrepreneur. They want to know that if they’re creating better results for people, then they’re making more money. It’s extremely important to an entrepreneur to have that control over that.

Freedom

The third thing entrepreneurs are looking for is freedom. This ties in with lifestyle, but goes beyond it: this is the freedom to make decisions, the freedom to show up for work or not, the freedom to go on a 3-week vacation, the freedom to live in Peru for 4 years. Whatever that is, they want the freedom to make their own choices and not have to ask for permission.

Freedom is about being able to do work that we love. I want to be able to say, “I like doing this work, I don't like doing that work.” Eventually, if I can figure out how to do the work I love and make the money I want, that's even better.

Expansion

And finally, when they get good at something, entrepreneurs start making money at it, they start helping people, and they want to expand. They want to reach more people, they want to expand the quality and the depth of their business, but also to increase their reach, and the amount of people they are helping.

The LIFE Cycle

If you were to look at this as a diagram, there's a cycle in which this can happen in the optimum way.

1. The first thing is to focus on lifestyle. This is because you can often make significant changes to your lifestyle without even changing jobs.

Whether you're an entrepreneur or an employee, you can make sure you're making the most out of your free time, making the most out of the money you already have, making the most out of the relationships you already have. That's something that you don't need anybody’s permission to do: you can just start doing that.

2. As you're working on your lifestyle, part of that will eventually mean making more income. This will allow you to focus while you’re doing your work and getting better at what you do, creating higher level results, creating more value for clients, so you can charge more and help more people and make more money for that.

3. Eventually, people want more freedom. This is the freedom to be able to have more time off, and that freedom's going to be funded by income. With more income, you can afford to work fewer days. If you can make the same amount of money in 10 days that you used to earn in 20 days, then you can perhaps take some time off if you want to, unless your expenses are out of control.

4. And then finally, once all this is in order, you can look to expand what you’re doing.

Improving Quality AND Quantity

As you can see, the optimum way to do this is in a cycle. Although It doesn't have to be done in this exact order, there is certainly a balance in this way of doing thing.

Some aspects of this cycle are about improving the quality of something, while others are about improving the quantity. Lifestyle and freedom are about improving quality: your quality of life, or your quality of freedom. Income and expansion are about increasing the quantity: the amount of money you’re earning, or the number of people you’re reaching.

If you can alternate your focus between sometimes focusing on quantity and sometimes focusing on quality, it makes the process easier and much more powerful.

Doing this all at once can be difficult: trying to double your income while also trying to work fewer hours at the same time is tough. However, if you were to work one quarter on increasing your income, then the next quarter on reducing your working hours, that’s a lot more manageable.

This approach also fits in better with the rhythms of life. You might choose to take more time off in the summer when the weather’s good and your kids are off school, and then when fall comes around, focus more on expanding your business. Then when the winter holidays come around, you can enjoy your lifestyle with your family, before focusing on your income in the first quarter.

If you can get into a natural rhythm with this, it’s going to be much easier that trying to do it all at once. Try focusing on one of these things for 90 days at a time; you’ll find it a lot easier and less monotonous.

It’s also better for your clients to have a rhythm like this, as you’re not constantly trying to sell them stuff, or telling them you don’t have enough time for them.

Start making your Game Plan

I hope you find this helpful, if you have questions on this, let me know. If you want to start creating your 4-Day Work Week Game Plan, whether you're an entrepreneur, an employee who wants to be an entrepreneur, or a business owner, whether you're a student in college or high school, just head to 4daygameplan.com.

The 4-Day Game Plan helps you to start looking at how to balance that productivity and income with lifestyle and enjoying life and making time for what's most important for you. The Game plan doesn't guarantee you'll get there right away, but as somebody who took 22 years to get to a 4-Day Work Week, I can tell you, I certainly wish I had something like this when I started to help me get more clear about what my strategy was in advance.

Whether it’s working from home, telecommuting or freelancing, it’s never been easier to work towards a 4-Day Work Week lifestyle. The question is, when are you going to start?

As always, I look forward to helping you make more money in less time, doing what you do best, so you can create that 4-Day Work Week lifestyle and enjoy your friends, your family, and your life.