7 Ways to Work ON Your Business Instead of IN Your Business (FS184)

Overwhelmed. Submerged. Swamped. Engulfed. This is what it feels like to become lost inside your business.

• You get lost in the necessary day to day operations.
• You get lost wasting months on an elusive project that never gets finished.
• You get lost in the fog of un-motivation. (Or is it “de-motivation”?)
• You get lost in the anxiety and worry of declining metrics.

No matter the skill level, at one point or another all entrepreneurs get lost like this. So much so that it has a name.

It’s called working IN your business instead of working ON your business.

When you’re working ON your business crazy things happen. Things like fresh ideas, camaraderie, confidence and vacations.

Mmmmmm… that’s what we got into this thing for, that’s why we became entrepreneurs in the first place, to design our own lives, to pursue what we wanted to pursue, to cultivate freedom.

So today we want to show you why your business pushes you until you’re overwhelmed. We also want to show you some tricks we’ve learned that, when used properly, will keep you confident and motivated to untangle any problems that come your way.

That’s what we’re talking about today on the Fizzle Show. Enjoy!

Quick notes on the points brought:

The notes below are especially helpful once you’ve listened to the episode where we share more about how to implement these steps in modern life.

STEPH:

1. Evaluate things you’re doing and make sure they actually matter. We all have these assumed tasks: spend time on twitter or email. BUT do those things REALLY matter? (Note: this is a really important one, we go deep into this one in the episode.)
2. Intentionally choose 3 things to do a day and nothing more. Especially powerful when mixed with Chase’s #1. This act itself is working ON your business; the tasks you write down, however, may not be. So be intentional here.

CORBETT:

1. Try to work yourself out of a job by delegating, hiring and using other services. Most of us start by doing 100% of the work ourselves. Start trying to work yourself out of a job in certain roles like, customer support, website design and development, writing, or any other roles you could hire out. You’ll find you have a lot of time to focus on other things, potentially more important things for the future of your business.
2. Focus on repeatable systems and inclusive or extensible tools that don’t necessarily require a person to work them. Then create training so new people you add to the team can get up and running quickly without you needing to reinvent the wheel and train people every time.

CHASE:

1. Get clear about WHERE you want to go with your business and WHY you want to go there. Which is your goal? “be an entrepreneur? make xxxx per month? retire at xxx age? make a meaningful impact on xxxxx? be able to afford to eat organically and gluten free?” Which is it? The words matter because if that wise, sensitive part of you doesn’t buy it, you’ll be back IN the business again in the future. So it’s clarity about where you want to go and why. Steph summarized this as “start with the desired result and work backwards.”
2. Corbett stole my #2 🙁

Show Notes

The E-Myth Revisited

2 Experts Share Exactly How to Use a Productivity Journal (& Increase Productivity by 23%) FS099

Corbett’s Favorite Lacroix flavor:

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE BY POPULAR DEMAND HERE IS YOUR NEW FLAVOR OF LA CROIX: SHRAMPS pic.twitter.com/ethxjqyVuY

— David McCreath (@mccreath) May 13, 2016