Working on your business versus working in your business
In 2019, I negotiated with my current employment to reduce my working days to 4 days a week. The impetus was for me to explore my desire to "consult" or be creative within the wine industry network. In addition to being permanently employed, I am a shareholder in a distillery as well as about to embark on a personal wine wine brand with a good friend. I required this time to focus some energy into these avenues. The day that we happened to agree upon was a Wednesday whereby I could work remotely exploring avenues of winemaking, creativity and consultation that was outside my normal working parameters. I registered my business and labelled myself as "No Work Wednesdays", the day whereby I would dedicate to innovate, experience and differentiate.
The first month that I worked from home was a dream. I had arranged my time to suit my need to be creative, perform normal work related tasks as well as spend more time with my children. Within no time, I was absorbed into the vortex of work activities that centered around administration, logistics and production management. I had effectively sacrificed creativity for normal, operating work or better known for "working IN your business".
Whats the difference though?
Working ON your business can be defined as:
- Strategic planning
- Research and development
- Designing and planning
- Learning and education
- Setting goals
- Automating processes and creating systems
- Talking with mentors, consultants or business coaches
Working IN your business can be defined as:
- Administrative work
- Meeting clients
- Dealing with conflicts
- Paying invoices and invoicing clients
- Product manufacturing
- Delivering a service
- Marketing management and execution
- Sales management and execution
As can be seen by the list above, working IN your business is governed by the activities which make the business run. Everything from opening your business in the morning, deploying and coordinating employees to work together, manufacturing products and deploying services to the management of creating and retaining customers. Although these practices are crucial to the sustainability of the business, they do not allow the business to scale.
After working in the wine industry for nearly 20 years, I have discovered that most businesses spend the majority of their time "working IN their business" We are all culprits of this trend as it is very easy to be transfixed or caught in the web of daily operational activities. In order to scale your business, you need to be able to physically remove yourself from the normal day to day operations and find the time to work ON your business or develop your own No Work Wednesdays.
Here are some tips on how you can create your own No Work Wednesday days.
1. Create the time
How many people do you know who are constantly busy, diary is always full and never have the time. We are all guilty of this! We become so self absorbed with our own activities that we sometimes forget that it is just work that we are attempting to complete. You have to find the time to be creative in order to work ON your business. It has to be a dedicated time every week whereby you shut everything out and work on the creative aspects of your business. If your business can afford the time, or is large enough to have more than one employee, I would advise that you dedicate at least one day a week to this practice. Create your own No Work Wednesday!
2. Create a suitable environment
Committing the time to work ON your business requires a suitable environment to stimulate discussion and new ideas. This cannot be done in your office, in the boardroom or any other physical space that is within your working environment. Up until recently, coffee houses have been the preferred "creative spaces" that people have used for such meetings. They are still great spaces to host creative discussions but you are confined either to a table or a couch.
It is the year 2020. Society is geared towards becoming more healthy, more socially responsible and just more in line with becoming a better person. Instead of confining yourself to office space, rather use the time to conduct your creative sessions by going for a walk, or a run, or a paddle. Whenever I have hit a brick wall in terms of a completing a creative task, I will always put my running shoes on hit the road. I can say with absolute confidence that by the end of my run, I have figured out or solved the problem I was dealing with. Doing big - picture work in a new environment triggers your brain to want to think differently.
3. IDENTIFY THE IMPORTANT "ON" ACTIVITIES
It is important to establish which "working ON your business" activities your business requires. At this point, it is also necessary to include a list of "working IN your business" activities so that you are clear on which is which.
To make it easier on yourself, you can also subdivide your business into categories or operational departments, namely; vineyard, winery, product, marketing, sales, team and finance. Either way, first determine the field in which you are going to work ON and apply your individual or combined creative efforts towards the task.
4. DO YOU NEED HELP?
I have found that brand or winery owners have worked so long within their respective systems, that they find it difficult to remove themselves from the "working IN the business" mindset.
You need to be honest with yourself about your strengths. If you require the help, this is where a business coach or a creative consultant is required. This person merely provides a objective, outsiders view while also stimulating the members of the team or individual to rethink their current view of the system.
Finally, you need to consider that time"working ON your business" to sharpen your systems, create new strategies, redefine your product mix, modify your business model is a long term investment. If you are committed and dedicated to make the change within yourself and your business, you will reap the rewards.