We often hear that for our business to work we need to be working ON it rather than IN it. But what does that mean exactly?
Well, working IN your business is:
- Taking on administrative tasks
- Team management
- Handling a crisis
While working ON your business is:
- Setting up goals and planning
- Creating value, new products/services
- Establishing new relationships and network opportunities
Now let’s talk about how that applies to you as a business owner and how to find a balance between the two.
Working in your business
In the beginning, when you first decide to start a business, you will probably need to work in your business. A lot of us start as solo entrepreneurs and that means we wear all the hats. You are your own customer care, your content writer, social media manager, bookkeeper, manager and so on.
But as your business grows, and you start taking in more clients you soon become overwhelmed by the tasks of your business. It is a lot! And the problem is your time is limited. So you start finding yourself with a giant to-do list that you can never get to the bottom of, and you have to choose between what gets done and what gets rolled over to tomorrow (forever).
Quite often you find yourself working for your clients but letting your business slip. When this happens, you are probably doing the work that can be outsourced. The thing is, there are tasks in your business that only you can do, and those are the tasks that are really important to grow your business. When you are too busy focussing on the tasks needed to keep the company up and running, you never get to work on what is needed for it to grow.
Working on your business
When you find time to work within your strengths, do the things you envisioned, create value, you will start to see your business pivot. A business is a work in progress; think about a tree, if you just plant a seed in a pot, water it and leave it there it will grow to a certain size but eventually, it stops growing and may even end up dying, but if you fertilize the soil, change it into a larger vessel and then into the ground, it will grow and flourish.
For your business to grow and become what you imagined when you started, you can’t just plant the seed and keep working in it as it is, just “watering it”. You need to upgrade your knowledge, plan your next steps, have new ideas, implement new products. Much like preparing the soil and changing into larger vessels.
Creating new relationships and networking opportunities to get your business out there is a great way to reach more people, create new partnerships and generate leads. The more people you build relationships with, the more ways you can grow. Relying on two or three clients or lead sources is dangerous. If one drops off you will be desperately trying to replace them. This is a common problem that occurs when you haven’t been putting any focus on creating these relationships and networks (even if you can’t take any new clients on right now) you will be left in a really bad position. Creating connections and relationships takes time.
Creating new offers and having more time to spend with your clients is a vital component of your business’s success. Businesses are meant to serve clients. Without clients there is no business, so creating products and helping people fulfil their needs is at the center of what makes a business succeed. If you can’t find the time to create new services and products, and to spend time with your clients you can be sure someone else will. Selling to people who are already your clients is infinitely easier than landing new customers, but in order for you to do that, you need to launch new things, otherwise, they will go look elsewhere.
What is the right way to run a business?
The only rule here is that every business needs work to be done in and on the business. You can’t work on a business that isn’t functional, and you can’t have a functional business if no one is working in it. Those two points are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Going back to the plant metaphor, it doesn’t matter how much your fertilize the soil, if you don’t water it the plant will die anyway, and on the other hand, if all you do is water it excessively the plant will rot and die.
Know your expertise, stay focused on working on what you are specifically talented at and outsource the rest. You started this business to do something you love and believe in, and that is what you should be doing. If you can create and document the processes that keep your business running you can outsource those tasks, and you can focus on what you should be doing.
On the other hand, it is okay if your genius zone is actually working in your business. If your gift is working in the business then figure out how you can hire or partner with someone to work on your business.
What if I am not good at working on my business?
This may not be in your circle of brilliance, and that’s okay too. As I said those are two parts of a whole and both are equally important. You might be a genius at designing but not that great at selling designs, you can be an awesome composer but really bad at promoting.
The same way you outsource tasks that are designed for working in your business you can hire a team member or a mentor to help you work on your business. There are tons of courses, business coaches and books that can help you improve your skills so you can work on your business. You can also choose to hire a business manager or collaborate with a partner to do it for you while you keep working on what you love.
What should I focus on to grow my business?
Developing a plan will allow you to quickly filter out the opportunities that aren’t right for your business. If you have a clear idea of where your business is headed and the steps you need to take to get there, it will be easier to see when you find a perfect fit and when something is way off track.
Use your plan to see where there are inefficiencies in your business. Finding the problem is the first step to fixing it. If you can recognize what needs to be optimized in your business you can start looking for solutions like automation and outsourcing or even completely cutting out processes that aren’t working out how they were supposed to.
Check-in with your plan multiple times each year to keep your business on track. Plans change, that is inevitable but doesn’t need to be a problem. If you have a flexible plan and you adjust as you go, you have room to pivot and take on opportunities.
It’s never too late to plan. If you haven’t planned out your business yet this year, you can start from where you are and develop a plan for the remainder of the year. Sometimes you plan out your year and things go sideways. It is always okay to “zoom-out” and reevaluate where you are now, and where you want to go. The quicker you get up, dust yourself off and make a new plan the more successful you will be in the long run.
There is an art to planning your business year, and if you haven’t found the right way for you yet, you might want to check out the Rockstar Mastermind. Not only do we work on planning, but I also help you stay accountable to the plans you create, and help you pivot when you need to.
If you want more information about the Rockstar Mastermind, you can check it out here.
