How to work on my business and not in my business
Why You Need to Work On the Business, Not In the Business
In his classic business book, The EMyth Revisited, Michael Gerber coined the term, “Work on It, Not Just in It.” What does this even mean??
In the beginning, a small business owner is a Technician. Businesses are started at such a level that we are the ones physically producing the product, making the sale, taking the payments, and solving all the issues. We don’t have time to think about strategy and vision–we’re too busy with the day to day tasks.
The next level we reach, Gerber teaches, is the Manager. It’s at this stage that we feel we can start to delegate tasks and share the load. We can teach people how to do some of the technical skills, begin to develop processes, and maybe have a minute to breathe. Here, we’re still working on the day to day operations for a majority of the time, but we can occasionally get our heads above water long enough to get a glimpse of the big picture.
The ultimate goal is to become the Leader of the business. It’s from this position that you can spend the majority of your time working on the business–developing vision and business strategy, creating a plan for long term growth, and watching your dream of running a business really come to life!
This, my friends, is the key. Working on the business vs working in the business is the way to progress from constantly spinning your wheels in the day to day tasks to building a business that supports your goals for life.
What Working ON Your Business Looks Like
Working ON your business can look slightly different as you progress through each stage of business. I’m going to provide you with one example from each stage to get you started.
TECHNICIAN. DEVELOP THE SYSTEMS
Develop your processes and systems so you can teach someone else how to do the technical work of your business.
Start by recording each step of your essential processes, then begin to teach them to others. Evaluate the places where you need to refine the process as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the people taking them over.
MANAGER. DEVELOP THE PEOPLE
As you improve in your hiring process and your business becomes more successful, leaders will begin to emerge. Your job becomes guiding and pouring into your leadership team. How can you train them in the values of your business and how to make decisions that honor those values? This is also a good time to develop an accountability structure.
LEADER. DEVELOP THE VISION
What are the possibilities for the future? What are the new innovations? What connections can be made? This is your time to dream big, expand, and make a greater impact than you ever imagined.
What You Need to Work On Your Business
As you delegate and others take on these aspects of your business, it’s going to “slow you down” in the short-term, but it will save you time for the remainder of your years in business and is really the only way to advance through the stages of business growth.
There are three important things you’ll need to stay on course–
Delegation–the faster you can get something off your plate, the better!
Discipline–it’s hard work to pour into people over and over, you’ll need the discipline to try again, using what you learned from the previous attempt
WHY–you’ll want to keep your WHY for owning your business in your back pocket for close reference. It’ll keep you motivated and re-focused when business gets hard.
Who Can Work IN the Business
The number one thing you want to hire for when you get started is character and teachability. The skills are teachable, quality character is the real gem.
Look for doers and hourly/salaried people that you hire/lead to do the technical and managerial work as you do the leadership work.
Create a Strategy to Work ON Your Business
Put the time in your schedule. Make an appointment with yourself for these ON the business tasks, and then have the discipline to follow through.
Train people to work IN the business. Then evaluate their progress and refine your systems.
Create a plan for growth and take the baby steps. Don’t expect giant moves in a short amount of time, but be ready for monumental change over the course of months or years.
Celebrate your success. Find the wins along the way. Name them! Make a list! Share them with your growing team!
Need help working on or working in your business? Are you ready to reach more of your business goals? Want harmony with your faith, family, and career?
Schedule a Coaching Chat with one of our coaches today! We’d love to help you in this season of growth.