How Much Should You Work IN vs. ON Your Business

Are you working enough ON your business? Here are some tips to help you better balance and manage your time.

Do you love hats? Many business owners we come across at myCEO seem to absolutely love their hats… and it’s our job to help them curb their love of this fashion accessory!

Business owners, especially women, want to do “all the things” in their business. When you are a sole proprietor or have a small team, this is not the most efficient way to run your business. Often this means working too much on areas that you’re not proficient in or really passionate about doing.

But how do you know how much to spend on each area of your business and when to delegate or hire staff to help? That’s what we’re going to talk about today

Workin IN vs ON your business

We believe we should be spending 70% of our time IN our business, and 30% ON our business. During that 70%, you should be doing revenue-generating activities like client work, fulfilling orders…etc. The other 30% is essential for your business and includes non-revenue generating activities like business strategy, marketing activities, planning, admin tasks, and personal development. But it’s when that 70% starts creeping up for long periods of time, that your productivity and profits start to suffer.

Many entrepreneurs spend more time working IN their business for many reasons. Maybe they are procrastinating? Maybe they’re just comfortable there? Maybe there are time management issues to work on.

Once you shift your thinking and mindset and really focus on working on that revenue-generating 30% of your time, guess what will happen? You’ll generate more revenue! I know it’s shocking!

If you’re finding yourself working more IN your business than In your business, here are some tips and a resource that can help.

Tips for working ON your business

To be more productive on the right revenue-generating tasks for your business, here are some actionable tips that may help you refocus.

• Optimize your cash flow. If cash flow in your business makes you worry, you may not be able to focus on your tasks at hand. Look for ways to optimize and streamline your cash flow by hiring a business consultant or accountant for assistance with your finances.
• Find accountability partners. Having support from your peers is crucial for your business. Find a couple of people (or a mastermind group) where you can brainstorm and work through your issues with the help from someone with a different perspective. You can also look for accountability partners to help you stay accountable to your 70/30 rule or any other business projects or habits you need.
• Hire and/or delegate. If you have employees or contractors, make sure you’re not spending too much time “babysitting” them. Evaluate their skills and work and if your spending more time fixing their work or in taking care of them, then maybe it’s time to consider finding someone new for the role.
• Prioritize your time. You’ve probably said the phrase “there just aren’t enough hours in the day,” at some point in your life. If you have, chances are your time wasn’t being well managed. Look for ways to better manage your time, by using time trackers, blocking off specific chunks of time every day or week to very specific tasks, or just turning off distractions (bye Facebook) so you can focus and get more done.
• Define processes and procedures. Every business should be recording their processes and procedures from day one. This helps you be more consistent in how you are executing activities, and it makes it easier to one day outsource or hire help to carry out some of these tasks that you may not want to do. If these fall under the 30% ON your business, you could easily send the process documents over to that person, freeing you up to work on the 70% IN your business.

But one of our greatest tips for helping you achieve success in 2020 and beyond is to join a mastermind, and we just began a great one that focuses on your personal development…

The Personal Development Mastermind

With the busy female entrepreneur in mind, we recently launched the Professional Development Mastermind with our friends at Hervana Coworking Collective. This small group mastermind takes place over 3 months and will include a custom curriculum based on what the members in our group need right now.

Glorie and Betty will bring in subject matter experts on any business topic you need. The entire group will meet in person every 2 weeks and have access to online support between sessions. We’re also excited to share that all mastermind members will get free access to the Hervana Coworking Space while they are in the program.

So not only are you joining the mastermind to focus on your personal growth, but you’re getting that much-needed space to work IN your business with the included coworking space membership!

If you would like to grab your spot in this program, fill in a mastermind application form and we’ll get back to you ASAP to talk about what you need and make sure the program is right for you.