Kekich Credo #53 - Spend more time working “on” your business than “in” your business.
Working ON your business means designing, planning, and strategizing. Working IN your business is anything that is a job. Every minute that you spend working on tasks that can be delegated is a minute that you're not strategizing, planning, and building the best business possible.
Too often as business owners we feel like we have to create the image that we have all the answers. It is much more productive to appraise and admit your weaknesses and hire staff who will strengthen them.
You first need to identify your strengths and honestly access your weaknesses. Focus on your strengths and your abilities and bring in employees and advisors who can take over your weaknesses. You need to be willing to put your ego aside. Don’t feel threatened by those who have different skill sets than you do. Instead trust your team to lead you in certain areas.
Small business owners must wean themselves from the day to day grind and really focus on how to make the business grow, how to gain new clients, and how to find ways to stand out from other businesses in the same sector.
Hiring the right people is key. With proper training, someone else on your team can oversee the everyday tasks and free up your time to focus on growing your business and getting new clients. Another option is to outsource certain tasks.
Businesses that have a great team running the day to day operations of the business are the most successful and have grown exponentially. The one where the small business owner does everything and doesn’t focus on growing their business stays stuck and doesn’t grow.
The best thing a business owner can do is to provide leadership to the team and to monitor customer expectations and satisfaction.
Moving your business ahead may require that you step back. At the beginning you probably wore many hats usually because you couldn’t afford to hire anyone. But in reality your job should be running the business. Start delegating and your business will grow. If you have hired the right people and provided the right training, you need to believe that your team is capable and then let them go. They are ready and can handle it on their own. Don’t over-parent.
It is all about humility and leadership. You need humility to know that you don’t know everything. You need leadership to build a team that knows what it needs to know. Good leaders understand they don’t have all the answers and so they surround themselves with the right talent. Delegating gives you more time to do what you do best.
Think about this quote. Working ‘in’ your business is spending time managing your business as it is today. Working ‘on’ your business is investing time so your business can be better tomorrow.
# living life abundantly # published author
