(PR.co.nz) How do you grow a muscle in your body?
You exercise it consistently, working it and stretching it – that’s what causes the growth and you never see an immediate impact – the muscle grows in time.
The intensity and frequency of your workout will determine how quickly you see results from your efforts. It’s the same with your business, if your choosing to grow it, then you need to work on it and work on the right things.
Unfortunately, allocating the time to ‘work on the business’ is a major challenge faced by most small to medium sized enterprise owners.
After logging a 50-60hr week working ‘in the’ business, providing your services, selling your products, solving problems, dealing with staff issues and whatever else happens to come up – makes finding the time, motivation & energy levels to work on your business a big obstacle.
Other obstacles to ‘working on it’ can be a lack of direction and a lack of focus: ‘I know I should be working on it – but how do I actually do that? and ‘Where should I start first?
Lurking questions like these can cause a real sense overwhelm and helplessness that causes PAIN, which eventually leads to procrastination and putting ‘the working on it’ off for another week. Unfortunately the less time you spend working on it, the more time you’ll be spending ‘working in it’ – continually experiencing the same frustrations and barriers to growth.
Awareness of the difference between working ‘in the’ business and ‘on the’ business is the first step to building a business that can work profitably and independently from you.
‘Working on the business’ does NOT mean planning and arranging the workload, processing invoices, submitting quotes & tenders or helping your employees complete a job, these tasks are important and they’re ‘business as usual tasks’.
‘Working ON the business’ involves thinking about your desired future for the business, planning and execution, reviewing & improving current processes and systems and asking questions like:
How can we do …………..better here?
What would be a simpler way to ……………….?
How can we achieve more………..with less……………..?
What 20% of processes are causing 80% of our problems?
If I suddenly got sick for a month and couldn’t fulfill my current role…where would things fall down first? Then 2nd…..Then 3rd….??
‘Working on the business’ is a shift in mindset that is necessary if you want your business to grow and prosper and taking it on board fully will mean you forming some new habits of thinking and doing.
I’ve provided some tips below to help you get started – YES, you do have to set time aside and if that seems like PAIN for you then ask yourself….
Is my vision and goals worthy of this time? Is my income potential worthy of this time? Is my business worthy of this time? Are my employees and stakeholders worthy of this time?
Here we go:
1. Block out time to work on your business every week. I recommend 4hrs per week. Buy yourself a good note book and pen. Tell your staff, friends & family that you do not want to be interrupted (unless it’s an emergency) and go to a library or a quiet coffee shop, somewhere where there is minimal distraction, then get out your new notebook & pen.
2. Reflect on your current frustrations within the business; what areas of the business are most problematic – Ask: Why does this problem/issue exist?
Then drill further again until you get to the root cause of the problem. Clarity on the root cause will empower and enable you to develop viable solutions that work. Also consider…what determines the strength of a chain? The answer is the weakest link. Identify the weakest link in the business and focus your improvement efforts there first. There is no point investing money in sales training to generate more revenue if your front line customer service is mediocre!
3. Get clear on where your business is going and WHY!
Use the questions below to guide your strategic planning:
What will your business look like in 12months time, in 5 years time?
How much money will it make then?
What size is your team?
What are your team members roles and goals?
What will you be doing in the business then? What will you no longer be doing?
What are your most profitable products/services then?
What systems will you need in place in the future to get the business, do the business, run the business and guide the business?
How will the business be serving it’s ideal customer in the future?
What impact will technology have on the future of the business? And…how will you manage and leverage off this impact?
From these questions identify the changes and actions required to move towards your destination and when you develop action steps, take them as soon as possible, if you can’t take them soon then schedule them and delegate as appropriate.
* Get your team involved in the strategic planning process when you can, enrollment and commitment is much nicer than ‘compliance’ and you’ll be benefit from the objectivity and ideas that they bring to the table.
4. Always keep the ‘End in Mind’:
Spending time just thinking about your ultimate business, what it looks like, what it would feel like to have it, what you would be doing in it and your desired return on investment will generate new ideas and strong emotions that will call you forth to take action to turn your vision into reality.
Working on the business is a choice, it’s a mindset, just like going to the gym, you’ve got to use your gym membership and push yourself to get the level of fitness or endurance you desire.
Realize that there will always be operational stuff to sort out, work to be done, there will always be the ‘urgent and important’ and the way to reduce operational fire fighting, problems and frustrations is to step back and think of the big picture, identifying, causes, solutions and opportunities for improvement and growth.
5. Get an Accountability Partner:
Have someone you trust and respect hold you accountable to ‘working on it’. This could be a business associate, mentor or coach.
Media Release on 21 March 2013 by Bizness Unleashed
Media Contact:
Darren Ward, Bizness Unleashed
Email: darren@biznessunleashed.com
Phone: 03 522 4467
Website: http://www.biznessunleashed.com