Working In vs Working On Your Business

You have probably heard experts talk about working in your business and working on your business.

And maybe you’ve heard it and are like, yup, okay, whatever, I just need to get it all done!

Which is fair…but also important to know the difference between them and execute both.

Working in your business is your day-to-day type tasks:

  • Writing a blog

  • Following up with a client

  • Selling a t-shirt to a customer in your store

  • Showing up on social media

  • Going to a networking event

Working on your business is stepping back to work on the big picture items:

  • Your full marketing strategy

  • Your beginning-to-end process for your customer experience

  • Your financials and what your trajectory for the rest of the year looks like

  • Your company culture and continued education to see where you are and where it needs to be

Why does this matter?

If we spend all of our time working in our business then we may:

  • Lose sight of where we’re going and risk running a business we don’t actually love

  • Feel like we’re making money but realize oh, shit! we're actually not

  • Have blinders on and miss an opportunity to pivot

  • Be working way harder than we need to be just because we didn’t simply slow down

If we spend all of our time working on our business then we may:

  • Have the best product/service ever, but nobody knows what you do because you don't actually share it

  • Have an A-Z customer experience mapped out, but when you put it into action your customers actually need something different

  • Your projections are to the penny, but your customer may not want to pay that much

“This is great and all, Amanda, but I don’t have time to do that”!

Yup, I get that. Been there. Said that. And I call BS. Again, I’ve been there and said that and the pause you take is worth it. 

It doesn’t have to be a full-week retreat to do this. 

Don’t overwhelm yourself with it if it seems like you can’t slow down. Start with one specific thing and take a 2-hour chunk to work on it. 

Let’s do finances because everyone loves those!
Put a 2-hour block in your calendar next week.
If you have someone that does your books then pull up your resorts for the year. Where is your income coming from? What is your income? What are your expenses? Are you paying for things you’re not using? Did you overspend on stuff? Are you on target for your goal? Are you making money on the service you thought you would be or is there another area bringing in more income (even better that you enjoy doing more!)?

If you don’t have someone doing your books - then ask these same questions and look through your income and expenses. And if it’s a hot mess maybe look into the cost of a bookkeeper so that you can look at reports and know your numbers. 

Make any necessary changes and then map out how to start to implement those changes in your business with some benchmarks to know you’re on the right track!

Now the next week or 2 pick another part of your business and pull it apart, look at it, and put it back together based on your findings. 

How often you do these things is up to you. 

Maybe you have a CEO Day on Mondays to look through these items to keep yourself on track. Or maybe you book a 2-day out-of-office work time. 

It doesn’t matter how you do it, but it’s important to do it. 

If you’re creating the strategy and not implementing it - go out and sell. Talk to someone, share on your social media, go to a networking event. Talk about your business so your potential clients know you’re there! I promise - what you have in place is perfect enough to put out there to see if it’ll work or if you’ll need some adjustment. 

So. In and On. Your business needs both. 

Take a pause and schedule it in!

Amanda Quick