If your busines cannot run without you ...

The reason why most entrepreneurs fail is because they build a business that depends solely on their presence and unique skills set. They are the primary producer of the goods or services. They are the one attending to the customer, making the sale, cutting the hair, doing the accounts, cooking the food etc...

They are the business and the business is them. These entrepreneurs are, in real terms, self-employed individuals and not the owners of a business that works. The business needs them to be physically there in order to function. If they aren't there, they lose the sale, the goods cannot be made, the service cannot be performed and the customers will not come.

So what's the problem with this?

The problem is that if your business only works when you are there, then you have sacrificed the most important reason for being an entrepreneur...FREEDOM. You can never take a holiday. If you were to ever take leave for a month, your business may no longer be there. In this scenario (which is all to common for most entrepreneurs), you will be trapped in your self-created 'cage' until the day you die. You will never be able to sell your company or let someone else run it for you while you retire. You will end up spending seven days a week, working 13-hour days or more, and working to the very end.

Not a rosy picture, is it?  I'll share with you how you can escape this trap and work ON your business and not IN your business. To continue reading ...

Working on your business instead of just working in your business

Have you ever wondered why some businesses never seem to be able to grow, no matter how much effort the owner puts into it? At the same time, I am sure you have also seen many examples of entrepreneurs who started small and ending up building hundreds of outlets/ offices in so many countries, returning millions of dollars in sales every year. The difference lies in the kind of work the entrepreneur is focused on.

The biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make is to focus all of their time working IN the business and not enough time working ON the business.

Working IN the business involves doing the tactical work necessary for the business to operate day to day. This work is usually the urgent stuff that must be done immediately to keep the business running. It involves selling the product, making the product/providing the service, delivering the service or product, administration and accounting.

On the other hand, working ON the business involves the strategic work of creating a successful business system and then replicating this system by opening up multiple branches/outlets. The entrepreneur knows that once the business system is created, anyone can be hired to work in the system to produce the same level of service/product quality in any subsequent branch/outlet - and that is to generate profits and income.

Is it by accident that every McDonald's server will greet you with a warm smile and a "Welcome to McDonald's" everywhere in the world? No, it is because Ray Kroc created a system of standards where every server in every one of their 200,000 restaurants will deliver the exact same greeting. The Lesson here is that if you don't plan to focus on the strategic work of building your business system, you will find yourself being consumed with day-to-day tactical work and that will keep your business forever small, and dependent on you.