In VS on

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When you first start a business your entire focus is keeping it alive and getting to a place where it is somewhat viable – people are using your product or service and revenue or funding is covering your minimum needs. Usually this requires the founders work in the business; making product, selling, running ads, whatever is required.

But for a business to do any more that simply survive, you need to work on the business; planning for the future, thinking strategically about how to grow and flourish, and actively building a strong culture.

All these things take significant time, and sometimes don’t feel like they are actually important, especially when there are immediate needs like closing the next deal or finding warm bodies to help.

And this is the one of the hardest things I find as an entrepreneur, knowing the difference between urgent and important and choosing which to do at any given time.

I personally struggle with this as I love working in the business, designing and building new features is challenging and provides gratification when people start using them. The planning and meetings and culture stuff don’t increase our numbers this month, and with so many pressing concerns, it’s hard to spend the time on them.

I don’t have a proven solution for myself yet, but there are three things I am trying to do.

1. Discern. Stepping back and prioritizing my tasks based on the impact they will have in a week, a month, or a year.
2. Collaborate. Supporting my team and together determining when important work is being pushed aside for the urgent.
3. Grow. Realizing when my skills are weak and learning from others who have done this before, and hiring when I cannot do it myself.

As you think about your work, take the time to assess what you can do to work on the business or organization, and what you need to achieves this.

~ Sean