Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

When you work for an employer, it’s usually a pretty straightforward contract. You trade 40 or so hours of your week in exchange for a salary and some sprinkles. What happens during those hours is between you and your boss.

But when you cut the tethers of employment and became a free agent, what’s the agreement? Have you “signed on” for the promise of better work? More money? More freedom

I have always believed that success meant enjoying some level of flexibility in regards to money and schedule. But ? I’m beginning to wonder if that’s enough. Perhaps there’s something even more substantial available.

At the risk of irritating friends and colleagues who have already gotten an earful, I think Tim Ferriss makes some interesting points in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. In case you’ve missed the buzz, this book is a how-to guide for  free of FTE. Ferris has created an intoxicating argument for “lifestyle design,” which (paraphrased liberally) means making your money outside the confines of the 9 to 5 in order to live life more fully. In his case, it means running a lucrative online store (no problem, right?), outsourcing shipping, returns and customer service, and relying heavily on virtual assistants. All the while, he strongly advises nearly cutting off email and phone contact with those who would try to drag you back into the concerns of the workaday world.

Specifically, Ferriss disparages the idea of WfW, or Work for Work’s Sake. This is a trap I know well. For instance, when my partners and I launched our business, we immediately rented some stylish office space, without much examination of whether it was truly necessary. With that space came not only rent, expenses and a commute, but an expectation to show up, whether you had something to do or not. Ultimately, it was hard times and not a deliberate rejection of WfW that released us from that space.

Now, after nearly three years of working from home, I still have difficulty breaking free from the expectation of working what are essentially factory hours. If I’m not productive by 9 a.m., take too long of a lunch, or quit early, I feel pangs of guilt. But why? If you are your own boss, what does it matter what hours you work? If you can generate an income you’re happy with in 10 hours, why work 40? Imagine what you could do with the remaining time.

I think the key to breaking free is to begin thinking like a business owner, or as the phrase goes, working on the business, not in it. That can mean a number of things, depending on the nature of your business. In practical terms, it means getting others to do what you’ve been doing — bookkeeping, IT, marketing, sales, etc. — particularly if they can do it better, and maybe even if they can’t.

If you’re a consultant or creative, you’ll have a harder time breaking free than someone whose business creates products. You can be so successful in selling your time, that you have no hours left to develop other income streams, particularly passive income streams that, once set up, lessen your dependency on work for hire.

Moving from selling your time to selling more products or services is a shift that is advocated by Coudal Partners, 37 Signals and Segura, Inc., and dealt with at their periodic Seed Conference. To paraphrase Jim Coudal, if you’re someone who sells your time and creativity to your clients, you need to turn your powers on yourself with the goal of learning and expanding, but also possibly creating something that produces income and frees you from hourly wages.

Above all, the key to breaking free of WfW is viewing yourself not as an employee, whose contract with the business is to make himself available for 40 hours per week, but as the owner, who creates value and profit for the business in a manner that may have little correlation with time.