About 4 years ago, I gave my staff some news.

I told them that they would no longer have to work on Fridays.

But this was not a money-saving attempt to cut salary costs.

In fact, they’d get exactly the same wage.

As long as they worked hard on four days of the week and we hit our targets they could do what they liked with their Fridays.

My husband and I, too, would also take every Friday off, so that we could pursue our hobbies and interests, and take more long weekend breaks away.

But it wasn’t just about giving ourselves more free time.

It was the beginning of a serious business experiment, based on early reports I’d read about the benefits of the 4-day week.

If you’re a long-term reader, you might remember some of my emails about this.

I was keen to show you just what’s possible when you run your own business or work for yourself.

Because starting your own online course can help your life in for a number of reasons…

Money is one of them, yes, but it’s also about having the flexibility to decide on how you work and when.

In a moment, I’ll tell you a bit more about what has happened because of my decision.

But first, let me share with you the recently published results of new study into the 4-day week now that more and more companies are testing it.

How doing less can increase your income

The research involved 61 British companies who reduced their employees’ working hours by 20% for a six-month period starting in June 2022.

In all cases, the employees’ salaries remained the same.

Throughout the trial, staff members were regularly surveyed, and reported some remarkable results.

A massive 71% of participants reported lower levels of burnout than before, while 39% said they were less stressed.

And despite losing a whole day each week, the majority of company owners found that they still met their productivity targets – and in some cases, exceeded them.

In fact, there was an average 1.4% increase in revenue.

So as a result of a four-day week, the staff gained more time for themselves and their families without sacrificing their income.

Meanwhile, their employers made more money.

That’s win-win for sure!

As someone who has been advocating for this concept for some time now, I was thrilled to see confirmation of what I’ve experienced with my own trial.

After four years, I have also found that productivity has increased, despite the team downing tools every Friday.

What’s more, Nick and I have been able to get more done outside of our work commitments – reading and studying, doing more walking and taking more short holidays to fascinating parts of the country.

And something I’ve also set in stone is that I also often pick up my teenage daughter from school on a Friday and we go and do something special together.  It’s become my favourite part of the week and we love planning what we are going to do together on a Friday afternoon!

It’s definitely helped our life-work balance.

For me, it has been particularly fruitful.

I’m an avid learner, and I love to take courses that expand my knowledge about marketing, publishing and running a business.

So that extra day each week has also allowed me to do this without feeling guilty or stressed, or being interrupted by emails and calls.

And this is something you might find if you create your own course-based business.

You can set your own schedule and choose your own hours.

Which means you can give yourself a four-day week, or even a three day week, without sacrificing any income.

Because what’s great about courses is that they run largely on autopilot, making sales online every day of the week, no matter if you’re working or not.

However, I’ll be honest with you…

The downside of running your own business

Running any kind of business does involve some responsibility.

Ultimately, the buck stops with you and it’s very hard to ‘turn off’.

So there are many times where I end up working on a Friday at least for a few hours.

For example, if there’s a tech mishap with a website or email broadcasting system…

Or if I’m launching a new product I might need to be available to potential customers, or I might need to check that all the systems are running smoothly.

So, yes, you may occasionally find yourself having to put in some extra hours now and then if something doesn’t go quite to plan.

However on balance it still has felt like I really can take a step back from the ‘day to day’ stuff that sucks you in…

For me, Friday’s my ‘knowledge’ day where I try to find out something new to help me run my business better, whether that’s reading a book, catching up on articles, or watching some training videos.

For you it could mean cooking a lavish meal, writing a novel, spending time with your partner, going out for a long country walk, or binge-watching a Netflix series while everyone else is out of the house!  Or maybe a mix of all of those things.

When you run your own enterprise, it really is up to you and I would highly recommend you try and implement something similar – you may be pleasantly suprirsed by the results.

And if you are thinking of creating your own online course I can help you with that.  Just message me at [email protected] to find out how.