Why You Should Stop Working in Your Business

When I first heard Michael Gerber (the guy who wrote “The E-Myth“) 5 years ago, I didn’t think too much of him. I read some of his stuff, nodded my head and moved on to the next guy. Didn’t seem too revolutionary.
That’s changing.

Recently, I’ve been watching everything I can find about Michael on YouTube. I’ve listened to one of his seminars on Audible quite a few times. I’m devouring his stuff.

Why?

I’m finding that Michael speaks directly to my situation.

And while I think that you would profit from watching all of Michael’s stuff too, here’s a distilled version of his message:
Your business is your product.

Not what you’re selling. Not the service. Not the information. Not the events. So don’t spend your time thinking about that stuff. That’s someone else’s job.

Your job is to work on your business. After all, you’re the business owner. You own the business, so it’s your responsibility to take care of it. Refine it. Think about it’s future. Build it up.

In Michael Gerber’s words, you should be working on your business, not in it. But what does that look like? To work on your business?

In other words…

Document Everything.
Make sure there’s a detailed explanation of every process in your business.
Write up an company manual that explains:
(a) what the ideal way of doing things is for every process in the business, and (b) how to achieve each of those ideals.
Put Everything on the Web.
It’s great if you have the documentation, but if no one can find it, it won’t do anyone any good. The Internet is a space that everyone in your business has access to. Make sure that all of your documentation is online.

While those above are the things you should be doing to work on your business, here’s what you should not do: DON’T get caught up in the operations!

The moment you start doing operations work is the moment you start working in your business and not on it. You become an essential part of what makes your business “go.”

Why is that a problem?

Your job is to make your business self-sufficient – to get it to the point where it doesn’t need you to run. If you become an essential part of your business, you’ve acting as a crutch and making it impossible for your business to achieve self-sufficiency.

That’s why you should stop working in your business.

You do this by moving away from operations work!

Your business will never run smoothly without you until every process and procedure is clearly explained in documentation. An operations manual is something you should have and always be updating.

Where every process is explained so that everyone knows exactly what he or she should be doing and how to do it. You also need to clearly define every role in the business, no matter who’s in the role. So that we’ll know who’s doing what.

McDonalds does this par excellence. They have 400,000 outlets. And the majority of the people running those outlets are teenagers.

How do they do it?

Processes are clearly explained. Roles are clearly defined. Everything has been fine-tuned to perfection. They don’t have the best talent in the world. And yet they do have one of the best businesses in the world.

But enough about McDonald’s. How’s about your business?

Could you walk away today from the day to day operations?

If you answered no. You need to ask yourself this question:
“How can you take measures today to stop working IN your business and start working on your business?”

If you what help to walk away from the day to day operations of your business – I can help you as I have real-life experience walking away from parts of the day to day operations.