7 ways to find more time to work ON your business

Did you know businesses with a business plan grow an average of 30% faster than those without?

However, many business owners get caught in a vicious cycle of working IN their business rather than ON it.

Working IN your business, instead of ON your business, is problematic because it means you have little time to make or execute a business plan, which ensures you climb the ladder of success and reach your goals.

If this problem sounds all too familiar, read on to discover 7 ways to find more time to work ON your business.

What’s the difference between working ON and working IN your business?

Working IN your business is where you spend your time doing the day-to-day operational tasks in your business. For example, your daily tasks that you started out doing, such as client delivery, managing your team or firefighting and overseeing the company’s day-to-day running.

There are five main areas to any business:

Marketing
Sales
Operations
Finance and analysis
People and team.

Working IN the five main business areas is essential, and someone has to do it – but that someone doesn’t have to be you.

Whereas working ON your business is where you focus on your company’s future, so you dedicate your time to tasks that grow and support your business, such as determining your vision, mission and cultural statement, developing your business’s strategic direction and goals and communicating all of these to your team to ensure you all know where the business is going and what you need to do to get there.

When you work ON your business, you’ll also spend time finding solutions to remove friction within it.

For example, if you have unmotivated team members, you would have time to develop a plan to address the issue. This plan could include encouraging open communication and feedback sessions to increase employee engagement or running team-building exercises to ensure your team is engaged with your business and one another.

Every business owner understands that working ON a business is essential for its growth and success, but it’s easy to convince yourself that other things are more important or need to be done before you start planning and strategising for your business.

There are hundreds of motivational quotes that come to mind, including:

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” – Lord Chesterfield
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa
“Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.” – Robert Kiyosaki.

But how do you find more time to work ON your business instead of IN it? Here are seven ways to save time, which in turn allows you to focus on growing your business and achieving your goals.

1. Track your time

You first need to track your time and detail how your day is spent, such as client meetings, emails, invoices, or phone calls. You can track your time as detailed as you want, I.e., you could fill in what you’re doing every hour, half an hour or 15 minutes – just make sure you’re honest!

There are a variety of apps or tools available, such as Toggl or Clockify, but if you’d rather keep your time tracking simple, you can download our default diary template and use the template as a time log to note down what tasks you’re doing and when.

Once you have an overview of how you’re spending your time, you can then use the Skill Fun Matrix to determine what you enjoy doing most in the business, what needs to be done and the level of skill required to do the task.

Using the diagram below, put each task into the Skill Fun Matrix depending on the skill required and the fun/interest you have in the task. High skill and high fun/interest tasks are most rewarding to you as a business owner.

Skill Fun Matrix

Plotting your tasks on the Skill Fun Matrix allows you to see where your interests in the business lie and what tasks you don’t enjoy doing, thus the ones that you can delegate. Determining what you can delegate frees up your time, but it‘s not the only D that you should consider.

While looking at your Skill Fun Matrix, you should also consider the four D‘s to determine the most important tasks and the least important tasks:

Do it – This task takes priority, and you need to stop what you’re doing to address it.
Delegate it – This task is important, but one of your team can deal with it.
Defer it – This task can be done later; set a date and time when you can complete it.
Dump it – This task isn’t worth your time or effort and can be ignored.

This task is designed to free up your time, which in turn allows you to work ON the business. However, there are a variety of time-saving exercises you can do that can help you create more time to spend working ON your business.

2. Delegate to your team

Delegating tasks to your team frees up your time, so you can work ON your business instead of IN it. As well as freeing up your time, delegating to your team also shows you trust and value your team, which boosts morale and team engagement.

Delegating to your team works best when you assign tasks in accordance with their strengths, define a clear outcome, provide the right resources and establish an open communication channel. Once your team completes the tasks, providing feedback and giving credit where it’s due is also important.

3. Outsource tasks

You and your team can save a lot of time (which for your team can be reallocated for other business tasks or for you, can be reallocated for working ON your business) by outsourcing tasks you don’t need to do, aren’t as skilled in, don’t enjoy doing, or that take up too much of your time.

Outsourcing tasks, such as general admin, copywriting, social media management, bookkeeping, customer support or shipping and logistics, frees you (and your team) to focus on more high-value tasks that enable you to grow and scale the business.

4. Automate manual processes and systems

Automating manual processes and systems can save you and your team time and stress.

You might have kept the manual processes because you’re afraid of the cost, but often, there are affordable online apps or software programs that can streamline your manual processes and systems and save you time that you can spend working ON the business.

What can you automate? There’s no shortage of technology or AI software which enables you to do your tasks quicker and easier, but here are some suggestions to help get you started:

Use online tools/software to create templates for frequently used documents
Save common email responses as templates in your draft folder
Automate your social media posts with a scheduling tool
Schedule your marketing in advance (such as social media and blog posts)
Set up recurring reports and invoices.

5. Default diary

Once you’ve delegated tasks to your team, outsourced tasks and automated processes, it’s time to input and keep track of your time using a default diary.

The default diary helps you organise your time by identifying which tasks you should be doing and when it’s the best time to do them. For example, if you have more energy in the morning, allocate and block out time in your diary to complete your biggest tasks.

Allocating and blocking out time is a strategy that many successful business owners and CEOs use, as it allows them to block out all other distractions and fully focus on specific tasks or projects.

The most important thing for the default diary isn’t when you do it but that you do it. We recommend you set a timer, turn your phone on silent, turn your notifications off and avoid checking your emails while you complete your tasks during the allocated time.

Don’t forget to download your default diary template now.

6. Avoid procrastination

If you’re guilty of procrastinating when it comes to the bigger tasks, try breaking big projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. For example, if hiring a new team member is an overwhelmingly large task, you could break it down into:

Task one: Identifying the characteristics, skills and experience your ideal candidate has
Task two: Creating a job description
Task three: Posting the job advert
Task four: Reviewing CVs and choosing potential candidates
Task five: Interviewing candidates and selecting a candidate who is a good fit for your business.

7. Get accountability

If working IN your business is habitual, removing yourself from it and finding time to work ON your business is challenging. To overcome this challenge, we recommend you find a way to ensure you keep on track with your goals.

One way to get accountability is by creating detailed plans and sticking to them. However, it’s often easier to let yourself down than anyone else. That’s why it’s important to share your plans with friends and family and ask them to hold you accountable; that way, you’ll be more inclined to spend time working ON your business.

Friends and family can give you accountability, but if they don’t necessarily understand what you’re doing or your goals, finding a business coach might be more beneficial.

Why? Because business coaches can facilitate business development, improve profitability, track your progress and encourage accountability.

It’s time to work ON your business, not just IN it

Are you struggling to find time to work ON your business?

At Bill Squires Business Coaching, we’ve worked with hundreds of clients who were just like you, but since working ON their business, they’ve scaled their companies, increased their profits and reached their professional and personal goals.

What’s the difference between working ON and working IN your business?