Elevate Your Business: Practical Strategies for Working ON Your Business
Having worked with 100s of entrepreneurs, I’ve witnessed firsthand the strategic benefits of making time to work ON your business versus only working IN your business. Understanding and implementing this difference can be transformative in elevating your business and achieving sustainable growth and success. So, let’s look at the difference and how you can add practical strategies that make working ON your business work for you!
What is “working IN” Your Business:
When you’re working IN your business, you’re primarily focused on day-to-day operations, tasks, and firefighting. You’re immersed in the daily grind of delivering products or services, managing employees, handling customer inquiries, and addressing immediate challenges. While essential for keeping the business running smoothly, working IN your business often leaves little time for strategic thinking, innovation, and long-term planning.
What is “Working ON” Your Business:
On the other hand, working ON your business involves stepping back from the daily operations to focus on strategic vision, planning, and growth initiatives. It’s about setting goals, developing strategies, refining processes, nurturing talent, and positioning the business for short and long-term success. Working ON your business empowers you to be proactive rather than reactive, guiding the direction of your business and driving meaningful progress.
Practical Tips for Work ON Your Business Effectively:
So now you know the difference between these approaches, let’s look at some ways for you to start working ON your business.
- Schedule Dedicated Time: Set aside specific blocks of time each week dedicated solely to working ON your business. Treat this time as sacred and non-negotiable, just like any other crucial business appointment. Make sure you also schedule it at a time you know won’t get pushed aside by other business or personal events.
- Clarify Your Vision: Take time to revisit and refine your business vision, mission, and long-term goals. Ensure that your actions align with your overarching vision, and regularly assess whether your business is on track to achieve its objectives. Check out our FREE 2024 Your Best Year Yet Webinar to help you get started on that process.
- Delegate and Empower: Recognize that you can’t do everything yourself. Delegate tasks that don’t require your direct involvement and empower your team to take on more responsibilities. Trusting your team allows you to focus on higher-level strategic initiatives. If you are a solopreneur, consider if outsourcing certain tasks could be a valuable investment. A practical way to do this is to film short loom videos and include them in your google drive or project management tool so the team has training and guidance at their fingertips. Our podcast with Shea Stanley shares how she leverages tools to build the right team culture in her business.
- Invest in Professional Development: Continuously invest in your own growth and development as a leader. Attend workshops, seminars, and conferences relevant to your industry. Surround yourself with mentors and advisors who can offer guidance and support. A quick way to do this is to sign up to women entrepreneur networks in your location and join their events and training.
- Systemize and Streamline Processes: Identify inefficiencies in your business operations and work on streamlining processes to improve productivity and effectiveness. Implement systems and tools that automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for strategic activities. A good example is batching and scheduling certain tasks, e.g social media, emails, invoices, and using productivity platforms such as Asana or Miro to stay on track of your projects. Check out our Business Health Check to see which areas require the most love in your company.
- Build a Strong Network: Cultivate relationships with other entrepreneurs, industry experts, and mentors who can provide valuable insights and perspectives. Networking opens doors to collaboration opportunities, strategic partnerships, and potential investors. But make sure you are clear about what you want from these relationships and conversations as your time is valuable!
- Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Regularly track and analyze key metrics and performance indicators to gauge the health and progress of your business. Use data-driven insights to make informed decisions and adjust your strategies as needed. A quick way is to create simple dashboards of important metrics in tools such as google analytics or CRM tools that you can easily and regularly refer to.
By incorporating these practical tips into your entrepreneurial journey, you can effectively transition from working IN your business to working ON it – at least part of the time! Embracing this shift enables greater clarity, focus, and control, ultimately leading to sustainable growth and success in the long run.
And speaking about business success, have you heard about our NCR Business Accelerator? This program has everything you need to elevate your business, become money smart and commercially confident. You can sign up to be the first to hear when our next NCR Business Accelerator launches.
