Balance as a Newbie Entrepreneur
What is the line between working enough, and working too much? Understanding this line and finding a way to balance it as a newbie entrepreneur is a challenge. However, it’s important to keep this balance no matter where you are at in the entrepreneur experience. Basically, whether you are seasoned, experienced, or starting over, it’s a critical concept to understand and be aware of. This concept is simply understanding the difference between “working on your business” and “working in your business”. Switching one little letter in that sentence makes a huge change which impacts on your business and your life. Read on to understand this foundational concept of being an entrepreneur, and how to find a balance.
Working IN your business
Working in your business is what most business owners do at the start. This is the stage of wearing all the hats, juggling all the tasks, and being hands-on with every step of the customer journey. Generally, it means managing social media, marketing, processing sales, delivering what your customers bought, responding to all enquiries and questions, and doing all bookkeeping and administration.
Also, what this looks like specifically depends on the sector and nature of your business. It could mean that you are printing labels deep into the night and packaging product to deliver the next morning. It may be opening and closing the store every day, and being there for every hour in between. Or it could be full days doing the plumbing, pruning, grooming or Zooming to keep the revenue flowing in.
The importance of working IN your business
This working IN your business is valuable at any stage; when you are newly starting out, it’s everything. If you are spending all your time being hands on in your business and doing all the work, that’s ok. What is important is that you recognize it, and understand the difference between working IN and working ON your business, so that you can have balance as a newbie entrepreneur. Which brings us to…..
What is working ON your business?
Working on your business means stepping back from the daily details of delivering a product or service to see the big picture. It’s the macro to the micro. It’s planning, not execution. Reviewing, not doing. Here are examples of working on your business:
Reviewing Marketing Metrics
How effective is your marketing? Did that last campaign get your better results? You'll never know until you take the time to review ROI, conversion rates, cost per click, and other vital metrics.
Monitoring Profitability
What is your most profitable product or service? You may be surprised when you run the numbers. Knowing this helps you make smart decisions for your business.
Market Research
What are your competitors doing? Not just their pricing strategy, but also the entire customer experience they provide. SWOT analysis and understanding your competitors gives you the data you need to know how to compete.
Analyse Customer Feedback
What do your customers think of your business? This feedback is not just an opportunity to improve your offering. It's also a chance to spot a need that is NOT being met - which means more revenue and loyalty.
Balance as an Entrepreneur
You may think – wait, I do work on my business! My bookkeeping is up to date, I know my numbers, I plan promotions, build social media campaigns around it, and keep the sales funnel full. Great! But do you also work in your business? Are you in the store, on the ground, working directly with customers and employees? That’s ok also. Certainly, some businesses require more working IN than others. For example, health and wellness professionals (massage therapist, chiropractor, counsellor) tend to work in their business more than someone who, say, opened a retail store and hired staff to run it.
The question is balance. If working on AND working in means no time for family, life, leisure, and fun – this is not sustainable. Or sane! This leads to burnout, which happens frequently to business owners. For the sake of your health and the long term viability of your business, start making small changes to get balance back in your life.
Another key point is neglecting the working ON. As a result, this causes a loss of balance. It’s common to neglect the administrative, analytical, and strategic tasks of running a business. After all, it’s easy to get fully immersed with the daily demands of customers and operations. It’s very risky to lose this balance as a newbie entrepreneur, and there is a true story to explain why:
Losing balance as an entrepreneur: a true story
This really happened. Don’t let it happen to you!
Manny started up a floor refinishing business with a friend. They bought the equipment, did the training, set up a great website, got business cards printed, and joined a networking group.
Basically, all the right things.
And guess what?
It WORKED!
They landed a few big contracts and was busy doing the work.
But they were working IN their business.
And they stopped making time to work ON their business.
What do you think happened?
The email box was full of unread messages. Letter mail piled up, unopened. Basic admin and bookkeeping wasn’t getting done.
But then, they finished the contracts. The work was completed.
And they had ZERO new contracts lined up.
Not only that, they had ZERO leads.
It gets worse.
Their website was gone.
GONE.
Actually, no. Their URL was now being used by a new company. Because they had let their domain expire. So a competitor bought it and directed it to their own site.
So now Google searches for Manny’s business was bring potential customers to a competitor.
Essentially, Manny had to build his business all over again.
The lesson here is to keep working ON your business.
Tips for New Entrepreneurs
First, know the difference between working ON and working IN your business. And make time for it as part of your regular schedule. Check out the classic book by Michael Gerber who explains it best in The E-Myth Revisited.
Second, do your research and make data-driven decisions for your business. Don’t make assumptions. Every business is different. What worked for one may not work for you. And just because someone else failed to make an idea a success doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity for you to make it work.
Last, don’t sink into the day to day running of your business. Stay aware of your big-picture strategy and long term goals for being an entrepreneur. And you don’t have to do it alone. Look at getting a mentor or business coach to create space for reflection, analysis, and brainstorming.
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