Work ON Your Business, Not IN Your Business

blog cover image
33
45
8.6K followers

Work ON Your Business, Not IN Your Business

So what does this mean, exactly?

If you're the CEO of a listed company, you don't work IN the business.

You've got employees for that.

Your job is to keep the company legal and ethical and, within that constraint, return value to shareholders and exceed their expectations.

You've got a 10 year plan, a five year plan and a roadmap for the next one or two years.

You are working ON the business.

If you have your own online business, which you will have as a member of Wealthy Affiliate, then you are the CEO of that business.

But of course you may be all the employees too!

Just don't let the need to work on all the nuts and bolts get in the way of the long-term planning. You need to know where your business is heading and what your goals for it are.

Case Study

Here's a recent case study from one of my own websites.

I spent several days working in the business, wearing several employee hats. I

  1. Created a lead magnet in the AI space and loaded it onto the website.
  2. Created a 4-page funnel of landing page, opt-in, confirmation and delivery.
  3. Wrote the delivery email and set it up for auto delivery after opt-in.
  4. Was accepted as an affiliate by several vendors in the AI space.
  5. Copied those vendors' emails into email series, all delivered automatically following the delivery email.

With that system in place, I switched to working ON the business, because all that I had to do now was drive traffic to the landing page. The automated process I'd put in place (and, of course, automation is an alternative to employees) takes care of it from there.

So now I just paid organizations, such as Facebook, Google Ads and even Solo Ads, whose expertise is driving traffic, to send visitors to my landing page.

Future work here is tweaking the process to maximize return and examining data to find out the best traffic sources.

That's working ON the business.

33
45

Join FREE & Launch Your Business!

Exclusive Bonus - Offer Ends at Midnight Today

00

Hours

:

00

Minutes

:

00

Seconds

2,000 AI Credits Worth $10 USD

Build a Logo + Website That Attracts Customers

400 Credits

Discover Hot Niches with AI Market Research

100 Credits

Create SEO Content That Ranks & Converts

800 Credits

Find Affiliate Offers Up to $500/Sale

10 Credits

Access a Community of 2.9M+ Members

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
No credit card required

Recent Comments

45

I am trying to do more work ON my business as opposed to IN it. I was initially swamped with orders for the screens I'm now manufacturing and marketing, and admittedly I haven't posted on my site for the past 2 months or so. Part of that is because of the fact that more and more I am realizing that I need to create a YouTube channel and use videos as much, or more, than I do blog posts. I have a lot of training videos I could be doing in my niche, and training is most effective, (and interesting) when the person doing the learning can have "eyes on" what you're teaching to them. Thus, I'll be diving into this realm of my business in the near future, which is both scary and exciting.
Thanks for this post, as I've been spending too much time lately working IN my business and not enough time working ON it. Excellent advice and post, as always!

1

Sounds like a great plan, Kevin. I know I should be doing a lot more with video too.

1

Thanks, Phil.

JD

4

Most welcome, JD.

3

😁

2

Great post Phil! Great points

Jerry

4

Thanks, Jerry.

3

Haha--good points, Phil, unless one is a sole proprietor, like myself! An online business will likely require all those other people, and then you are the coordinator!

Jeff

4

It's a bit like having a split personality isn't it?

2

Haha! Spot on, Phil!

Jeff

2

Mine are arguing about the best way to respond to your comment, Jeff.

2

🤣🤣

2

Great job, Phil.

Re #4, where did you find vendors in the Ai space?

Rudy

3

Hi Rudy, Warrior Plus.

4

Oh, right. I have heard of them.

Thanks!

Rudy

3

It's a platform. Like ClickBank, except you always have to apply for acceptance and make a case. You always have to do due diligence on a specific product and vendor, but there are plenty of statistics to help.

4

See more comments

Join FREE & Launch Your Business!

Exclusive Bonus - Offer Ends at Midnight Today

00

Hours

:

00

Minutes

:

00

Seconds

2,000 AI Credits Worth $10 USD

Build a Logo + Website That Attracts Customers

400 Credits

Discover Hot Niches with AI Market Research

100 Credits

Create SEO Content That Ranks & Converts

800 Credits

Find Affiliate Offers Up to $500/Sale

10 Credits

Access a Community of 2.9M+ Members

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
No credit card required

2.9M+

Members

190+

Countries Served

20+

Years Online

50K+

Success Stories

The world's most successful affiliate marketing training platform. Join 2.9M+ entrepreneurs building their online business with expert training, tools, and support.

© 2005-2025 Wealthy Affiliate
All rights reserved worldwide.

🔒 Trusted by Millions Worldwide

Since 2005, Wealthy Affiliate has been the go-to platform for entrepreneurs looking to build successful online businesses. With industry-leading security, 99.9% uptime, and a proven track record of success, you're in safe hands.