In one of my favorite business books, E-Myth, Michael Gerber hits on what might be one of the most fundamental (and critical) factors for success in business ownership: You need to make time to work on your business, not just in it.
This is true for all types of business, but it feels truest in the business-to-business world. We’re a marketing agency. We help our clients develop highly-targeted strategies for social media use, preach consistency, and push them to become thought leaders. So often, we come last on the list for our own services, though. Not good in a world whose unofficial motto is “Eat your own dog food.”
And we’re not alone. We hear our clients say time and time again, “I don’t have time to blog/Facebook/Twitter. I have my hands full running my business.” But a business needs it’s owner(s) to spend time working on it to make it better, more nimble, better attuned to its clients’ needs. That includes writing about it, reading about it, attending seminars and workshops, and networking. These are the things that not only make our businesses thrive, but keep us as business owners passionate about our work inside of it.
Not working on your business leads to stagnation. The tools, technologies, processes, and entire industries change quickly in today’s market. The time you put into knowing more about your industry in it’s present state, in it’s future state, puts not only your business in a better position, but it puts your clients in a better position. And ultimately, that’s what a customer buys.
How we do it
As I said before, social media is not an industry where you can ignore your own business. One of the first things I learned was that if I made myself available every hour of every day, well, clients would book me any hour of any day. Neovia Solutions was at the very bottom of the Neovia Solutions client roster, and at the very bottom of the to-do list of a first-time entrepreneur. How much face time do you think Neovia Solutions got with it’s lead strategist?
About three harried months into full-time ownership, I finally realized I needed to take control of my schedule and make time for the number one money-making, lead-generating, business-building tool I had – my time. I set a day aside (Wednesdays) and called it Neovia day. It’s blocked off on my calendar. No one can schedule appointments on Wednesdays. I am simply unavailable. I don’t even step foot in the office on Wednesdays if I can help it.
I can hear the excuses rolling in now. “I can’t do that.” “My business doesn’t operate that way.” “My clients need me.” You will have the time to work on your business only when you make yourself available for it.
Don’t worry though. If you don’t have time to work on your business right now, you will soon. Because a business owner who only works in his business will eventually fold under it.
The way I figure, I’ll make time for the important stuff, big meetings, client pitches, etc. At the end of a long day (and let’s face it, nearly every day is a long day), what gets cut from the list is my own business.
I don’t make excuses. I make a date with my business. And I keep it.
Photo credit: kittyz202 via Flickr.
Holly,
Loving it. It’s funny, we all talk about the new technology, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to things that we learned from the Rockefellers, things that we were taught by Dale Carnegie.
Business doesn’t change, the tools do, but business doesn’t. If we don’t make time to clean house, to make the changes in ourselves and in our business, you said it perfectly, we’ll have plenty of time to do all that, because we’ll have nothing but time to do it while our competition rises above, and we fall behind.
Thanks for sharing this Holly.
Comment by Matthew Egan — October 26, 2010 @ 8:25 am
Absolutely, Matt! It seems like people stick social media in a world of its own and don’t think to apply the things we already know about business and relationships to it. The same rules apply. We’ve got to make the time to work on our business, make our product or services better, make our operations run smoother, educate our employees more, find the kinks in our processes and smooth them out. If Google can give their employees one day a week to work on their own ideas or projects outside of their usual tasks and they see the benefits, surely we as business owners can give ourselves a day to work on our our businesses and see the benefits as well.
Comment by Holly — October 27, 2010 @ 7:03 am
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