While you may have started your business out of a passion for a certain item or skill, it’s important to have a balance of the time you spend working IN your business versus ON your business.

If you spend all your time in the day-to-day operations, are you putting enough focus on your business’ marketing, finances, and growth?

We have some ideas to help you find balance with the time spent in and on your business:
• Hire & train the right employees: You’ll feel more comfortable stepping away if you know everything is being handled by great employees. Do your best to hire people that are a good fit and take the time to train them well. ZingTrain has some great resources for training (zingtrain.com).

• Delegate: It can be hard to let things go. You may think: “It’ll be better if I just do this myself,” but that takes away from your focus on other, more important tasks for the business. Let your team help you with things, so you can work ON the business. And when you delegate a task, give clear instructions, then let them do it. Try not to micromanage!

• Work on clear & consistent communication: Just because you’re stepping away, doesn’t mean you should disconnect completely. Continue to check in with your team to see what their needs are and provide updates and feedback. Consider using a tool to communicate, like Google Keep, email, or something simple, like a dry erase board. Consistent staff meetings can be helpful, too.

• Organize your time: Now that you have less time IN the business, how will you stay focused with your work ON it? There are many tools for staying organized–planners, calendars, and project management programs (like Asana or Monday)–and many ways to keep focused–like time blocking, to-do lists, taking breaks, and goal setting. Experiment with how you can make the most of the time you have to work on your business.

• Continue doing things you love: If you love your business, pick certain times to keep doing the things you enjoy in it. Are you a contractor who started your own business? Schedule in time to help work on a building project. Are you a chef who opened your own restaurant? Take a shift or two a week to cook the meals. Are you an artist who runs a gallery? Don’t forget to continue to make your own art.

We’re not recommending shifting to only working behind the scenes. It’s about organizing your time to still enjoy doing the things you love, while putting enough focus on helping your business be successful. So, what can you do today to help you work more ON the business?

A book we recommend that talks more about this is “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” (pictured) by Michael E. Gerber.

This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s October 2022 VenangoWorks! Newsletter.