🛠️ Examples of ON vs IN the business tasks

In the first few minutes of our first ever session, Benoist complained that he often felt busy but at the end of the day it seemed like nothing had been done.

“Busy but going nowhere” is a common issue entrepreneurs express (and that I fix) within their first sessions with me and it always stems from at least one of the same three similar causes.

1. They are too reactive. Life happens to them, they don’t happen to life. This is often related to locus of control, but it leads to busyness without progress as you’re constantly reacting to other people’s demands rather than forging your own path. Directly related to the hierarchy of focus I’ve shared before.

   
   

2. They are stuck in motion, not in action. Motion is planning, strategising, learning - all good things but they don't produce a result. Action delivers outcomes, making calls, building automation, going to the gym. Most people get stuck in motion because it feels like progress but has no risk of failure; people use motion as avoidance due to fear. No matter how good your plan is (motion) it won't produce a result until you actually do the scary stuff (action).

   
   

3. They work IN rather than ON the business. Your business is more important than your clients, but many entrepreneurs get caught in keeping clients happy. When you neglect working ON your business, you will be stuck working hard but going nowhere.

   
   

Today, I’m going to focus on the difference between ON vs IN business tasks.

Working ON your business (strategic, growth-focused, future-oriented)

ON tasks are things that improve, systematise, or grow your business. You do them once and they provide continuous value long term.

Examples of ON the business tasks:

• Designing or refining your offer so it’s more valuable and easier to sell.

• Building or optimising funnels or other resources (lead magnets, email nurture sequences, sales pages, etc).

• Building, documenting, automating, or optimising processes (client onboarding, lead acquisition, content creation, creating deliverables, payment systems, etc).

• Hiring or training a VA, contractor, or team member to free up your time.

• Investing in your own learning through courses, masterminds, or coaching.

  
  

ON the business tasks typically follow a “hockey stick” shape value curve. They take time/money/effort to build at first, but they provide outsized returns long term.

Hockey stick growth. ON the business tasks follow this pattern

Working IN your business (operational, delivery-focused, present-oriented).

These are tasks where you’re actively fulfilling your service or running the day-to-day. The benefit of these tasks is one-time and/or otherwise limited.

• Delivering sessions/deliverables to clients.

• Responding to client emails or messages.

• Customising deliverables (reports, plans, designs) for a specific client.

• Handling client billing and payment follow-ups.

• Managing day-to-day admin (invoicing, filing, data entry).

  
  

IN the business tasks typically graph like something has fallen off a cliff. IN tasks are useful or even necessary at first, but the value is very short lived.

Off a cliff. IN the business tasks follow this pattern

Of course you need to do some IN the business tasks in order to stay in business. BUT I usually suggest that if you’re making less than $10k per month then roughly 40% of your time should be spent ON the business. That might mean changing your deliverables quickly to free up time to work on the business, or even firing clients. Get advice if you’re unsure how to successfully switch to more ON your business tasks.

What tasks you should do ON or IN depends what stage you’re at in the business hierarchy of needs. For example: if you need revenue then most of your time should be spent on offer improvement and prospecting, if you’re looking to improve efficiency then you want to spend more time on learning and systems.

Ultimately, WHAT you do matters more than how much you do. When you start working on the right things you will experience progress that feels easy.

I shared this in my Work Smart Wednesday newsletter. Want the full set of related insights? You can read them here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-august-13-2025

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