Work ON your business, not IN your business

I read a whole book recently.

This is much more of an achievement than you might imagine because I’m not a big reader. I get too easily distracted and rarely complete an entire tome. Truth be told I struggle with a long newspaper article (I know, I know – a shocking admission for an ex-journalist!)

But The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It is an insightful read for any small business owner.

It’s actually been around since 1986 – two years before CW was a glimmer in my eye. And the essential message remains as relevant today.

It suggests owners of SMEs tend to spend way too much time getting their hands dirty and doing stuff – working IN their business – rather than focusing on the bigger picture and developing new opportunities – working ON their business.

I don’t disagree with the sentiment but it’s not always that straightforward in the real world.

Let’s face it, most businesses are started by people who are good at making something or doing something rather than being good at running a business. But before long, if things go well, they suddenly have to be experts in HR, Finance, Procurement, IT, Sales & Marketing etc etc all at once.

If you’re a business owner I’m sure you love what you do – or at least you used to, even if you’re not so keen on all the baggage that now comes with being the boss. But if you can discipline yourself to focus on what you do best, and as far as possible hire other people to do what they do best, you’ll reduce the burden on yourself and be in a much more positive frame of mind about your business as a whole.

Which is where we can help by the way…

Creating content to get your business noticed and talked about is what CW does best. So, if finding the time and inspiration to keep all your marketing communication channels constantly refreshed, lively and relevant is proving to be one more burden you could do without, we’re only a phone call or email away.