Have you broken your business lately? You really should. 

If you’ve ever felt like you couldn’t even take a simple vacation because you felt like your business was going to burn to the ground, you are not alone. This is a common issue that so many entrepreneurs have. 

The key to solving this issue is setting up the systems and processes in your business so that it will continue to run smoothly and generate revenue even while you are taking a break. 

So where do you start? Break your business. Yes, you read that right.

In this episode of Art of Online Business, I am sharing the easy but powerful exercise you need to do to break your business so that you can better prepare for anything that could go wrong while you’re away. This will allow you to look at issues from every angle and come up with a plan of action if an issue comes up. 

You can take a vacation as an entrepreneur without your business collapsing. By taking these simple steps, you’ll be able to set up a machine-like business that can run smoothly while you’re away. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why you need to break your business
• How to brain dump everything that could go wrong
• The steps to determining what team member would be in charge of each issue
• How to set up a plan of action for each issue that could come up
• Why this will give you peace of mind when you need to step away

Links & Resources:

• The Art of Online Business website
• DM me on Instagram
• Visit my YouTube channel
• The Art of Online Business clips on YouTube
• Full episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTube
• The Art of Online Business Podcast website
• Check out my Accelerator coaching program

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All right. What’s up, my friend? Welcome to another quick tip episode. Here on The Art of Online Business podcast. I’m pumped up this morning. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’ve had two coffees already. When? Before I’m recording this episode. So let’s. Dive right into it, shall. We? And you. Read the title of today’s episode correctly, you. Know, and. If you haven’t. Broken your business recently, I want you to. Break. Your business. Here is what I’m talking about. Let me explain all this. Let’s say that you are. Planning an extended vacation like a. Month plus away from the day to day. Of your business. Maybe you’re not going to be completely disconnected for that time. Hopefully you are, but you’re going to be away. From the day to. Day. And you’re feeling anxious. About the. Business continuing to run smoothly. And you know it’s not going to crash and burn while you’re taking. A vacation. Right. You think that. Because. You’re going to be removed from the day. To day. That things are going to. Fall apart, that. Revenue is going to dry. Up, that. Your students won’t. Be served to the level that you want. And if you ever had this thought, maybe you’re. Listening right now and you’ve got you know, you’re nodding your head right now. You’re like, yeah, I have had this thought. Or I was on vacation at one point and. I. Couldn’t. Be. Quote unquote. Fully. Present. To. The vacation because I was stressing about. The business. Well, if you’ve ever if you’ve ever. Experienced. This, if you’ve ever had these thoughts, even if if it’s like you just want to take a week. Away from your business, you’re definitely not alone. This is a common situation. That so. Many entrepreneurs. Have that I that I. Talked to. And for. Years this was. This was me. Here’s an example. And this is like ingrained in my brain. As sort of like a. 

Traumatic experience for me in some fashion, where I was in. Paris. On vacation. With. My wife Amy one year. And I remember sitting in this hotel. It was this beautiful hotel that was had a view of, well, you kind of had to, like, move your head around. You had to, like, ask your your neck to be able to see it. But you could see the Eiffel Tower from the hotel. Just a really, really cool experience. And they had this little. Lounge. Off the lobby, had this gas fireplace. And so I was. Sitting in the lounge. By myself. And this. Super cozy fireplace. Is going right in there. I had a cappuccino right there, and there I. Was with my. Laptop open and I was working. Because. I was having this panic attack. I was having like a legitimate panic. Attack about my business. I was so anxious about the business. Drying up, crashing and burning, you name it. While I was away. And I think we were. I think on that vacation, we were traveling for like. A few weeks. And at that point we. Were we were in Paris. And I was so stressed. That things were going to. That. Things were going to come crashing down. And the reason. For. That. Well, number one, mindset, always mindset. Right. But we’re not going to be. Diving into mindset in this. Particular episode. But the. Reason I was having that anxiety and looking at the business in that. Way is because I hadn’t yet set up the. Systems and. Processes. And my team in the business so that. That it. Ran like a. Machine. My goal. For you, my friend, is. To create. A machine like business, to. Create predictability. In your business. So that you can take a whole. Bunch of time away from your business. And it’s just running. Smoothly without you. Right. You’ve removed yourself. From the. Day to day. And it’s the whole. 

Cliched. You’re working on your business rather than in your business. And this is. A huge focus of the work that we. Do with our members inside. Of our accelerator. Coaching program. By the way, if you want to check that out, it’s application only. It’s Rick. Mul Radio.com. Forward slash accelerator. Or just shoot me an email Rick at Rick Salary.com and let me know what you’re struggling with in your business right now. This is for established online course creators, coaches, maybe you have a membership program. And so when I get back from our trip, I dove into. Making improvements in the business and I started with my mindset around it. But again, I don’t want to that’s. Outside the scope of this particular this particular quick. Tip, what I’m talking about here. And so. When I dove into making improvements, I. Did this exercise. And. It’s this first exercise that I did that had the biggest. Impact. And that’s what I want to share with. You here today. And it gave me a huge. Feeling of. Relief. Once. I did this exercise. And it’s an exercise, actually. And the reason I’m sharing this with you right now. Is because I just. Recently, as I’m recording this, we. Just recently did this exercise. I did it for one of our accelerator. Members. At our live retreat. In. Las Vegas. And she was. Preparing. For a. Six month. Trip with. Her family and was having the same kind of concerns around her business. That I had. Experienced on that vacation in in Paris. And so I knew. Exactly what. She was going. Through, the type of. Stress and. Anxiety. And and everything. And so. I took her through this. Exercise. And the. Exercise is. Breaking your. Business. That’s right. I want you to break your business. And here’s what I mean by that. I’m going to take you through this exercise. Right now, it’s. Multistep exercise, but it’s actually very.

Very simple in this. Exercise starts with. Just doing a brain dump. What are all the things that you think could go. Wrong in your. Business? And I don’t want you don’t edit yourself. Just get it all out there. Just brain dump it. Just start. Writing or typing. Now. Quick caveat here to this exercise. Don’t get me wrong, this is. Not like. Doom and gloom thinking. About. Your business. And I’m not trying to get you to think of like. Worst case scenarios all the. Time. And like, that’s the focus of of your thoughts. Now, we are sort of worst. Case scenario ing things. But it’s from the place of. An exercise. To get you to that more. Machine like business. With. Predictability and allowing you to. Step away as the CEO. So first step. Brain dump. What are all the things that you think could go wrong in your business? Get them all out there. And then for each one of those things that you’ve written down, I now want you to write down the potential impact. That that thing could have. On your business. So let’s just say, for example, I don’t know, whatever. You’ve written down. The impact is. Your incoming. Leads would dry up. You know, the incoming leads coming into your business. Would dry up, which would greatly. Affect revenue because. That is a source of your. I don’t know, coming into your evergreen funnel. I’m just making this up. Right. But that could be a really big impact to your specific. Business for other people. Maybe not so much, but maybe that’s one of the things that you. That you write down. Even better get super specific, which with each of those. Impacts. That you write down. Giving very tangible and maybe even numbers driven potential. Effects. The more specific that you can be, the better. Once you have. Written down the potential. Impact. Then I want you to prioritize each. One. Based. On that impact to your business. 

Which is the most impactful. That you think is the most impactful to your business. Keep in mind. Within this list that you are that you’re. Creating here. The 8020 principle is going to be in effect. And what I mean by that. Is. 20%. Of the overall list that you have. Brain dumped is going. To affect your. Business the. Most. So if you brain dumped ten things that potentially could go wrong. Two of them are going to. Be. The most important things, you know. The biggest. Impact on your business. So just be looking for that. Right. Now next. To each prioritize. Thing that could potentially go. Wrong. I want you to put who would be responsible. On your team for owning. That. Particular thing that you’ve written down? Put next. To each prioritize. Thing that. Could potentially. Go wrong. Who would be responsible for owning that thing? And then once you’ve done. That. What would need to happen. By that. Person in order to. Fix the issue? And now that you’ve written down the potential problem, the potential. Impact to the business, you prioritize. These things. You have. Then noted. Who would be responsible on your. Team. For. Dealing with that. Issue or. Fixing that. Issue, if you will? Then. What is the fix? Like, what would that purse like? What is the fix to that potential? Issue. So you have your problem. But your potential. Problem, right? Potential problem. You’ve already prioritized it. You have the impact the. Potential impact on your business. You have who is responsible? Who would be responsible. For fixing that. Issue or. Owning that issue even better? And then how like what is the fix to that problem? Right. So if your leads have dried up. Right. Which is a. Big impact to your business. Business, let’s just say maybe it’s that you’re. I don’t know, just making this up. Your ad campaign has completely tanked. 

Right. So what is the fix? What should that person do? What is the. Action that needs to be taken in. Order to fix that issue? So you’ve kind. Of and I recommend doing like. A spreadsheet for this. Once you’ve done that step. Is does that. Person know. That, A, that. They own this. Issue? And B. Do. They know how. To fix it? You’ve already. Written down. What the fix is. Does the. Person who’s owning that. Issue. Know what the fix is. And then the last. Step to this is to meet with the respective. Team members on your team and take them through. Each of. The things. That they are responsible for. To make sure there is very clear. Communication and expectations. That. They understand that. They’re responsible for. This thing and take them through. This exercise. Why you’re doing this exercise. Remember you as the CEO or the. What and the Y. Person. The person on your team. Is responsible for the how. How to do that. But in this exercise. You’re coming up with a solution. And even. Better, what I like to see even better is, hey, go. To your team member who would own this problem and say. How would you fix this. Problem? And you work. Together on the. Solution. And if you don’t. Have somebody on your team. To deal with a particular. Issue, well then that brings up. Awareness to the. Fact that you may need to. Hire somebody to fill a role. On your team. So this is a very, very easy exercise to do, yet it’s really powerful. You’re identifying what are what are all the. Potential things that could go wrong if I’m not working, if I’m away from the business. And then you. Prioritize. Them based on the the impact on potential impact on the business. Oc. Who is responsible for. Owning. That. Potential. Issue. And then working with that person to let them know if they don’t already know. 

That that. Hey, they own this, they own this issue. If it. Were to happen and then. Work together on what is the. Solution to that. So that the idea is to. Get these things in place. So that when you. Take time away from your vacation, you take time away from your vacation, take time away from your business. That everything has a place. Everything’s all set. Right. This is how you create. That more machine. Like. Flo in your in your business. And it gives you the peace of mind knowing that you’ve accounted for these types of concerns in your. Business, especially if you’re somebody who identifies with. Having. Anxiety like like I do. And so your. Action item from from today’s. Quick tip is to. Take some time away from wherever. You work, you know, wherever you do your work for your business. You know, I do. I work here at home. I have an office at home. So I’d go to a coffee shop or. Wherever it might be. And I want you to do this exercise. And your business is going to be. A whole lot. Stronger. For the exercise. So you have my permission, my friend, even though you don’t need it. Go break your business with intention. Thank you, my friend. As always. For listening to. Today’s episode. I appreciate you. I’ll see you right back here for the next episode here of The Art of Online Business Podcast.