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4 Ways to Work On Your Business

Peter Kozodoy logo Posted Thursday October 13th, 2016 4 Ways to Work On Your Business

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Just like the flavors of your favorite ice cream shop, entrepreneurs come in all kinds of varieties. But, at the core, entrepreneurs typically reside in two categories: Career Creators and Business Growers.

Career creators are your friendly neighborhood baker, florist, and wealth management firm. Business Growers are The Cake Boss, 1-800-Flowers and JP Morgan Chase. So, what's the difference? There are, of course, many differences between the entrepreneur who creates a good living for herself and the entrepreneur who scales a company and sells to Microsoft for $100 million. But, at the core, there is one thing that makes good entrepreneurs great.

  • Good entrepreneurs work in the business 90% of the time, and on the business 10% of the time.
  • Great entrepreneurs work in the business 10% of the time, and on the business 90% of the time.

The advice isn't new: work on the business, not in the business. If you Google that phrase, you'll get 1.6 billion results (trust me, I checked). But, actually transitioning from one ratio to the other can be difficult for most. So, to make things a bit easier for all you entrepreneurs out there, here's a checklist to help you on your way:

  1. Hire correctly. This is critical, but easier than you might expect. Typically the problem here is that the entrepreneur isn't looking for the right criteria in a candidate. Many entrepreneurs look for subordinates to take support positions within the company, which still leaves the entrepreneur in a critical and time-consuming role. Instead, if you want to scale up and rise above, consider looking forleaders to take over your role.
  2. Be OK with 80%. Even if you find someone with the passion and leadership skills to take over your job responsibilities, you still won't see the job get done to your exacting standards. No one can do it as well as you can - that's probably why you're an entrepreneur in the first place! But, you can find many people who can do the job 80% of the way to your standard, and that's OK. A lot of 80% adds up to 90% of your time getting free to work on the business, which pays incredible dividends as your business grows and scales.
  3. Fire yourself. Some entrepreneurs find talented leaders, coach them to achieve 80%, and then never let go. Call it egotistic, call it obsessive, call it crazy, but it happens because of the very passion we needed when we started the business. When you give away your old roles, redirect your passion to your new role.
  4. Enjoy your new role. What is your new role, you ask? It's simple: a truly great entrepreneur is a consultant to her or his company. That's it. If you only work on actual company tasks for 10% of your time, you can spend 90% of your time building networks, advising your leadership team, exploring new opportunities, developing new business, enhancing your thought leadership and building your personal brand, all of which will contribute to the success of your growing company.

Sometimes things are easier said than done; but in this case, the road is clearly defined and easily achievable. Trust me, I've done it. The hardest part wasn't finding people to replace me. The hardest part was trusting my process and having the courage to fire myself from my daily jobs. Now that I have, I see that getting fired was one of the best things that ever happened for my business. And that's how you make a pink slip turn into something wonderfully green.

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