Working in the business vs on it: the real cost

Key takeaways

Working in the business means doing the delivery and admin yourself. Working on the business means improving how it runs: pricing, people, systems and sales. An owner who does everything in-house personally spends almost no time on the second, and the business stays the size of their own capacity.

• Working in the business: delivery, admin and firefighting.
• Working on it: pricing, systems, people and sales.
• Staying in it costs a business that cannot grow or be sold.
• 4 hours a week on the business is a realistic first target.

What does working on the business mean?

Working on the business is time spent improving the business itself, as opposed to serving today's customers. It includes reviewing prices, fixing recurring problems, developing staff, building sales channels and planning. It is the work that makes next year different from this year.

• The hidden costs of doing everything in-house
• Important but not urgent: the work that never gets done

What does it cost to stay in the business?

Staying in the business costs the improvements that never happen. A price review postponed for a year, a recurring error never fixed, a key hire never made: each has a value, and none sends an invoice. The cost also shows in the sale value of a business that cannot run without its owner.

• The opportunity cost of doing everything in-house
• Cost of delay: what waiting costs a small business

Why can owners not find the time?

Owners cannot find the time because urgent work always wins. Customers, staff and suppliers all ask for today's answer. Work on the business has no deadline, so it is always the task that moves. Doing every function in-house and personally guarantees the urgent pile never empties.

• Doing everything yourself in business: what it costs
• Owner working too many hours? When to outsource

How do you shift the balance?

Shift the balance by booking the time first and then removing work to protect it. Good intentions do not survive a busy week; a diary block and a shorter task list do.

• Block a fixed half day a week and treat it as a client meeting.
• List what you do that someone else could.
• Hand over the most routine item each month.
• Keep a short list of on-the-business projects, one active at a time.
• Review progress monthly with someone who will ask.

• How to delegate as a business owner
• A stop doing list for your business

When is working in the business right?

Working in the business is right when you are the product, such as a consultant or craftsperson whose skill customers are buying, and when you are deliberately staying small. Even then, a few hours a month on pricing and systems pays for itself.

• Stepping back from the day-to-day: what to hand off

What should the first on-the-business projects be?

Choose first projects that free more time or raise margin, so the effort funds itself.

• A price review: often the highest return for the fewest hours.
• Writing down the three processes only you can run.
• Fixing the most frequent customer complaint at its cause.
• Setting up one reliable source of enquiries.
• Deciding which customers or services to stop serving.

How do you protect the time once it is booked?

Protect it the way you would protect a meeting with your best customer. Put it in the diary at the same time each week, leave the building or close the door, and tell the team what counts as a reason to interrupt. Give someone authority to handle everything else for those hours.

Expect the first few sessions to be broken into. Each time, note what broke in and deal with that cause, whether it is a missing procedure, an approval only you can give or a phone that only you answer.

How do you know it is working?

It is working when the business needs you for fewer routine things each quarter. Useful signs are a shorter list of owner-only tasks, a week away without a backlog, and at least one completed improvement project every month or two. If the protected time is being spent catching up on delivery, the routine load has not yet been reduced enough.

• Important but not urgent: the work that never gets done

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see with owner-managers: prices have not changed in three years because there has never been a quiet week to review them. The first protected half day goes on a price review, which pays for the support that made the half day possible.

Across our client work, owners have got 31 hours a week back once routine admin moved to a managed team.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Checklist: more time on the business

Start with these.

• Estimate your current hours on the business per week.
• Block a recurring half day.
• Choose one improvement project.
• Hand over one routine task to protect the time.
• Review after four weeks.

• The hidden cost audit: score your business in an hour

Next step

Tell us what fills your week. We will help you find the first four hours to work on the business in a 30-minute call.