High Impact Growth Strategy #3
Work on your business – not in it
Do you perform too many functions?… Wear too many hats?… Maybe there’s confusion about who reports to whom. Accountabilities overlap, or they’re unclear – and this adds to the confusion.
How would you like to get rid of the chaos, work half the hours, and earn double your current income?
You can absolutely do it – when you free yourself from the technical work of your business.
By "technical work", we mean hiring and firing, answering phones, selling jobs, buying supplies, counting inventory, keeping track of the money, making payroll, collecting bad debts, emptying the trash cans, and (depending on your business) "doing" the billable work you get paid for….
In short, the "technical work" includes all of the routines and busywork that your employees should be doing, but that (in many cases) you - the owner - are still doing!
And that’s what’s so ironic: in spite of having employees, you’re still doing everything that isn’t anyone else’s job!
If your business relies on you being there, you don’t own a business, you own a job!
Consider these scenarios: A dentist starts a dental clinic. A piano teacher starts a music school. A carpenter starts a contracting company. A computer hardware designer starts a high tech company.
Do you catch the trend here?
If you’re like the people described above, you started your business because you were skilled in (or familiar with) the technical work of your business.
But these people made a fatal assumption. Being skilled in their respective trades, they automatically assumed that they could run businesses built around what they wanted to sell (i.e. cleaning teeth, teaching piano, renovating houses, manufacturing computers, etc.).
But if history is any indication, 80% of them won’t make it past their fifth year! And it’s because they don’t realize that…
In a true business, the owner works on his business – not in it…
With the right business systems, the dentist could not only hire other dentists… He could hire and train others to generate more business, do the bookkeeping, clean the clinic, etc… to do all of the technical work of his business. Then he could work "ON" his business…
…Instead of frittering his time away on jobs that others could do for $5-$10 per hour!
The carpenter could not only hire other contractors… He could hire and train others to bid the jobs, do the bookkeeping, make payroll, etc. Then he could concentrate on optimizing and growing his business.
Years ago, an entrepreneur named Ray Kroc ran with this concept. After being impressed by an unusually efficient burger joint - MacDonalds - he bought the right to franchise their business. (And changed the name to McDonalds)
But Ray didn’t buy it so that he could flip burgers! In fact, he never intended to do the technical work of his business. He never made the mistake of thinking, "If I just work longer and harder, flipping more and more burgers, that will give me the life I really want".
On the contrary, looking to his vision of a business that would run without him, he went to work "ON" his business - and created the billion dollar empire we all know today.
Every day, thousands of McDonalds run flawlessly (and make good money) – without Ray Kroc having to be there!
By working "ON" his business, rather than "IN" it, he freed himself to grow his income. And that’s the secret:
No matter how many hours you work, you’ll never own your life if you keep doing only the technical work of your business!
Like the car with you under the hood - running, running, running on a human-sized hamster wheel - you’ll be trapped in your business forever.
The solution? Think like Ray Kroc did when he created the McDonalds prototype. To him, the restaurant itself was the product - not the burgers. Expand your focus from the thing your business sells to your business as a whole.
View your business as your product.
Then, in the same way that you’d work to improve the quality or efficiency of what you sell, work to improve the quality and efficiency of your business.
Instead of working "IN" your business (i.e. selling jobs, doing the books, collecting your receivables, beating people up to get their work done, etc.), work "ON" your business.
For example, create better ways to:
- Document your (or your best salesperson’s) most effective sales presentation, so your other salespeople can duplicate it
- Identify and set up the documents and records you need to operate your business profitably
- Create a predictable, effective collection process
- Streamline and document the process of hiring new employees who will work to your standards
Then three things will happen:
- You’ll be focused on creating a true business. Not just cranking out a product or service.
- Your business will develop into a hands-free money making operation.
- You’ll have the freedom to work in your business if you choose, to be completely free of it, or to sell it and retire. It’ll be your choice.