Money, Time and Freedom - The Ultimate Trifecta

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What would you rather have right now in life?

More Time

More Money

More Freedom

And in what order?

Throughout our lives we try to strike a balance between these 3 aspects.

This is a very nuanced question, and the answer varies depending on which stage of life you’re in.

But reflecting upon this topic can help you decide the next course of action in your entrepreneurial journey.

Today I’ll briefly discuss how the balance between time, money and freedom shifts as you go from being an employee, to a freelancer to an entrepreneur.

But first, I want to introduce you to Jott, and share a message from their founder Dan Bogachek.

If you care about improving your productivity then you will love this -

🙏 Supported by: Jott

Hey - Dan here.

I needed a way to keep my to-do list and notes on me all the time.

That's why I created Jott - a minimalist wallet with pen and paper built in.

It's changed my life - consistent, elevated productivity.

Hope it helps you as much as it's helped me.

Thanks to SuperFrameworks - use code SUPER to get 15% off

Get the complete set

(*Many thanks to Jott for supporting the SuperFrameworks newsletter this week 🙏)

Every day on Twitter Dan shares how Jott makes his life easier, this is fascinating!

Now, let’s talk about the ultimate trifecta - Money, Time and Freedom and how the balance shifts as you go from employee, to freelancer to entrepreneur

Employee

When you’re doing a full time job you’re always short on time. And somewhat short on freedom as well.

Freedom here means the choice to do the work you want to do, with the people you want to do it with, and at a time and place of your choosing. (More on freedom at the end)

(This is also one of my favourite quotes from the book Psychology of Money. Short summary here)

But when you’re an employee, you’ve got some of your money problems sorted.

At least you have a steady cashflow coming in every month.

This is the best time to invest some of that money into yourself.

Take courses, join communities, build up your audience and network.

Spend some money to acquire the skills that you lack. (Related: Solopreneur Skill Stack)

These skills, guidance and network will help you escape your 9-5 and get started as a freelancer, consultant or founder.

This is how your journey to freedom starts.

Freelancer

Usually when you quit your job, you can get into freelancing or consulting. This is a great way to leverage the skills you were already using for your job to make a living on your own terms.

Now you have more time and freedom.

You can fire clients you don’t want to work with. Find more time for passion projects, and in general get to choose the kind of work you want to do.

But the cash situation can get a little tight now.

Freelancers have been known to go through phases of feasts and famines.

When they get clients, they get so many that they can’t handle. And when clients dry up there can be months of no projects and the cash starts to run low.

This is why you should spend some time to build leverage.

There are many forms of leverage you can build -

Labor - Build an agency, team up with other freelancers and serve more clients to make more money.

Content - Create books and courses that solve specific problems for people.

Code - Build a SaaS product using your skills and domain knowledge.

All these forms of leverage will help you scale your knowledge, skills and time.

And they help you take the next step in your journey as you become an entrepreneur, founder, product owner.

Leverage ultimately leads to freedom.

Entrepreneur

As you own assets, and run a business, you make more money now, and you have relatively more time and freedom than your employee days.

But you lose some of the freedom from your freelancer days.

Because now you have customers and possibly employees, which means you have responsibilities.

This is when you can spend money to buy back some time and freedom.

Hire employees to do the work you had been doing.

Or outsource some of the work to freelancers, consultants or agencies.

If you can hire the right people, and build the right systems then you can build a business that runs on autopilot.

This is your ticket to true freedom.

A note on Freedom ✊

Freedom is the ultimate goal imo.

We crave 2 types of freedom the most in life -

“Freedom to.. “ do anything we want to do.

“Freedom from..” having to do anything we don’t want to do.

I see freedom as the practical version of vague terms like “happiness”, “meaning” and “fulfilment”.

But to exercise freedom we need the luxury of having time and money.

Okay, enough philosophy for today 😅

Homework

All of this is based on my own journey and the research I’ve done studying the stories of hundreds of successful indie hackers and solopreneurs.

It means nothing to you!

Not until you take some action and apply this theory.

So take a notepad and write down the next steps you can take.

Some questions to get you started -

Employee -

What skills you can acquire?
Which platforms you can build an audience on?
Which communities you can join to improve your network?

Freelancer -

What forms of leverage can you build? - Assets in the form of code, content or labor
Which audience can you serve? Your existing clients? or others in your journey 2 steps behind you?
How can you market and grow your product business on the side?

Entrepreneur -

What parts of your business can you outsource?
Organic Content, Paid marketing, Design?
What parts of your business can you automate?

As I said at the top, this is a very personal topic, and everyone’s answer will be unique, but these questions will give you a framework to get clarity and take the next correct action in your journey.

Had an interesting conversation on Twitter about this topic.

Check out this tweet.

Cheers!

🔗 Super Links

Useful links you don't want to miss -

After 60 issues, 13 months and $13 MRR I shut down my paid newsletter, 7 hard lessons I learned.

You know your ideal customers are on Reddit? Find them, build for them and sell to them. Start here.

It’s always the silly things that go viral. I was viral on Twitter this week, this is now my 2nd most popular tweet of all time.

Want to grow your startup? grow your skills first, join EntryLevel NOW

The Main Thing - fantastic article by Justin Jackson. (Thanks Vishal for sharing this in the Indie Masterminds slack)

This newsletter crossed $500 revenue this week. Thank you so much for being a subscriber 🙏

(*Links in bold are classified ads, to reserve your spot, please send me a DM on Twitter.)

🤩 Features

I got featured by my friend Akash in his Wellness UX newsletter last week.

He wrote this wonderful piece about my story and my lessons.

A Twitter Outlier - Lessons From a 9-5 Transition to Co-Founder - Ayush

Feel grateful and humbled 🙏

🤗 How can I help?

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you -

🧠 Solopreneurship is hard, but it doesn’t have to be lonely. I’m creating the most action focused community for creators and founders. Where you can learn and grow alongside like minded peers from across the world. Deep dive workshops, monthly sprints, meetups, book clubs and lots more. Come join us. (prices go up next month)

💸 An info product can set you free, it can help you grow your audience and income. Learn the step by step framework to build and launch an info product in 14 days. Buy Now

Hope you found this useful.

If you’re new, then make sure you don’t miss the next one.

And if you’re already subscribed, consider sharing this post with a friend, it will only take a moment.

See you next week

Ayush 🙏