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30 Reasons Why Working ON Your Business Makes You More Impactful pin

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Antoine Martin (Ph.D) | Business coach

Antoine Martin (Ph.D) | Business coach

I am a business coach, an educator, an entrepreneur & investor. As Impactified's Co-founder & Chief Impact Officer, I also supervise the production of the inspiring and life-transforming content and tools you can read, watch, listen and use on here! Does that seem relevant to you and your business? Begin your Impactified journey for FREE now!

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In this article:

30 Reasons Why Working ON Your Business Makes You More Impactful

Hey coach! I’m running a small business and I’m struggling with time and to-do lists. A friend suggested that I spend more time working ON my business, but I’m not too sure what he meant. Could you explain? Thanks for any tip you’ll share!
Antoine Martin (Ph.D) | Business coach

Antoine Martin (Ph.D) | Business coach

I am a business coach, an educator, an entrepreneur & investor. As Impactified's Co-founder & Chief Impact Officer, I also supervise the production of the inspiring and life-transforming content and tools you can read, watch, listen and use on here! Does that seem relevant to you and your business? Begin your Impactified journey for FREE now!

In this article:

Initially Published on 2019/12/30, updated May 2022

Let us speculate for a minute. You work. A lot. And things tend to get out of control rather rapidly. Files pile up on your desk, your to-do list keeps expanding so much that it kinda controls your life, one way or another.

Of course, the simple idea of going to work is probably starting to become painful because, well, running after tasks and spending your time extinguishing fires is not fun. And exhausting. And exasperating. Right?

Who knows, some tiny voices in your head perhaps whisper that you should think about finding yourself another job, because the money you make is not worth the effort and energy you put into things? The problem, though, is that you don’t actually have time to look for another job. Maybe you are a business owner, actually, in which case whatever you do is much more than a job you can change overnight.

So, what do you do next?

In our experience as business advisers, this type of situation is more than common. In fact, if you somehow recognized yourself in the above descriptions, chances are that you are like most people out there.

If that’s the case, the best solution you have is probably to start doing things differently. Simply put? Well, instead of spending your life working FOR your business and INTO your business, think about working ON your business and make it work for you.

In this article, we explore this ‘on the business’ type of mindset. When most people do everything they can to work as hard as possible, we give you tips on how to work smarter. Because nothing else makes sense, if you think about it.

First, we go through the typical issues faced by most entrepreneurs nowadays. Believe it or not, but most entrepreneurs have the same problems… We then dive into the topic and give you thirty reasons (at least!) why you should work ON your business rather than just into it.

Seems relevant to you? Are you good to go? Perfect. Keep reading.

Issue 1: Organization and Fire Control as a routine

As we just mentioned, our experience as personal business advisers is that most entrepreneurs and executives face similar problems. When it comes to daily routines, weekly organization and business planning more generally, the reality is that some issues keep appearing again, again and again.

The first issue our clients face is typically one that relates to organization. Or to the lack of organization, as a matter of fact.

More often than not, the field reality is that small and medium entrepreneurs spend an amazing amount of time playing firefighters. They kill a fire here. Manage another one there. They struggle, fight and eventually limit the damage. And they move to the next one and to one after that until they run out of energy.

At the end of the day, the story is usually the same. Time is missing and things are done in a rush, without method, without organization. But also without intent and often without (positive) results.

Sooner than later, to-do lists become part of the landscape, until they actually take over. Of course, the feeling is always that to-do lists help. Yet in reality the only thing they do is institutionalize disorganization and illustrate the fact that everything we do is a matter of managing the urgent through fire control. There is, however, little room for planning and construction, let alone anticipation and experimentation. And that doesn’t make much sense.

Issue 2: Lack of visibility means lack of vision and anticipation.

Anticipation (or the lack thereof) is the next issue on our list of common issues, without surprise.

You get our point, when an entrepreneur is mostly busy solving urgent fire-related issues, nothing else happens. Keep your nose into the business and the only thing you’ll see is the variety of issues that needs tackling, but there rest will remain invisible.

The question is, how do you anticipate issues when your only concern is to manage fire? Long things short, you can’t.

In our experience as business advisers, those who focus on working INTO their business typically match that description. And sooner or later they pay a higher price for their actions (or inaction).

As we wrote in another article, business karma rules and whatever is coming next depends on what you put into place now…

Issue 3: quality control and process-related frictions.

Unsurprisingly again, focusing on working INTO the business rather than thinking strategically often leads to process-related frictions.

Sometimes the issue relates to Quality Control – because when focusing on fires people miss the details and have no big picture in mind.

Sometimes the problem rather relates to a general inability to follow what teams do – because there is no workflow in place and nobody knows what standards to follow and apply. And, of course, the lack of big picture also means that there are no typical guidelines when it comes to storytelling, marketing, sales, customer satisfaction, so forth and so on.

All in all? Well. Those who forget to work ON their business tend to have difficulties to follow, but they normally have even more trouble with planning and organizing their business in an Impactful way. Too bad, isn’t it?

Issue 4: disappointing commercial and financial results.

Now, of course there is more to it than ‘just’ fire control, lack of anticipation and lack of process efficiency. When we talk to entrepreneurs at the symposiums, seminars and workshops we organize, very common feedback is that on top of organizational concerns many entrepreneurs are not satisfied with the financial results they produce.

Oftentimes, the feeling is that they work too much (again) for the money they make. Alternatively the issue is often that the business revenues are either inconsistent or (not to say and) insufficient.

In the first case, the problem relates to organization, obviously, but in the second the real issue is much deeper. There, the problem is usually a lack of business strategy more generally.

Think about it. Can you free some time to work on perfecting your business’ positioning when all you have the time to do is rush around? No. How about developing some serious storytelling? Not a chance… Equipping a sales team with a pitch and a refined sales process? No way either, right?

There you go. These things require that you take some time to work ON your business, not just into it.

30 Reasons why you should start working ON your business

Now, that we’ve covered the problematic issues created by the INTO vs ON management method, let’s have a look at what you can win from changing your working mindset. There’s a lot of potential here, be warned!

1. Work ON your business to stop thinking short-term

It flows from the above that working ON your business is the best way to stop thinking short-term.

The best way to operate is very straightforward but usually proves tricky to implement: free a couple of hours every week and use them to start thinking ahead.

Look back, figure out what works and what doesn’t. And think strategically. What needs to be done to get to the next stage? Why? How? When? Thinking forward is key, all it takes is a decision to start, really…

2. Work ON your business to realize that urgent and important are not the same …

A major benefit of the “ON your business” approach is that it gives you an opportunity to reflect on what is important and what is not. The point is more serious than it seems: urgent and important are two dramatically different concepts!

Now. We know. Whatever is urgent tends to become important, so trying to differentiate both concepts is illusory. We hear that a lot, yet the reality is different and things don’t work this way.

First, most urgent things are urgent because someone else exercises a form of pressure on you. Said differently, the urgent thing on your plate might not be urgent nor important to you.

Second, the urgent is all over the place but the important is often difficult to spot. For instance? Well, long-term strategy is intangible and difficult to apprehend so it is rarely seen as urgent – let alone important – but it is super important if you want your business to move on.

Think about it, how often do you take time to work on ways to turn your business from brick and mortar to digital? When was the last time you worked on planning your future cashflows instead of just looking at the past one? When did you last think about the problem you solve and about the vision behind whatever you do? What Impact are you trying to make exactly?

3. … and focus on the important

Dissociating the urgent from the important is super essential, because it helps focusing on the right thing: the important that’s not urgent.

We took the example of business strategy in the previous point because strategy is typically important and non-urgent: unless your business is on the verge of collapsing, strategy can generally wait.

In reality, working ON your business helps with getting the distance that’s necessary to spot those topics that are important and need to be treated, not because they are urgent but because they are fundamental. Like it or not, but being an entrepreneur is a matter of focusing on the important, especially when that important is not urgent.

4. Work ON your business to stop playing firefighter

This point won’t be a surprise considering what we wrote previously, but in our experience working ON your business is the best way to stop spending your time on fire control. Why? Because fire control is a matter of compensating for organizational deficiencies, and it turns out that taking some time to see the big picture helps with reviewing how things work. Really.

Working ON your business will give you time to set goals and priorities (more on this in a minute), but it will also give you a chance to think in terms of process development. Which is precisely what you typically miss when your energy is spent on managing the urgent stuff. Right?

5. Get a chance to reflect on what the priorities are

The priorities point is very relevant, because having no priorities means that all you can do is struggle and cope with the flow. But where to start?

To set priorities, the best option is to think in terms of annual and quarterly goals.

We’re talking about goal management and smarter goals here, but to keep things short, clarify what you are trying to achieve by the end of the year, formalize it in words, then convert that into quarterly goals and the big picture is there. End of the year goals are like smelling the air, whereas quarterly objectives are a matter of short-term implementation and action.

The next step is to think in terms of actions and to determine what needs to be done strategically speaking, over the next months. The exercise is interesting, overall, because it gives you a way to refocus your attention on what really matters. It’s as simple as that. Give it a try and see for yourself!

6. Work ON your business to get some time to reflect on how things have been working so far

Often, working ON your business gives you an opportunity to reflect on yourself – and that normally makes a big difference. As an entrepreneur, as an executive, and even as a regular staffer, looking for the big picture in everything you do creates a unique opportunity to look back and consider how have been working so far. For the business. But also for you.

Think about what has worked well, but use the opportunity to also put your finger on those things that typically don’t work that well.

What is missing?

What can be improved?

What should be stopped once and for all?

Think about it.

And act.

7. Get a chance to consider what could be improved (organization)

If you are wondering what can be improved, note that there are typically four lines to play with if you want to make a dramatic Impact on your business – and the first element you can play with is organization.

In countless cases, we have worked with entrepreneurs, executives and charity CEOs who build fantastic projects and business lines, but who eventually stumble upon disorder-related problems.

Things should be working but they don’t. Clients complain because quality control sucks, but nobody actually knows how the quality control process should work. The sales aren’t great but there is no actual pitch and, as a matter of fact, the client profile isn’t clear either. So forth and so on.

In most cases, the core problem is organization, and working ON your business will typically make you see that very clearly.

8. Get a chance to consider what could be improved (process)

In line with the previous point, the second thing you can play with is processes. Processes are important in the life of a business because they help with standardizing operations – which is key when your organization isn’t optimal.

Without processes, people do either as they feel or as they can, and cohesion becomes a word of the past. People lose track of what needs to be done, the message gets diluted, so forth and so on. And that’s definitely something you don’t want.

Running a business is like being a master of ceremony. Your job is to organize and coordinate, not to be the violin in the middle of the orchestra. Right? In our experience and after years of seconding business leaders, working ON your business gives you a rare chance to become the MC you should be.

Now, we can hear you – chances are that you are working alone and that in the absence of a team to manage there is no reason to see yourself as a MC yet. Why working on building processes, then? Well, the answer is simple: when your business grows, the processes you have already put into place will help you channel the efforts of whoever you hire to replace you. This is an investment, obviously, but it might prove handy when you need that push.

So, what can be improved or put into place? Figure that out and you will see change.

9. Get a chance to consider what could be improved (people)

Beyond organization and processes, running a business is a human adventure: you normally work with people, and people need to be managed.

Interestingly, entrepreneurs often hope that their team can figure things out. As far as human psychology is concerned , however, the reality is that people demand attention. Underestimate your team’s needs and you will end-up building frustration, misunderstandings and frictions of all types. The same applies to clients, as a matter of fact, as clients need to be listened, heard, and to feel considered.

Again, therefore, taking some time to work ON your business and having the big picture in mind is a powerful way to re-focus some of your attention on people and to figure what works and what doesn’t. Ultimately, your business isn’t much without the right people so don’t underestimate the point.

10. Get a chance to consider what could be improved (demand / sales side)

Sales are a major pillar of a business, it goes without saying. Yet many entrepreneurs of small and mid-size companies focus so much on doing and selling that they don’t have time to elaborate a sales process that rocks.

The point is relevant here and is listed independently from the previous points for a simple reason: it builds on them. At the end of the day, having a sales pitch and a sales process depends on several elements, the main of which are … process-building and people!

First, asking people to sell without having a proper pitch and pipeline means that you can’t be efficient. What is your message? How do you get people to hear it? How do you get them to act upon it? How do you manage them once they have decided to act? Who deals with them? Asking what? Offering what? When? Why? Why? And why again?

Second, trying to build a sales process makes no sense if there is no people-focused perspective. Eventually, the salesforce in your team will give you feedback on what works and what doesn’t, and that should help you with improving the pitch and process we just talked about.

11. Work ON your business to get a better chance to listen

The above only works if you are willing to listen to what people have to say, of course. But often our clients are so overwhelmed with their routine that sitting and listening is a very demanding task – which thus gets relegated to the not important and not urgent side of things.

Taking some time to work ON your business is an efficient way to act: by allocating some time to team follow-up, you give yourself an occasion to open your eyes and ears, and you open a door to immensely useful feedback you would otherwise miss completely. Again, people want to be heard. So, listen, and act accordingly.

12. Work ON your business to get a chance to think strategically – with a long-term perspective

It will probably sound obvious by now, but working ON your business is a major opportunity to start thinking strategy, with a long-term perspective. The reason is simple: working INTO the business will keep your nose on the grindstone whereas working ON it will get you to think in terms of big picture.

Typically, pushing our clients in that direction produces results, because entrepreneurs who start thinking three to five years ahead begin to see things very differently. They see their exit (or the lack of exit strategy in their business plan), they see room for long-term investment (rather than short-sighted action) and they realize that whatever happens next depends on what is being prepared now – again, business karma.

13. Work ON your business to think strategically – week after week

Interestingly, thinking long-term also gives a good perspective on how to think short-term. An efficient type of short-term, for a change.

So far, what you do is a ‘cope with’ type of short-term in which you probably manage emergencies day after day. But thinking long-term helps with refocusing your immediate efforts on revised priorities that get you closer to your big picture.

Said differently? Working ON the business helps with defining your actions for tomorrow in a way that gets you closer to what you want to achieve the day after tomorrow. Even more practically speaking? Your annual goals will help you reach your 3-year goals. Your quarters can be organized to reach your annual goals. And the next twelve weeks can be organized to meet your quarter objectives. It’s a baby steps model, really, but you can’t find more efficient than that.

14. Work ON your business to think in terms of problem and vision

Since we’re talking about long-term thinking, working ON your business is also a fantastic way to elaborate the vision on which your business will develop.

The Apple founders had the vision that technology would reach every home, others want to send people in space, and charities typically have visions focused on a world without poverty. In other words, visions get you to the next step because they help inspiring people and gathering them around you. Visions give people something to believe into. Visions give people something to fight for because they can relate to your approach for solving one problem. To the opposite, those who focus on working into their business tend to have none of that. Too bad, isn’t it?

The question that most people tend to ask is the following: how to build a vision? The answer here isn’t very difficult to find: you need to find a problem to solve and to clarify how your business can help with making a difference over time.

Many entrepreneurs start a business because they have a hint, a talent or a conviction, but you’d be surprised to see that they regularly forget to consider whether they solve a problem at all! Yet, there can be no vision without a problem to solve!

15. Work ON your business to clarify the Impact you want to make (for real)

This point relates to the previous one very closely. Working ON your business is the best way to clarify what Impact you want to make. Because Impact is something we make. In our experience, Impact is an interesting word which talks to many entrepreneurs for a very simple set of reasons. One, people increasingly have trouble believing in the idea that business-as-usual is enough. Two, the reality is that changing someone’s life and impact them with a product or service is the best way to create value to them, create demand and produce dollar value for the business.

Try to think about your Impact for a minute. What problem do you solve? What difference do you make? Who do you make a difference for? What value does your solution create for others?

Said differently, working ON your business instead of into it gives you room to put into place the vision driving your activities.

16. Work On your business to clarify your value proposition

We just mentioned the issue of the value you create for people, remember? Well. Taking time to work on clarifying your big picture is a very good way to elaborate on the actual value you create for others.

As surprising as it might sound, most people (entrepreneurs, we mean) have no idea of what value they produce. As business advisers, we always ask what their value proposition is, and more often than not their response mixes value and the “what”.

For instance? A consultant will typically market himself as being efficient and as being able to offer a good return on investment – which is nothing but a description of “what” they do for a living. By contrast, their value proposition could be that they help to build business strategies for more financial inclusion, or that they help to turn people into teams that excel at working and delivering together. In the first case, the message cries “please hire me!”, Whereas the second is purely about showing value creation.

Having said that, defining your value proposition is difficult and takes time (we have a step by step method for that, by the way, feel free to get in touch with one of our business coaches!), which means that unless you stop focusing on the day to day fires nothing will emerge. You got our point by now, but ON is the key.

17. Work ON your business to build a niche

A strong value proposition usually goes in pair with a strong niche. Believe it or not, but by definition, a solution for everyone is a solution for nobody in particular. Hence, spending time to work ON your business will give you a chance to make your solution specific to a targeted public and to make it different from the competition.

This is not just important. This is essential.

We see the issue with most of our clients, in reality. People define themselves as being “just” an architect or “just” a photographer and they wonder why their target clients don’t find them attractive… don’t you find that ironic? At the end of the day, they don’t have any specificity, and that leaves them no real wiggle room.

So. Be different. Find what makes you unique. Invest the tile, it’s worth it.

18. Work ON your business to clarify your DNA

Vision, value proposition and niche often get you to a key component: your business’ DNA. This is always very surprising to us, but some entrepreneurs are so busy struggling with emergencies that they don’t even think about what makes them specific, not just from a market perspective but also from an identity perspective.

Think about it. Does your business have an identity? Does your business have values? Does your team believe in those values? How do these values influence the way you conduct the business? How do they impact the clients and make them feel better?

Values and DNA are key to running a business because they help with inspiring and empowering people, inside the organization but also outside of it. Those who don’t have a clear DNA often struggle with being different, and that’s too bad!

So? Take some time to work ON your business’ identity and values. It should help you figure out who you are and how you can make a difference!

19. Work ON your business to figure out who wants what, who needs what, and who fears what.

When it comes to defining (or building) your business’ value proposition and your niche, we typically use a magic tool: user stories.

User stories are a basic element of Design Thinking, and it consists in building typical user profiles that can then be used to build a product or service that matches a specific demand. To put things simply, the core aspect of a strong user story relates to what the user wants and needs.

The “want “and the “need” are two concepts that people tend to use interchangeably but they are very different.

On the one hand, the “want” touches upon desirability. On the other hand, the “need” is often a matter of technical expertise, skills and tangibility – people want money, but they need a plan, typically. In the former situation, the reptilian brain acts and reacts based on instinct. In the latter, the analytical brain processes the information to make a logical decision.

For instance, people didn’t need smartphones when these were created, because they didn’t exist before. People needed mobile phones, but they wanted recognition and we’re therefore ready to pay fortunes while queuing for hours. The point here is simple: finding a happy medium between the want and the need is the best way to build a value proposition that rocks. Just saying.

20. Work ON your business to build an emotional connection

This point relates directly to the previous ones so we will make it short and straight to the point: allocating some time to work ON your business is a very efficient way to figure out how to build an emotional connection between the product or service you have in hand and the client you have in mind.

The emotional connection relates directly to your DNA, as a matter of fact, so think about it and see how your values can connect you to your audience. The emotional connection does not appear by magic. It needs to be designed, provoked, nurtured. Not the kind of thing you can do while managing multiple fires…

21. Take time to work on the storytelling

Storytelling is another very important element that many people tend to leave aside because they are too busy coping with the rest. Without proper storytelling, however, your business has no real way to differentiate itself from the competition. Without a general story and carefully chosen words, your staff won’t have anything interesting or exciting to tell people, and they’ll typically end up struggling with hard-selling methods that don’t work that well.

How to do that? Well, give the previous points another read and try to make up something coherent. Start from the company’s vision and make sure that it solves a problem. Think in terms of values and DNA, and see whether words can help to build an emotional connection with your ideal clients…

22. Work ON your business to define goals that really make sense (finally)

We touched upon the topic of goals a few paragraphs earlier, and we wrote that working ON your business is a good way to build a long-term approach that helps to organize today and tomorrow. Remember?

The link between tomorrow and the day after tomorrow is very simply the goal you have set for the next quarters, year and years. Without a goal, going anywhere is difficult. In case you have a doubt, think in terms of GPS-setting: all road lead you to Rome, as they say, but isn’t it easier to actually put Rome on the GPS in the first place?

The question here is, what goals have you set for yourself? Are they precise? Are they measurable? Are they realistic? Have you set any goal at all or are you just going where the wind sends you? Think about it, get a big picture.

23. Work ON your business to get a better chance to assess your environment

Now, let’s take another perspective. Beyond short-term, long-term, vision, value creation, and organization, having a sharp understanding of the environment that surrounds you and your business is extremely important. And, of course, working ON your business can help.

When we talk about the environment that surrounds you, we have various things in mind.

Of course, knowing your competition is one thing, because it helps with benchmarking your products and services against what others are good at doing. Often, the exercise also gives a great opportunity to re-think your own business model, because chances are that in the absence of a vision and value proposition your solution doesn’t really differentiate itself from the competitors’ solutions. Last but not least, the exercise also helps with pricing assessment, with storytelling and with pitch comparison.

24. Work ON your business to get a unique chance to assess the ecosystem you live into

On top of getting a better overview of the competition, taking some time to work ON the business often gives entrepreneurs a good opportunity to think in terms of human ecosystem. We talked about the importance of focusing on people in a team development context, remember? Well, knowing the human ecosystem that surrounds you goes further than that.

It also includes all the people outside of your company, and consists in figuring out which ones you could talk to at some point. Some people could be allies (happy to support and give an opinion) or even partners (eager to be involved and to support the initiative by putting in some efforts, time, money, so forth and so on).

Others are probably not supportive of your project, but they need to be considered, nonetheless. Why? Because if turned to your side they could become the best allies ever. Remember the previous point on wants and needs? It clearly applies here as well.

In each and very cases, friends or foes all have in common to have some wants, some needs and some fears that can be addressed with a little bit of patience and tactical thinking. What are you waiting for?

25. Most importantly: determine who you want to help (and how)

As surprising as it might sound, many entrepreneurs have no precise idea of who their ideal customer is. They have the right answer ready, of course, often in line with the idea that their product is for everyone and anyone, and that it is suitable for children, men and women from 7 to 77 years. Yet, selling tends to be difficult and business could be better, because ultimately nobody related to a product that’s made for anyone.

This gets us to a very simple but nonetheless conclusion, i.e. that a major part of your ecosystem is obviously the client or beneficiary of your solution, product or service – hence the issue is typically to identify who this person or community is. We gave you some tips earlier on the topic (particularly in relation to the need vs want discussion) so we won’t elaborate more on the topic here.

26. Work ON your business to experiment, learn and validate

It goes without saying, but taking some time to work ON your business also gives you a perfect opportunity to think in terms of experimentation. When you take some time and resources to experimentation, you give your business a chance to do better!

First, think in terms of hypotheses. Think about what could be appealing to clients, set some performance indicators (the good old KPIs) and see whether the reality matches the hypothesis. If it does, use your learning to move on. If it doesn’t, see how the information can help improve or, in the worst case, pivot your business model.

In case you wondered, this idea is very much related to the Lean mindset. Try, fail quick and dirty, learn and adapt before trying some more.

27. Work ON your business to consider how you can delegate more

Let’s change topics for a moment. We mentioned earlier that working ON your business was a great way to figure out what works, what doesn’t work and what can be improved from a variety of perspectives. In a related way, working ON your business is a great way to consider what could be delegated to others and – more importantly, what can be simply set aside.

28. Work ON your business to save and allocate time to building delegation processes

Delegating takes a lot of work, however. It requires having a clear big picture of how the business is organized (who does what, why and how) and it requires a lot of preparation. In particular, it takes efforts to build best practices and processes (we talked about that before) so that others can take on the work you delegate to them and conduct it in a way that makes sense for you (and for them).

In addition, the idea of putting into place a form of delegation requires that you think about quality control management, because delegating without ensuring that the outputs are aligned with the expectations makes no sense… In any case, being busy with fire control typically keeps you miles away from delegation possibilities, so allocating time to work on the matter is probably a good idea if you have efficiency issues.

29. Work ON your business to free time for yourself

To the most idealist and ambitious of you, working ON your business is also a way to free some time for yourself. Putting into place the various tips we have mentioned previously can help you save time by making you work on priorities, goals, and things that make more sense than just fire control. With some more work, focusing on the big picture and building processes accordingly can help with saving time that you can use for yourself, one way or another. It’s just a matter of perspective and goals, once again.

30. Work ON your business to free time to get some help

The last idea is perhaps that those who take time to work ON their business have a unique opportunity to involve others and therefore obtain significant feedback and help. Whatever the size of your business and whether your team is made of five, twenty-five or a thousand staff, allocating time to work ON your business gives you a chance to involve external advisers.

Those advisers can be friends you trust or some fellow entrepreneurs, but professional help and the use of business coaching methods as well as business strategy thinking can be a real plus. External help typically acts as sounding boards and helps entrepreneurs see through their business organization, model and organization much more efficiently. Results are there, try it and see for yourself.

Cases where you should not try to work ON your business

Now, we know, these tips aren’t for everyone. And just because we like to challenge and push entrepreneurs doesn’t mean that you need to listen, let alone implement our recommendations. In fact, we made a shortlist of situations in which you definitely don’t need to change anything.

1. If you want to keep managing fires

First, if things are just fine the way they are and you don’t need to stop managing fires one after another then you should be just fine. Don’t change anything and keep playing firefighters, your staff and the people you work with will certainly appreciate your effort and be grateful for your dedication.

2. If your business organization doesn’t suck

Second, working ON your business is rather a pointless exercise is your business organization doesn’t suck. If you are used to working into your business and everything goes well for you, then you’ll be fine. Don’t change anything, it really isn’t worth the effort…

3. If your business model doesn’t need to be improved

Third, don’t bother if you think that your business model rocks and can’t be improved. If you don’t think that having a vision that solves a problem and puts you in a niche with a strong DNA and killer values can make a difference, then forget about it. By all means, stick with what you have and don’t take any more risks, you might get some surprises down the road…

4. If your business makes cash, pays enough and does not need to do better

Last but not least, if your business is already making cash, pays enough and can’t do better than that, then keep working into it the way you do. The above surely can’t apply to you! Or can it?

In sum, working ON your business can make you more Impactful

Irony and sarcasm aside, the bottom line here is that working ON your business rather than just INTO it will make a massive difference. Taking the time to get the big picture is not just important, it is essential. In fact, it is the only way to move forward and develop whatever is currently in your hands.

 

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