The first time I heard this concept years ago, I had no idea what it meant, and why I should care.  Working IN your business versus working ON your business – huge difference!

The biggest problem in growing a coaching business is the fact that all coaches have to coach.  And when you coach, you work IN your business.  Working with clients and getting paid on an hourly basis limits your income to the number of hours you can work each day.

Also, if you do your own bookkeeping, answer customer support questions, take care of your web site, and print out your own business cards, then you leave very little time for growing your business.

Getting sick or going on vacation then means no income coming into your business for a while.  A true business should survive even when you’re not there to take care of things!  If you’re not sure whether you work ON your business, or IN your business, take this one-minute quiz to find out:

http://www.assessmentgenerator.com/working_in_business.html

So, if you are a coach or consultant, and your main source of income is working directly with the clients, how can you make sure your business doesn’t stall when you can’t be there?  Three things are important:

1. Automation
2. Delegation
3. Information

#1 Automation:

You must automate as much as possible in your business.  This includes invoicing, billing, expense tracking, follow-up, prospecting, and anything else you can make hands-off in your business.  Use autoresponders for sending information to and following up with prospects, use Client Compass (http://www.clientcompass.com) for automating your billing and invoicing, and re-use document and e-mail reply templates as much as possible to save time.
#2 Delegation:

As much as we want to, we can’t do it all!  Even if we know how.  List all the things that you either don’t like doing, don’t know how to do, or those that are easy enough to teach someone else to do.  Here is my list:

• bookkeeping (don’t know and don’t like)
• proofreading (an absolute must for me!)
• product support (can easily teach someone else)
• fixing computer beyond basics (don’t know and don’t want to know!

There is probably more, but these are the things that first come to mind, when I think about outsourcing, or delegating to someone else.  Virtual assisstants are great!  But if you find that you can’t afford one, try a college student who will be happy to take this work for $10-$15 an hour, and free you up for things that only you can do.  Be sure you outsource your work to people who know what they’re doing, or you may have to re-do it yourself later.
#3 Information:

By information I mean products.  Create audio tapes, manuals, booklets, e-books, courses, training CDs, and other products that you can sell on your web site.  Look at all the successful entrepreneurs and professionals – they all have products to sell!  The revenue you earn from your products is what will supplement your income when you’re away on vacation, too busy with clients, or sick.  There is nothing better than coming home from a one week trip to find orders in your e-mail box!

Take a quiz to find out what your score is:
http://www.assessmentgenerator.com/working_in_business.html