One of the biggest mistakes business leaders, entrepreneurs and business managers do, and they do this all over the world, every single day, and in almost every industry, and that is, they work in the business and not on the business. Today, I really want to talk to you about the difference between working in your business and working on your business.
As I said, this is a major problem for nearly all business leaders. It doesn’t matter, even if you are franchise business owners, freelancers or high-powered executives, any business leader struggles with this initially until they figure out how to overcome this challenge of working in their business instead of working on their business.
Let’s first take a look at: What is the difference between working in your business and working on your business?
Working in your business is where you really get into the trenches. You are figuring out on a day-to-day basis all the problems. You’re putting out fires together with your staff. You really take a hands-on approach to everything that’s happening in your business. Now, the trouble with that is it consumes time, and time is one of the most valuable assets especially for business leaders, entrepreneurs and senior managers. You need to be effectively using your time on activities that require your skill set, your direction and your expertise. So, that’s one of the main things.
The difference then is working on your business, where you take a step back, and you focus on these high-level activities, the big needle movers that drive the business, not only to 1X, 2X, but to 10X your business. That is what is called working on your business.
And, it’s hard, especially when the business is growing and establishing itself or it might be moving into a new industry or a new category of business that you have got to focus on, and you try and do those daily activities of really getting into dealing with customers, working on the products and delivering on the service. So, here are a few strategies that I’m going to share with you that you can use to help you work on your business and stop working in or work less in the business.
The first thing is, I want you to go out and grab a copy of the book “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber. In there, he’ll talk to you about the different types of roles people have. You’ve got the technician. You’ve got the entrepreneur. The technician, obviously, is what we’re talking about working in the business, and the entrepreneur is working on the business.
So, go out and grab a copy of that book and make sure that you read it.
The second few things that I want you to focus on is working through a process of elimination, delegation and automation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in that order. I would first go and look at—especially if you’ve got a team—What can you delegate out?
Your time is precious and important, and as I mentioned, it’s got to be focused on working on high-level activities. Who in your team can you rely on to pass on some of those daily activities so that your time is better spent? Delegate that out.
The following thing, then, is to create systems, processes and automation.
What can you automate? Today, there are so many systems, tools, technology and software out there that you could use to systemise, create processes, and then, automate a lot of the activities that you do. What can you automate?
And then, very lastly—Is this task really that important for you or even one of your staff members to do? Can it be completely eliminated?
Is it one of those redundant activities that you don’t have to focus on any longer and you just do it just because of what you’ve always done before?
Look at eliminating that process there.
There are a couple of key strategies that you can look at. And, what I want you to do there is basically focus on changing that mindset of: What do I need to be constantly working in the business doing? vs. What do I need to be working on the business that’s going to make dramatic changes or dramatic effects to the outcome of what I want to achieve? And, go forward from there.
As I mentioned, it is a process, especially when you’re so ingrained and
part of your role is to get in, roll up the sleeves and do the work. But, as a business leader, is that really an effective use of your time? You need to be focused on working on the business rather than in the business.
I’d also like to share with you one other strategy that you could use as a business leader, entrepreneur or manager to get you working on the business instead of working in the business. And, that is the EOS system.
What is EOS?
EOS stands for Entrepreneurial Operating System. EOS is a set of simple, practical, real-world concepts and tools that you can use in your business to achieve accountability, improve the cohesion between your leadership team and everyone else in your organisation, and also help you achieve greater growth and higher profits. EOS is a simple model, and it works in almost any industry with any type of business.
If you’d like to know more about EOS and how we can help you achieve the outcomes that you want to achieve, and that could be transforming your business into an unstoppable one, then get in touch with myself or my team, and we will be happy to schedule a time with you.
