Your Business Could Fail Without These Key Strategies: Start Working on it Today

Owning a business often feels like you’ve traded flexibility for more work. One major reason is that we become our business’s primary ‘technician’, losing sight of the bigger picture.

Whether you have an accounting firm, delivery service, or counseling practice, if you’re spending all your time doing accounting, making deliveries, or counseling, your business is probably suffering.

Spend 20-30% of Your Time Working On Your Business

We need to spend at least 20%-30% of our time working “on” our business, not “in” it.

Why? If we’re a small business, what could take so long?

The biggest problem occurs when you get behind on business management. Here are a few scenarios that may sound familiar:

• First, you may think: “I only write a couple of checks per week. I figured I could put in an accounting/bookkeeping process later.” But before you know it, it’s the end of the year, and you can’t pull the information together for your taxes or renew your credit line.

With the ease of online resources like Quickbooks or Fresh Books, you can easily have accurate financial statements.

• Next, consider this: “I was working so much that I didn’t have time—or the need—for marketing. But when everything started slowing down, and I finally caught my breath, my cash flow dried up. Now, I can’t afford to spend money on marketing when I need it the most.”

In the past, everyone needed a business card. Today, a small business must have a website and some consistent social media presence. Start small, but make sure that your website matches the business you want to become and get the word out on social media. Remember, even if you only post twice a month, make sure that you are consistent. Start with the frequency you know you can maintain.

• Then, there’s the hiring challenge: “I had to hire Mr. Z. The last guy quit without notice, and I knew in my gut that Mr. Z wasn’t the right person. But I had a gap to fill, and if I didn’t hire him, I’d be working even more hours.”

Instead of hiring the first person who comes along or asking your neighbor’s niece, try posting a job on platforms like Indeed. You can find qualified candidates within a budget, and get the skills and culture fit you really need.

• Finally, you may think: “My new employee starts Monday, and I haven’t even stopped long enough to figure out what to delegate. I wish we had finished those training manuals. Half my day will be spent just getting this new person up to speed.”

You may have a few employees, but go ahead and split up the training. At least have a plan for the new employee to shadow other team members. Ensure they take notes as they go, which can be the start of the new procedures.

If any of these, or a variation of these, sounds like you, they are issues that can be prevented by working “on” your business. These suggestions are only a couple of solutions. There is more than one way to skin a cat, though.

As a small business owner, making it a routine to spend 20-30% of your time working on your business now will save you time and money later and may actually save your business!

Someone Else May Run Your Business After You Fail

I have a family member who ran his own business for several years. Sales were great, and his business was building a brand name.

He didn’t have time to work on his business. After a few years of hard work and sweat, he had to turn his business over to someone else because he didn’t pay the correct taxes or maintain proper accounting records.

When the time came to pay the back taxes, he didn’t have the money. The bank wouldn’t lend it to him because he couldn’t present financial statements, and his credit was shot.

He had to move on, but 20 years later, the person he turned the business over to is still running it!

How would your infrastructure hold up if you quickly doubled sales? Could you handle the business with the same quality and responsiveness you had envisioned when you started?

What Exactly is Working On Your Business

As you may have gleaned above, working on your business is managing the sustainability and growth of the company, not just doing the work that produces the product or is the service of your business.

Things to consider as you plan to work on your business:

• Do you have an established, written, 10-year vision for your business? Write down the size you want your company to be, the revenues, the geography, and even the services you will offer ten years later.
• Have you established the core values and culture of your company? What attributes do you most value in your employees, and what do your customers praise you for?
• Do you have a tangible point of difference in your business compared to the competition? Think about what customers tell you. Ask them why they choose your business
• Do you have policies and processes in place so new people can acclimate quickly to how you do things? Make sure you get the next person you train to document as they go along. Documenting the procedure as you go will be a great start.
• Have you prioritized understanding the kind of person you need to hire for your team and the skills needed in the position you are hiring? Do you take time to wait for that ideal team member, or are you constantly just filling holes with mediocrity? I know it isn’t fun, but try to create the best job description before beginning the hiring process.
• Do you have strategic marketing and sales plans in place and being executed to purposefully grow your business? If you can’t afford an agency, check out Upwork. It is an online resource for freelancers. They have many freelance marketing people in that community.
• Do you have an exit plan? When you decide to step back or even retire, is someone in the company being groomed for succession? Can you sell your business? This one is more difficult, especially if you just started your business. But don’t wait til you are ready to retire to start thinking about how you will exit your business.

These are all examples of working on your business rather than in your business. Start now and develop a three-month plan to incorporate time into your schedule to work on your business.

Resources to Work On Your Business

A couple of excellent resources to help you are:

• Traction by Gino Wickman
• The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

These books are foundational in business, and all have integral parts that will help you work on your business.

Put The Time In Now

By investing time now in these foundational aspects of your business, you’ll avoid future pitfalls and set yourself up for sustainable growth. Remember, it’s the long-term planning that makes all the difference.