Learning to Trade Less Time for Money

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about having a better mindset surrounding money is that you must learn how to trade less time for money. This holds true for anyone that aspires to gain financial freedom to do the things they love or is currently an entrepreneur looking to make more money with the time they have.

Since we all have the same number of hours each day to work, it’s no wonder the richest people in the world have learned new ways to trade less time for money. When you first start your entrepreneurial path you will be trading lots of hours for money. This means providing a service, product, or something else that requires your time in exchange for providing your customers or clients with the item or service.

I’ve been working from home since 2006, and I shared a bit about how I developed a 4-day work week in 2021. This new work week doesn’t mean I make less money, in fact, I’ve been able to increase gross revenue (that’s income before expenses) by about $400. Feel free to read ‘My 4 Day Work Week Explained‘ to learn how I started traded less time for money.

For the last 15 years or so, I’ve been trading a lot of hours for money. I was working 7 days a week and more hours than I care to even attempt to track. I’m certain that I spent more time working than enjoying life for most of my years being an entrepreneur. I used to think that it was because I had been a single mom most of that time, but that wasn’t the only reason.

I hadn’t yet learned the full concept of trading less time for money. Once I learned this concept, something clicked and I started aiming to make more money with fewer work hours ever since.

As a single mom, this concept would have been implemented a bit differently, of course, but the concept holds true whether you’re in a relationship or single. You must take an inventory of what you’re doing daily to make money with your business and find new ways to automate the process or remove yourself completely from the steps of earning money with the product or service.

My First Step Was to Automate Some Services

For someone like me who makes a majority of her income off her ghostwriting services, I learned that having an instant download content shop with PLR blog posts, exclusive articles, and various Canva templates and images with quotes for social media marketing was the first step towards automating my process. Now I can earn a semi-passive income from my shop with minimal time involved.

This content shop is still trading time for money, however, I’m developing products for the shop in my free time. This means I have more time to enjoy family moments and fun homeschool sessions with my sons without stress.

Track Your Daily Tasks

The first step in learning how to trade less time for money is to track your daily tasks. Make a list of what you’re doing every day as part of your income-earning tasks for a week. Review each of these tasks to see if there’s any way to automate the process or outsource the task.

Yes, even building a team to outsource some tasks is considered reducing your time involved in working to make money. Some automation options include using Tailwind Create for Pinterest marketing or other scheduling tools to help offset the time involved in daily social media posting tasks.

You’ll know best which tasks you can outsource or minimize for less time involved in the process. My content shop was the best decision I’ve ever made. While I still trade some time for money, it’s proven to reduce my weekly work hours significantly so that I only work 3-4 days per week for clients alone. (it’s close to just 3 days as of last week)

Create New Services or Products

Another part of the process to trade less time for money is to create new services or products that sell without you needing to get involved. These are options like an Etsy shop for printables, Shopify Store for merchandise, or other online shops that only require the original set up and minimal maintenance.

I prefer using WooCommerce via WordPress because I like to invest as little money as possible. Both Etsy and Shopify require fees that I’m simply not ready to pay for the services and products I currently offer. Woocommerce is something I’ve set up multiple times so it’s quick and easy for me to create and get running to make a semi-passive income.

Some of my older blogging friends have started creating printables that they sell over and over to multiple people. That’s a one-time creation for multiple revenue options. Other people have a shop where they create custom products, however, that’s still trading time for money. Some people started reselling PLR content and products they purchased on PLRProducts.com.

Learn From Others

I have spent countless hours listening to YouTube videos about money mindset patterns and other habits of the wealthiest people in the world. Through this, I have created a list of mentors who I listen to and read books as often as possible. This helps me keep my mindset going in the right direction for future success.

You see, I used to say “I don’t want to be rich” and while I don’t technically want to make ‘X’ amount of money, I do want the financial freedom to do what I want when I want. I want the financial freedom to spend time with my family if they say “hey mama will you come to look at this or do this with me”. I want to say yes to the memory-making moments that I had planned on having more of when I first set forth into this entrepreneurial path.

This means I must continue to learn from others who walked this path before me.

I cannot begin to express how important it is to recognize that you don’t know how to do everything. You will need to have help and guidance during the path to trade less time for money.

Whether you opt to automate tasks, hiring a team, develop passive-income products, or invest in stocks; I’m confident that if you take the time to make this switch a priority, that you’ll find a way to make it happen!

In conclusion, the best way to make more money with fewer work hours is to work smarter not harder. You can remain true to your ethics, morals, and standards when it comes to being an entrepreneur while trading fewer hours for money.

My only warning is that you do indeed stay true to your morals and values when you adjust to working fewer hours.

I’m a huge advocate for customer service so while I may work fewer hours I am still there when a customer needs me to assist or fix something. I’ll forever be a customer service type person who feels customer service is the biggest selling point for any entrepreneur or business venture.

How can I work less hours and earn more money?

Act as if you're already making more money. No this doesn't mean spend more money. It simply means get more organized with your goals and actionable steps to work less hours and earn more money.

Why working less hours is better?

Working less hours is better because it allows you to have more free time to do things you enjoy such as spending quality time with family or working on some passion projects like writing your next novel.

How can I make 1000 a week?

The best way to make 1000 a week is to set this as a goal, put the visual reminder on your desk so that your mind is constantly focused on making 1000 a week. As entrepreneurs how they make money and use their tips to create a daily list of tasks that you can do for work to make 1000 a week.