If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably heard that you need to “work on your business—not just in it.”
When you hear this phrase for the first time it’s confusing—especially if you’ve bootstrapped your company by yourself, played every role from marketing to business development to HR generalist, and clocked some supremely long hours to get where you are now. By working in the business, aren’t you by default working on the business?
Not exactly. It’s a big reason why The Entrepreneurial Myth continues to persist—the one that says regardless of how much you may identify with being one, it’s a myth that most businesses are started by entrepreneurs. In fact, most businesses are started not by people who go into the process with a specific vision, but by people who are damn good at what they do and know they can build a successful business around their own effort and ability to produce results.
While this makes sense—of course you’d build a business based on something you do exceedingly well—it also means it can be harder to grow and get to the Holy Grail: running a business that doesn’t depend on you to, well…run everything. And often, that means business owners get sucked into the day-to-day of your company. You’re unable to remove yourself from the hands-on work, and therefore, unable to see the bigger picture—or even have the time to plan a different way forward.
I’ve experienced this first-hand. When I didn’t give myself the time and brain space to set goals and think about my future, my business didn’t grow as much as I knew it could. With that said, here are a few insights I’ve learned that helped me develop a more visionary approach to my company’s success and start working “on” Hoege Consulting & Coaching:
Treat yourself like a client
This is the oldest advice in the book, but I’m repeating it for a reason: business owners rarely heed it. And, there’s no judgment around that. Most of the time, we’re so focused on making sure we deliver the services and products we’ve promised to our customers and clients (or, worrying about where the next customer or client is coming from) that we don’t give ourselves the bandwidth to think about what will affect our organization in the future: market conditions, our financial goals, and our long-term vision.
The way to start thinking about the bigger things? Put your own business on your work calendar. If it scares you to take that much time away from delivering for your clients, start small: put a few hours on your calendar each week to work through very specific tasks. Perhaps it’s finally going through and auditing your website, so you can finally get a move on hiring that web consultant to make the changes you’ve been needing for the past year. Or, it could be something as simple as reserving two hours to brainstorm a new service offering.
You can always work up to devoting more time to these efforts, but even just a few hours a week can work wonders for helping you feel like you’re moving forward.
Also, consider not working when you need to think through certain business tasks. Some of my most brilliant ideas have come during a long walk, a day at the spa, or on vacation.
Develop—and document—your systems and processes
It’s usually the most uninteresting parts of our business that make the biggest impact. Here, I’m talking specifically about your systems and processes.
Being “in” your business often means you’re the person that knows more about these pieces than anyone. Most likely, you created them from scratch. Your accounting platform, the tools you use for contracts and agreements, and your project management platform—they’re set up just the way you like it.
However, this doesn’t mean these parts can’t be passed on or taught to someone else. The key here is to focus on building a repeatable system that doesn't necessarily require manpower to work on them—and then create documented standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that anyone you bring into the company in the future can get up and running quickly.
So, while it might be frustrating right now to take an hour to document a process you’ve repeated hundreds of times, or templating your contracts, it will pay dividends in the long run for when you hire an assistant or another employee. Think about it this way: If you bill at $250+ per hour, and you’re doing work that can be done by someone that charges $40/hour, don’t you want to be doing work that’s ultimately in your Zone of Genius?
Build in the time to teach and outsource
As you read this, I can hear you laughing to yourself. “If I’m already short on time,” you might be thinking, “how am I going to build in more time to teach someone else what I’m already doing?”
This is where business owners and small business CEOs get off-course. They take the time to document their SOPs, but when they try to impart the knowledge to someone else, it doesn’t go how they planned. The person they’re teaching doesn’t get it right away, or needs a bit more guidance, so they give up. “It’s easier to just do it myself”—have you ever uttered those words?
Here’s where a perspective shift might be useful. Sure, it might be easier to do it yourself—but consider how much time that will take you at a macro level. Now, think about building in a few hours of teaching into your schedule. Which scenario gives you more time in the long run?
I understand: it’s tough to find the time. Believe me, “year-from-now” you will thank you.
Work yourself out of roles one at a time
Many of us hang on to our “Chief Everything Officer” roles because we think we should be doing all the things. We look around at other business owners and say, “They seem to be doing this without any help—so why is it so tough for me?” You know what comes next: we start to see asking for help as a moral failing, so we don’t do it. That’s a mentality that’s designed to keep us down in the minutiae of the business.
If you’re able to do so financially, now’s the time to cash in on that time spent teaching others about your systems and processes. Start small by trying to work yourself out of one of the “jobs'' you have in the business. That might look like hiring a virtual assistant or bookkeeper to help you set meetings or handle your invoicing. Or, if your company sells a product, it might be good to outsource customer service tasks to an outside agency or vendor.
Again, this might be scary at first. A big part of that is scarcity mindset—that pervasive feeling we have of not having enough. You might feel like if you pay someone to help you, there’s not enough profit for you at the end of the day. However, just because you can do something doesn’t mean it’s the best use of your time—so when that feeling hits, ask yourself: “Is what I’m doing right now truly helping me grow the business?” If the answer is no, it’s time to move those pieces off your plate.
Practice makes (sort of) perfect
I speak from personal experience—I know how hard it is to let go of the reins. That said, I also know how much more growth and success is waiting for you on the other side of the daily tasks that might be occupying most of your time. The only way to get started on a different path forward is to begin, and keep finding opportunities to remove work from your plate.
If you do that, you’ll have time for the deep work that’s going to really move the needle.
Looking for a more personalized dose of advice? I’ve made it my mission to help organizations adapt and improve their business processes based on changing goals, needs, and strategies. Book a call with me to learn more.
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