Best Business Expert

Michael E. Gerber developed the E-Myth strategy for small business. There are a number of useful ideas and tools that he espouses in his E-Myth books but one of the ones that stuck the most with me is the simple phrase: Work on your business not in your business.

This simple phrase is packed with a lot of meaning, which we will talk about in this article. In this simple phrase, Gerber cleverly identifies the role that a business owner should take in his or her business.

When you work in your business, you are letting your business control you. In a way, it’s almost as if you’re an employee, simply doing what you’re told to do. Your schedule and your customers and your industry and your system of practices and procedures dictate what it is that you do each day.

When you work on your business, you are the master. You control your business. You set your schedule, you control your customers (in a good way), you work alongside (not as a result of) what your industry dictates, you create good practices and procedures. You are in command.

When you work in your business, you’re like a whitewater raft, pushed about according to the whims of other forces. When you work on your business, you’re like an engineering firm that redesigns and redevelops the river itself to flow where you want it to flow.

When you work in your business, it feels different. You’re busy and you don’t feel like you’re in control. It feels like chaos. When you work on your business, you know it. You do feel in control and it feels like controlled chaos. How do you really know whether you’re working in your business or on it? Gerber gave the perfect measuring tool: If you can step away from your business for a period of time (say, a day or a week) and your business continues to run, you’ve been working on your business. However, if your business struggles or folds, you’ve been working in your business.

So, what can you do about it?

One way to work on your business instead of in your business is to create systems. We’ve talked about that here recently.

Another way to work on your business instead of in your business is to hire (either employees or virtual staff) to do some of your work for you. Once you have systems in place, this will be extremely easy to do.

And a third way to work on your business instead of in your business is to focus on vision-casting and positioning. Create the big picture and position your company as a leader in the field. Let other people do the delivery work itself. Or, if your knowledge is invaluable to the delivery of your product or service (i.e., if you are a coach or consultant), employ others to do everything else but deliver your product or service. And, if your knowledge is invaluable to the success of the company, consider creating other products and services that you don’t have to be present to deliver (like information products or pre-recorded webinars).

Brought to by you by: Contemporary VA - Run your business instead of running in circles.

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