On Wednesday 27th November 2025 I hosted my first in-person event - the 2025 Visionary…
Have you heard business experts say that it is essential to work on your business rather than in your business?
Do you want to understand what the difference is and learn how you can work on your business?
If so, keep on reading as I’ll be sharing 9 ways to work on your business not in your business.
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Firstly I want to explain the difference between working in and on your business.
What does working IN your business mean?
The phrase working IN your business is used to define any activity that you do, which is related to the day-to-day running of the business. Some examples would be: delivering your service, marketing your business, bookkeeping, customer service, website management etc. Most people would consider this as doing the work. In many ways you are acting as an employee in the business rather than the boss.
What does working ON your business mean?
Working ON your business relates to you doing activities that are focused on improving how your business is currently operating or growing your business in the future. This is where you are focused on being the boss or CEO of your business. Unlike when you are working in your business you are focus on right now and the short-term. When you are working on your business you are focused on the future and what you are building. You are using your time to plan, research, forecast and strategies.
What does working ON your business mean? Why most solo and small business owners get stuck working IN their business rather than ON their business?
If you are a solo or small business owner then you are probably thinking “I have to work in my business otherwise the work won’t get done and I won’t have a business anymore”. This comment is absolutely valid and I’m not telling you to not work in your business. I understand that you have to, in the same way, that I have to work in my business. The problem isn’t that you are working in your business. It is about the amount of time you spend working in your business and how much is left to work on your business. You need to be doing both.
However, what often happens is that as a business grows the number of tasks that need to be done in the business grows and this means business owners get caught up spending all of their time working in their business and it leaves them no time to work on their business. And if you don’t have the time to work on your business you are putting your business in a very risky place.
The implications of not working on your business
If you don’t make time to work on your business then your business will face major issues.
- Your business growth will be drastically reduced – If you don’t make optimise your business and plan for the future then your growth is likely to be minimal. You will end up in a rut where your business will continue just as it is because you keep on doing the same things. Without the business making changes internally you can’t expect to see a change in your sales and revenue.
- If you achieve business growth you won’t have the structures and systems in place to cope – Now if miraculously, against the odds, your business does manage considerable growth it is likely you won’t have the systems and structures in place to cope. This will result in you being burnt out, standards being to slip or customers not getting the service originally promised. There are stories of companies who scale to fast and this is because their growth didn’t match their expectations and then they couldn’t support the demand.
- You won’t create your dream business – You became a boss for a reason and when you get stuck working on day-to-day activities it is easy to fall into employee mindset and as long as the money is coming in keep on going. However, I’m sure you didn’t start a business just to work. You wanted to create a business you could be proud of, that paid you well and enabled you to life the live of your dreams. To build a truly successful business that supports your life you need to periodically take the time to check in with the bigger picture and ensure what you are creating is still what you want as both you and the business grows.
- You’ll miss out on opportunities – The world is changing and with that comes lots of opportunities. Now as a business you’ll need to decide what is a good opportunity and what isn’t. However, if you are heads down working you’ll not see any of those opportunities and your business will carry on just as it is right now (and most likely will slowly become outdated and die).
Hopefully, by now, you can see how important it is to work on your business and are eager to get going.
9 ways to work ON your business
1. Document your systems and processes
One of the reasons you should work on your business is to streamline/optimist the operational side of your business. Documenting your systems and processes is a great way to get started. When you are documenting a process, it will allow you to really pay attention to whether that is the most efficient way of working. Also, when you have documentation of your systems you are making it easier for you someone else to be able to work in your business, which leads on nicely to…
2. Outsource (or prepare to outsource)
Technically this isn’t a way to work on your business. However, if you really want more time to work on your business than by hiring someone else (aka outsourcing) you’ll be able to free up your time having to work on the day-to-day activities and this will mean you have more time to work on your business. Even if you don’t feel ready to outsource yet a task you could do right down the team you would like to build around you. Write down all of the roles you would like to be filled by other people and then put them in the order you’d like to hire them. Then for the role at the top of the list do some research to find out exactly how much it would cost to hire a person to fulfil that role. Sometimes what we have in our heads is so different to the reality. Gathering the numbers now will help you to be realistic about the real costs and when you can start building your team. This will also help you with another important working on your business task – financial forecasting.
3. Financial Forecasting
When you are working in your business you are likely to be focused on this month. How much revenue have you made this month and how much have you spent? When you are working on your business you start to look more long-term.
Now if you are new to financial forecasting you might start with forecasting for the quarter ahead and when you are a pro you’ll get to the point where you are forecasting for the year ahead.
Looking at your numbers properly and forecasting is a great way to ensure you are scaling at a manageable rate. For example, if you forecast to have an increase in revenue of 10% per quarter for the next 3 quarters then you know you have two options: keep your expenditure the same and increase your profit or invest all (or some) of the increased revenue back into the business. This might mean all of a sudden hiring that Online Business Manager (OBM) is totally possible or you can look at technology to make your business operate more smoothly.
4. Set goals for your business
For business, just as in life, it is vital that you have goals if you want to succeed. When you have goals, it allows you to make informed decisions. For example, earlier I mentioned how as your business grows your to-do list will become longer. When you have clear goals for your business you can access your to-do list and ask yourself “Will completing this task help achieve my business’ goals?”. If it doesn’t it can be deleted. Now when it comes to goals you can have anything from a weekly goal, monthly goal, quarterly goal, annual goal and even a 3/5/10 year goal. I would recommend that you definitely have an annual goal and then you set smaller goals that make sense for how you stay motivated.
5. Create, and write, a plan
Planning is a central part of working on your business. Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” and if you want long-term business success you need a plan. Too often I come across solo and small business owners who don’t have a plan and then they wonder why they are drowning in a to-do list. When you have goals and a plan to achieve those goals you know where you should be focusing your time, energy and money. Now planning varies drastically from business to business. They will vary in terms of the length of time they cover and the depth.
Personally, I recommend that you create an overarching plan for a year. It is enough time for most people to be able to think about making major changes or growth in their business but not too long that they lose interest.
Want to create your 2024 business plan? In my 2024 Strategy Day, I’ll be walking you through my 5-step process to create an actionable plan that will help you to have your best year in business to date. Find out more and apply for a 2024 Strategy Day here.
6. Assess your technology
There has never been a better time to run a business. I primarily work with coaches and consultants and technology is rapidly changing how those businesses operate. Technology has meant that so many tasks can be streamlined or automated altogether. For example, remember how long you used to spend trying to arrange a meeting. With tools like Calendly or Acuity you never have to waste that time again.
With technology changing so quickly it is good to periodically review what technology is out there and see if there any new software or tools that will help you to operate more efficiently.
RELATED: Check out my recommended resources for starting or growing a coaching or consulting business here.
7. Educate Yourself
If you are currently running a business by yourself then the business can only grow in relation to your own personal growth. As the boss or CEO of your business, you need to be making the time to educate and upskill yourself in areas that will support your business. I personally ensure that every single year I make an investment in a course, an event or a conference to ensure that no year goes by without me growing in some way.
The best thing to do is chose a focus and then work out what is the best way for you to improve your knowledge. It could be a book, a course, a workshop, a membership or working 1:1 with someone.
8. Create or refresh your brand
It may be when you first started you didn’t spend much time thinking about your brand. If you are like most coaches or consultants your business is based on your expertise and therefore your personal brand. Newsflash – whether you believe you have a brand or not you already do. Therefore, it is important for you to take control of your brand and try to ensure you are putting out the right messages into the world. Branding is much more than a logo and colours, and especially when we are thinking about looking at your branding as a way to work on your business I would focus on ensuring that your brand values are still true and then consider how you can be sharing those values through everything you do.
9. Assess your external environment
When was the last time you took some time to look at what is happening in the world, in your industry and even your competitors? When it comes to strategic planning a very common tool to use is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses refer to your business and opportunities and threats are uncovered by examining the external world.
You need to get into the practice of regularly taking some time out to look at the external environment. This will ensure that your business stays relevant, you are aware of shifts in your industry and hopefully have the time to identify threats and ensure they don’t have a detrimental impact on your business.
There you have it! You now 9 ways to work on your business, not in your business.
I really hope this blog post has inspired you to make the time to step away from day-to-day activities and focus on your business. If you have enjoyed this post I would love to know in the comments, which tip you are going to follow.
I know how hard it is as a small or solo business owner to make the time to work on your business and that is why I created the Annual Planning Strategy Day. In just one day you’ll get to work on 4 of the areas mentioned above: financial forecasting, goals, planning and educating yourself.
You’ll leave confident about where you want your business to go over the next 12 months and have an action plan to help you achieve it.
If a Annual Planning Strategy Day sounds good to you then book one today!
Want to know a little bit more about what is covered in a 2024 Strategy Day? Click here for more information. Click here for more information.
Prefer ongoing support instead? You can check out my 1:1 Business and Marketing Mentoring here.
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