Last night I saw something that gave me a slight jolt. Actually, it felt more like someone hit me over the head. A woman posted on a forum how ecstatic she was about being “booked solid!”

If you’re a traditional business owner, these words are probably like music to your ear. You may be associating these words with getting paid, making more money that week, or being productive, busy, and successful.

I associate these words with completely different emotions: tired, stuck in my office, chained to my desk, deadlines, no time for kids, movies, music, family, or taking a walk in the middle of the day.

There’s nothing wrong with being booked solid if you’re doing it because you choose to. But I dare you to show me a single entrepreneur who’s “booked solid” by choice! More likely out of financial necessity. Or, because it makes him or her feel safe, secure, and successful.

What does a clear calendar mean to you? Many people say, “It usually means that I am not making any money.”

To me it means I’ll have time to develop new income streams.

I feel successful when my calendar is clear. Sounds strange? That is because I rely on my automated income streams instead of “active” or client income. I work with clients because I choose to, not because I have to. I love having plenty of free time on my schedule, because it turns me into an unstoppable “creative machine!”

The last thing you want is to be booked solid! It’s a misguided notion and it drives me crazy when entrepreneurs focus their entire lives on getting there. When you’re booked solid, what’s next?

Being booked solid can completely consume your life. If any of these are true for you, then you’ve already experienced the negative “side effects” of being booked solid:

• You never say no to a new client, no matter how much you might regret it later
• You change your vacation plans when there’s a possibility of making money
• You feel guilty when you’re not working, because you’re not making money at that time
• You cancel your family time to accommodate a client (they’re paying you for every hour)
• You can’t stop working at the end of the day
• You keep checking your e-mail and phone message on your vacation to make sure you don’t miss a money-making opportunity
• You feel tired and stressed out at least 75% of the time.

Does this sound like you? Then I strongly suggest it’s time for you to change your business model. Give yourself the peace of mind you need to relax and be much more strategic about your opportunities. It will also allow you to move from “I am busy therefore I am successful” to “I am making money even when I am not busy, therefore I am free.”

Remember: if you don’t deliberately change the way you operate, your business will suck you in further and deeper, until the only way out will be to get out.

If booking yourself solid is not the way to build a business full of personal freedom, then what is? Stop trading hours for dollars, and start trading value for dollars.

Think about it. If you spend an hour with a client, that hour is gone and you can’t do anything to get it back…So what if you got paid $500 for it?

That’s the only reward you’ll ever see for that hour. Your ROTI – Return On Your Time Investment – becomes limited to the $500 you got paid.

On the other hand, if you spend that hour writing an article, there are unlimited possibilities for how you can be rewarded for your time. You can:

• Submit it to hundreds of publishers of targeted publications
• Include it in your book
• Create a seminar around it
• Expand it into a workbook
• Include it in your own newsletter
• Create a video based on it……

and so much more, which over the next 3-12 months may turn into thousands of dollars or more!

Hourly mentality kills your personal freedom and creates a job you own.

Start thinking about how to sell “value” -not “time.”