The Difference Between Working On Vs. In Your Business, And Why It Matters

operations

When I started Jakt, there were plenty of things I didn’t know about running a business. 

I had previous entrepreneurial experience, but this was my first attempt at running a full-blown, service-based company with employees.

It was a big (and challenging) step for me.

There were also things I didn’t know that I didn’t know.

I mean… how could I? I was just figuring things out as I went along.

I don’t believe in mistakes. But I do believe in lessons –and in learning from them. By the time Jakt got acquired, it was a $4M/year business but, looking back, I wish I knew and had done certain things. 

One of those was starting to work “ON the business” vs “IN the business” sooner. 

Before I dive into more details here, I think it’s important to define what do I mean by “in the business” vs “on the business” first.

To be honest, I didn’t really understand what this meant when I used to hear someone say it.

I thought working “on the business” vs “in the business” meant that I was overseeing and managing everything and not doing the actual work.

However, this is not what it means. What it really means (at least to me) is…

Designing the machine that is your business.

Ok, so what does that mean?

It means a business is like a machine that consists of multiple systems. If the systems all work together, then a business can really be a beautiful, well-oiled machine.

The thing is, it doesn’t just happen, just like a machine doesn't just get built. It has to be designed intentionally.

This means taking a step back and understanding what are the different components needed, and then creating the systems and processes such that each component of the machine can run repeatedly and predictably.

This is what working ON the business is all about.

When things are running repeatedly and predictably, it really is a beautiful thing.

Now, this isn’t to say it’s a one-time thing only and then you’re done.

As your business grows and evolves, you will need to continue working on the design and iterating on it.

But the key is…

You don’t have to do this alone.

You can design the machine such that it iterates on itself (meaning the people you have at the company are iterating). And you become the high level architect of everything.

That means potentially setting the vision, the overarching goals of the business for the year, hiring the right management team, getting everyone aligned, then letting them take the lead on the execution and creation of the systems needed.

This is where I got to by the time Jakt got acquired. It took me a little over six years to reach that point. Should you want the same, I want you to do it faster than me.

What I would have done differently to get there sooner:

First, I would have started earlier.

I always thought there was never enough time so I always prioritized the day-to-day needs of the business: client work, executing on it, etc.

If I had to do it all over again, I would begin by separating out a small portion of my time each week that’s only dedicated to working “ON the business” and force myself to do it. This would mean doing things like documenting my processes so that they are repeatable, which makes it more likely that when I hire someone, they can get up to speed super fast and keep up the highest quality of work possible.

It’s important to note that every little addition of working ON the business adds up a ton over time. And the reverse is just as true: not doing this also adds up over time and hurts you, keeping you “IN the business” much longer.

It’s hard to see how it will add up to something and how you can possibly prioritize it over the fires that happen on a daily basis, but trust me, small things add up and compound so much over time and knowing what I know today, I really wish I would have started this sooner.

For example:

By not documenting my sales process in the early years, it meant I was the only one who could do it. 

And just hiring someone to help with sales never worked because I couldn’t onboard them. I thought a salesperson could jump in and figure it out.

You can just imagine how that turned out.

It didn’t work because I didn’t have the system documented so it could be taught and repeatable.

Second, I would’ve hired people who are good at and love creating processes.

Early on, I realized that creating and documenting processes wasn’t something I totally enjoyed. 

I like learning something, then moving on to something else. I don’t really like the documentation of it.

But it’s just so important.

In the early days, I wish I set aside more time and actually just did more of it myself for the things I actually worked on, but I also wish I hired people earlier who could help with this.

By the time I left Jakt, I had a great team who helped me with all of this.

For example, at one point we decided our machine needed a good hiring process. So with my Head of People person we discussed the high level principles that were important for this, how it should flow, etc.

Then, she went and documented and created a repeatable process for how we interview people.

As a result, we ended up with a nice machine that just worked over and over again. And we kept iterating on it. She was always looking at it and looking for ways to improve it then documenting those things and adding them to our process, training people on how to use them, etc.

Your job as the business owner is to set the vision and be the architect behind the machine. 

Depending on the stage of your business or what you enjoy, you may be more hands on “IN the business” or in the documentation of the systems, but don’t neglect working on “ON the business”.

Someone MUST do it and it starts at the top with you.

The great part is you can have leverage by having multiple people on your team all helping with this and hiring great people so you don’t have to do it all alone.

Once you have everyone on the same page about the importance of creating repeatable processes and systems, people will actually start finding the holes and gaps and creating the processes to fix them, so long as they know their end goal and what they are working towards (which is your job to communicate).













































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