Are You Spending Too Much Time Working In Your Business?

Are You Spending Too Much Time Working In Your Business?

I have a client – I’ll call him John – who has a manufacturing business. He considered himself fairly successful, but he wasn’t very happy or excited about his success. He was feeling stuck, and he was mentally and physically exhausted in his business. Stay tuned to hear how we were able to get John some relief.

When I first met John, he was spending crazy hours at work, and really felt like he was on a hamster wheel – just running like crazy to keep the business moving forward. He was involved in every aspect of his business and either doing or supervising everything himself.  When I asked him what his vision for the company was, and what specific goals he had targeted for this year, he kind of gave me a deer in the headlights sort of stare. Then he shrugged and said that he didn’t have time to worry about strategy – he was doing everything he could just to keep the company on track. He was working completely IN his business and hadn’t taken the opportunity to take a step back and work ON his business at a higher level. He had created a strategic plan once a few years ago but hadn’t done anything with it since then.

What John didn’t realize was that some of his exhaustion and some of his frantic running of his business could be alleviated by spending some time away from the actual day to day activities and setting some higher level goals for his company. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but it is true! Taking the time to work ON the business – developing a strategy, setting measurable goals, determining specific actions to take to move the business forward, will actually help you gain traction and make positive strides in the business.

John and I began a rhythm of working together specifically ON the business. We focused on identifying measurable goals for the business, and took a look at some major projects that once accomplished would give him a bit more freedom and flexibility in his business. He also committed to taking a designated amount of time each and every week to track results, look at progress against goals, and spend some time “sharpening his saw”  through reading book summaries and watching some relevant TED talks. At first it was tough for him to pull back from the day to day craziness – but after several weeks of his commitment, he began to see some results – he felt like he had a better grip on his company. He knew right where he was against his goals at all times, and he began to develop a plan to decrease his involvement in the day to day operations and spend more time focused on his growth objectives. He began to actively groom his team, and began delegating more and more. The time he spent working ON his business really allowed the business to grow. Now, just about a year later, John is a new guy – he’s not the same stressed out business owner I met originally. He is more relaxed and has managed to recapture some of the joy he had when he originally started his company. Sound like something you’d like to feel? If so, give me a call at (440) 655-4755 and let’s have a conversation. I’d like to help you focus and thrive in your business.

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