Have you asked yourself recently:

Most people answer all these questions with an emphatic “Yes”, yet few small business owners or managers are deliberate or proactive about how to grow the business, making it profitable or managing their time better so that they are productive and effective in their leadership role.

One of the primary reasons that smaller businesses fail to grow and to create attractive sustainable profits is that business owners and managers fall into the trap of working “in” their businesses and fail to take the time or effort to work “on” their businesses.

It is incredibly easy to get caught in this trap.

You start, buy or launch a business and initially, to keep costs down, you do almost all the work yourself. You develop products, make sales, service customers, issue invoices and keep the financial records yourself. The motivation of working for yourself and being your own boss enables you to work hard and focus on delivery to clients. As you deliver to clients so you win more work, requiring you to work harder. As the owner of the business you get busier and busier, working late into the night and also on weekends, just to get everything done.

This level of activity is not sustainable. Soon you get tired, your family starts to complain and your positive upbeat attitude becomes sour and negative. You miss a few deadlines, fail to return phone calls and your clients, who were initially very impressed with your service, wonder what´s happened. Some people realise that this cannot continue so, after some moments of self-reflection, they decide to scale back and operate at a level that is more sustainable. Others just continue to operate at a frantic pace but because of declining service levels some clients leave and the business stops growing. Whichever route the owner takes, the business reaches a level where it stops growing. The business owner has been caught in the trap of only working “in” their business.

To break out of this cycle, the business owner needs to make a transition from working “in” the business to working “on” the business. Working “on” the business means taking time out from the day-to-day operations of the entity to focus on, and implement, critical bigger picture issues such as strategy, structures, systems and skills development. It is about building a platform for growth within the business that is not dependant on any single person for success. If you want to leave a legacy and make real money as an entrepreneur, then this is probably the most important lesson you can learn. It´s about creating a scalable business.

Working on your business takes discipline and effort.

It does not come naturally to most people to work on their business; the natural default is to work in the business. There are many reasons why business owners avoid working on their businesses. Some use the excuse that they don´t have time, others say that they don´t want the operation to get too bureaucratic or corporate while others are oblivious to the difference between working in and working on a business.

One of the primary reasons why so many entrepreneurs avoid working on their business is that they don´t really understand how to.

A business owner may decide that from next month he is going to devote a morning a week to working on his business but when that morning comes, he is uncertain of what to do with the time so he defaults to dealing with a client or preparing invoices.

Working on your business is a cyclical process that involves thinking and decision-making about strategy, designing and implementing new structures and strategies, and facilitating the development of new skills.

If you´re still working in your business you need to change now. To discover how Incisive Edge will help you grow your business email growth@incisive-edge.com or call 0843 289 7884.