Working ON Your Business vs IN Your Business

Hey, I get it, you’re busy—often really busy as a Partner in an accounting firm. But what are you actually doing? And what is the best use of a Partner's time?

Is it low(ish) level work that others could do or high end work that only you can do?

When it comes to Partner time, the objective for a Partner is “the only work that you do is the work that only you can do”

As Michael Gerber of E-myth fame put it – and it’s rock solid…. You need to be working ON your business not IN your business.

Let’s define it…

• Working IN your business involves client work, team management, and administration. It's necessary, but it can trap you in a cycle of busyness without growth.
• Working ON your business, however, creates leverage. This includes sales, marketing, product development, and leadership. The more you focus on these activities, the more successful, profitable, and enjoyable your business will be.

With the firms we coach we take them through 3 levels of progress:

• Level 1 - Practice Owner (this is where you typically engage us) - Grinding it out working too much IN it. The money is OK but the time not so much
• Level 2 - Business Owner (we get you here very quickly) - Working more ON it than IN it. The money is much better and so is the time
• Level 3 - Investor (not all want to get to this level - but all can) - You’re an Owner but not an Operator - you own an Accounting business that works completely with out you and you create generational wealth - why would you sell it?

As you go through the levels the Partner activity changes. But it starts with what we call the 30/60/10 rule. This is what Partners in Business Owner level should be doing immediately.?

1. High-End Client Work: No more than 30% of your time to client tasks that cannot be delegated.
2. Sales and Marketing: Spend about 60% or more of your time on sales activities, including existing and prospective client engagements, speaking, and writing.
3. Leadership: Allocate around 10% of your time to driving team and firm performance.

You need great people around you to do this. As the legendary Dan Sullivan once said “if you can write a check to solve the problem – you don’t have a problem.” Invest in the right people and resources to free up your time.

You need great systems and technology. There are fantastic tools available that can make your business more efficient. You’ve just got to implement them.

I bang on about this all the time – be brutal about your time. Ruthlessly prioritize your tasks that align with your business goals and delegate the rest.

Until you bite the bullet and hire the right people or outsource tasks, you will always be busy. Start writing some checks and focus on working ON your business, not IN it.

Final thought …."What you do with your chargeable time will create income today. What you do with your non-chargeable time should create wealth for the future."

PS. Whenever you're ready...here are 3 ways we can help you improve your Accounting firm.

1. Download books, benchmark reports and other tools to help you – Download here.

2. Learn from other firms who have already ‘done it’... Click here to view.?

3. Apply to be coached by us in our Mastermind program. For firms $1M - $10M in size who want to work significantly less and earn significantly more. We guarantee the results! If you'd like to explore if this will work for you simply – Apply here.