{"id":10088,"date":"2021-04-23T13:52:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T17:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/?p=10088"},"modified":"2021-04-23T13:53:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T17:53:57","slug":"growing-your-business-8-steps-to-working-on-your-business-instead-of-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/growing-your-business-8-steps-to-working-on-your-business-instead-of-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Your Business: 8 Steps to Working On Your Business Instead of In It\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fullwidth\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Almost every small business owner knows how easy it is to spend time putting out fires and tackling the \u201curgent\u201d tasks that come up. But your business can\u2019t grow until you move past the urgent and focus on what is truly important.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may have heard the phrase \u201cworking on your business instead of in it.\u201d This refers to the need for business owners to step back from day-to-day operations and focus on putting a foundation in place that will enable the business to flourish. For long-term success, your business needs to be able to sustain operations and draw a profit without your direct involvement in every aspect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To support you\u2014our small business owners and entrepreneurs\u2014to step back, identify the truly important needs, and set a foundation that will enable you to navigate the second stage, our RISBDC business counselors share their years of expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First, we recommend that you check out our previous blog post to assess what type of business you are running and ask preliminary questions about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/from-startup-to-second-stage-is-your-business-ready-to-expand\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">whether you are ready to expand<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. If you\u2019re ready to take action, read on.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are eight concrete actions you can take to work on your business instead of in it.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>1. Automate tasks that can be automated<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before your business can grow, you need to stop spending time on tasks that can happen on their own. Investing time on the front end in setting up automations will vastly free up your time once those structures are in place. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/keap.com\/resources\/25-things-every-small-business-should-automate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tasks that can be automated<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> include<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Email marketing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Customer communication<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invoice reminders<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Payroll<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bill pay<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Email signatures<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recruiting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following up on leads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sending appointment reminders<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soliciting reviews<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2. Delegate daily duties<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hand off daily tasks to an appropriate employee. To standardize your output, create SOPs (standard operating procedure) documents or have the employee document the training to give you peace of mind when assigning work to others. If you struggle to imagine stepping out of tasks, spend a week tracking your time. Make note both of where you spend the most time, and which tasks could be most easily handed off. Start small\u2014we venture a guess that as soon as you taste the joy of having more time, you\u2019ll find more tasks you\u2019re willing to pass along.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3. Create a mission statement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you don\u2019t have one already, creating a mission statement is another worthwhile investment of time because it provides a rock-solid mirror to evaluate your business choices against. With every decision and choice of how you are spending your time, ask whether that choice furthers your business toward its mission. You may find it easier to let go of \u201curgent\u201d tasks that turn out not to be very important in the long run.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>4. Identify your one-, five-, and ten-year goals<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a coda to creating your mission statement, set tangible, objective, measurable goals for short- and longer timeframes. This may well be work you\u2019ve already done as part of your business plan, but bringing them to mind again and keeping them where you can see them will help you evaluate choices and opportunities that come along to ensure each task gets appropriately assigned (to you, to an employee, or to the dustbin\u2014read on).<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>5. Eliminate tasks that don\u2019t contribute toward your mission or long-term goals<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once your mission statement and goals are set, ruthlessly trim or axe any tasks that don\u2019t support your mission or advance your business to where you want it to go.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>6. Outsource to professionals<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For areas that are important but aren\u2019t your strength, make a point of investing in a professional in areas with high ROI that will lead to growth. Whether for a one-time task or for ongoing work, there are many areas where <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sba.gov\/blog\/10-small-business-functions-can-be-easily-outsourced\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">outsourcing is the perfect solution<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to bringing on an expert without having to add one to your full-time team. Services that fall into this category include<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Web design<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marketing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Social media posting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Copywriting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Accounting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">IT<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shipping and logistics<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Customer service<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>7. Find a sounding board<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every business owner needs a strategic partner or two who can act as a sounding board. This reduces stress and keeps you on track, both by pushing you to evaluate your choices by your mission and goals, and because having a clear head will help you make better decisions on your own too.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>8. Say no to work that isn\u2019t worth it<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Along with axing tasks that won\u2019t get you to your goal, remember that it\u2019s OK to say no to customers and clients who won\u2019t help you reach your goals. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You will not be the right business, service, or product for everyone.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Stop trying to make everyone happy and say no, with confidence, to working with people who aren\u2019t the right fit. This will clear the way, freeing up both time and resources for you to stay laser focused on what your business <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">great at, and hitting that sweet spot you were meant to be in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you ready to work <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">on<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> your business? Submit a request for counseling <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.risbdc.org\/reg.aspx?mode=counsel&amp;center=14070&amp;subloc=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">via this form<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or by calling (401) 874-7232.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost every small business owner knows how easy it is to spend time putting out fires and tackling the \u201curgent\u201d tasks that come up. But your business can\u2019t grow until you move past the urgent and focus on what is truly important.&nbsp; You may have heard the phrase \u201cworking on your business instead of in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":10091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10097,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10088\/revisions\/10097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}