What does this mean to Work ON ones business vs. IN ones business? How does one do this? What about all the day to day work that needs to be accomplished? The activities that need to be accomplished that “Pay the bills”. Sound Familiar?
It is critical that a business owner drives his/her business by working ON it vs. IN it. It is the only way the Business Owner can say they have a business vs. a company that is dependent on them only! You see “YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT YOUR LIFE”. These are two separate things that need to stand alone yet interact. Too many business owners operate their business AS THEIR LIFE.
Your Business should be operating as a part of you rather than you. Your business should have its own rules, own purpose and it own “life”. Once a business owner realizes this is the motivation to make this happen. It is then time to start Working ON your Business vs. IN it. The most effective way to do this is again in the book: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
In this book Gerber states: “Pretend that the business you own – or want to own – is the prototype, or will be the prototype, for 5,000 just like it. Not Almost like it, but just like it. Perfect replicates if not Clones. In other words, PRETEND that you are gong to build this prototype.” Gerber goes on to say: “I said pretend. I’m not saying that you should.”
I have called this prototyping in Business building an MPPT (Business Model / Methodology, Processes, People and Technology) that runs your business and you Conduct or Orchestrate the MPPT. Let’s go over six simple steps that I ensure my clients enact in their business. Again using Gerber’s thoughts:
- The MPPT will provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers and lenders beyond what they expect.
- The MPPT will be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.
- The MPPT will stand out as a place of impeccable order.
- All work in the MPPT will be documented in Operations Manuals.
- The MPPT will provide a uniformly predictable service to the customer.
- The MPPT will utilize a uniform color, dress and facilities code
Each of the six requires strong work by the owner to “get off the shop floor” and start to work ON their Business building the MPPT. It is NOT hard but it is time driven with skills. The How is the most important. Over the next few weeks I will go into detail on how a business owner can implement these six guidelines to build their MPPT.