We’ve all heard the saying “You should be working IN your business instead of ON your business.”

This adage gets thrown around so much in the business community that it’s almost lost its meaning, but it still holds true.

Working IN your business instead of ON your business means we should be doing things that move our businesses forward, not just doing the tasks that need to get done today or there’ll be fallout.

I know how hard this is. Those little things actually do need to get done. You don’t want to deal with the consequences of not updating your plugins. Or responding to all those emails. Or maintaining your social media presence.

But if you’re constantly dealing with those little things, your business isn’t growing. You’ll stay stuck where you are.

Working on your business means building your mailing list, creating new products, growing your audience, and keeping an eye on the long term.

If you’ve moved past the doing stage, awesome! Outsourcing and automation can take a ton of that off your plate, which frees you up to grow your business.

However, on the other side of the “doing” phase, there’s a pothole a lot of us don’t see: The Managing Trap.

This is still a type of “doing” a lot of us fall prey to without realizing it.

What’s the managing trap?

This is when you spend all your time monitoring, micromanaging, following up, reviewing, checking and double checking your team’s work, constantly answering questions, delegating, assigning, keeping track of tasks, and otherwise handling the day-to-day of your team’s day-to-day.

That takes a lot of time and energy.

Maybe you daydream about the good old days when you would just do something yourself. You didn’t have to worry if something would get done right. No jumping through all those technological hoops to communicate with a team or assign tasks or train. You just did it all yourself.

It’s a different kind of busy, that’s for sure.

 

When you are no longer stuck in the managing trap, you graduate from managing to envisioning. Click To Tweet

 

This trap is dangerous because it stops us from creating new things. I’ve seen this happen to clients and colleagues several times.

It’s so hard to watch them hold themselves back because they refuse to give up the managing reins.

We might stay in the managing trap because we’re afraid to grow. Maybe we’re subconsciously holding ourselves back. We might be afraid that no one else can manage as well as we can.

Or we might fall into this trap without even realizing it.

The good news is, you don’t have to stay stuck.

What if you could outsource the managing part too?

Enter the Online Business Manager.

What’s an online business manager?

It’s someone who takes over the managerial tasks in your business like delegating, most of the training, monitoring, maintaining systems, etc.

An OBM can take over managing your team, find a team for you, or they might come with their own team of social media managers, content writers, and tech wizards.

OBMs are invaluable once you've begun growing a team.

OBMs cut down on the time you spend monitoring and communicating. Most of the time, they become your only point of contact. You simply let them know what needs to get done, train them, and they train the necessary team members, break the tasks down into actions, and delegate them appropriately.

When you are no longer stuck in the managing trap, you graduate from managing to envisioning.

Instead of managing, you now spend your time dreaming up new directions for the business, coming up with ideas, creating content (and remember, the OBM can make sure that content gets published), doing guest interviews (which the OBM’s team can set up for you), and working with your awesome clients if that’s your business model.

That's how you go from manager to CEO in your business.

Sounds dreamy, huh?

Can you imagine what your business could become if you freed up that much time and energy?

I’d love to discuss it with you. If you’re ready to break out of the managing trap and start envisioning, shoot me a message, I know quite a few fabulous OBMs I can refer you to.