(You can get this blog in video format here)
Many business owners get into business because they feel they are good at doing their work as the “technician”. Little do they know that a good business not only requires a good “technician” but also a good “manager”. And this struggle between being both the technician and the business manager is what a lot of business owners have to deal with. So in this blog, I’d like to give you some business coaching around this struggle.
Small business owners are very good at doing their “technician” tasks. This could be whatever they were trained on. So if they went to school for Interior Designer, then their tasks as an interior designer would be considered “working in the business”. This is simple and easy for those that work for someone because they are only asked to do “in the business” tasks. But when they start to run their own business, there are many “on the business” tasks that suddenly falls on their lap which they have had no prior training on. Unfortunately, this comes as an unwelcome surprise for many small business owners.
Their time is often conflicted between these two types of tasks and most of the time, they choose to work “in the business” because those tasks are more urgent. These could be project deadlines and production tasks. The more they work on these, the more the “on the business” tasks gets pushed back.
But in reality, working on the business is actually more important for the overall company health. If you are always in the weeds and never looking up to guide the business, then the business never heads in the right direction and your business doesn’t grow.
An analogy of this would be if you were in a large corn maze. You’re on the ground, fumbling around to find the right path out of the maze, but all you do is go in circles and circles. This is what it’s like if you were only taking care of the technician tasks. You’re in the weeds and although very busy, your business isn’t getting any further towards your end goal. Now, what if you had a tall ladder and you can set that up and climb up above the tall corn stalks and actually see where the exit is. Well, this is what its like if you were working “on the business”. These are tasks like visioning, planning your org. chart, and strategic hires for your team. All of these tasks helps to steer the company in the right direction according to your goals.
So my business coaching tip here for business owners caught in this struggle is to block out some time in their week to work “on the business”. Its easier if it’s the same time every week and make that time sacred because then you won’t have any distractions. Make sure that you are disciplined to not do any other work during this time except for on the business tasks. If you are unsure of how much time to block out, start with a good 80/20 rule. Use 80 % of your time for In the business tasks and 20% will be blocked out to work on the business.
If you can do this for 90 days, it will become routine and a habit. At that point, it will be much easier to keep to the schedule and if you do this religiously for 6 months, then I can guarantee that you will start to see your company move forward towards its goals.
If you can’t seem to find your way out of your maze, I can show you the way out.
