As an agency owner, I’ll bet you didn’t start your business dreaming of spending your days stuck in the weeds, responding to client emails, managing team drama, or handling tasks that someone else could (and should) be doing. Yet, that’s exactly where most agency owners find themselves. It’s not glamorous, it’s not profitable, and it sure as hell isn’t scalable.
There’s a stark difference between working on your business and working in it. Working in your business is being the technician—fixing problems, chasing clients, and drowning in day-to-day operations. Working on your business, on the other hand, is about stepping into the CEO role—creating systems, building a strong team, and focusing on scaling your agency into a valuable asset. If your ultimate goal is to sell your agency one day for an incredible valuation, this distinction isn’t just important—it’s everything.
Let’s break down the difference and, more importantly, how to shift your focus to the big picture.
What Does It Mean to Work IN Your Business?
Working in your business is what I like to call the hamster wheel. You’re doing all the work, but you’re not actually moving forward. Here’s what it typically looks like:
- You’re the first point of contact for clients.
- You’re constantly jumping in to fix team mistakes.
- You spend your days putting out fires and answering “urgent” emails.
- Your time is consumed by low-level tasks like creating reports, sending invoices, or editing content.
Sound familiar? The problem with this is that it keeps you stuck. If you’re in the weeds every day, you’re not creating anything that adds long-term value to your business. You’re just surviving, not thriving. And when it comes time to sell, a potential buyer will see a business that’s entirely dependent on you—a red flag that kills deals fast.
What Does It Mean to Work ON Your Business?
Working on your business means stepping back and thinking like a CEO. Instead of focusing on the minutiae, you’re working on the big-picture strategy. Here’s what it looks like:
- Designing systems and processes that make your business run like a well-oiled machine.
- Delegating tasks to your team and empowering them to own their responsibilities.
- Reviewing financial metrics to ensure profitability and scalability.
- Setting goals for growth and creating action plans to achieve them.
- Building a leadership team that can run the day-to-day operations without your constant oversight.
When you work on your business, you’re creating a scalable, sellable asset. You’re building something that doesn’t need you to function—a business that’s attractive to buyers because it runs independently.
Why Do Agency Owners Struggle to Make the Shift?
Here’s the truth: working on your business is harder than working in it. It requires discipline, focus, and—most of all—letting go. And that’s where most agency owners get stuck. Letting go feels risky. It feels uncomfortable. But here’s the thing: if you don’t let go, you’ll never grow.
I’ve worked with countless agency owners, and the number one barrier to making this shift is mindset. You’re so used to being the go-to person for everything that stepping back feels impossible. But the reality is that the more you hold on, the more you’re stifling your agency’s potential.
How to Transition from Working IN to Working ON
Shifting from the hamster wheel to the CEO seat doesn’t happen overnight, but it is possible. Here’s how to start:
- Audit Your Time Start by tracking where your time is going each day. Be brutally honest with yourself. How much time are you spending on low-value tasks that someone else could handle? Once you know where your time is going, you can start to delegate and reclaim it for higher-level activities.
- Build Systems Every repetitive task in your business should have a system. Use SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to document your processes so that anyone on your team can handle them without your input. Remember, systems don’t just make your life easier—they make your business more valuable to buyers.
- Empower Your Team Stop being the bottleneck. Hire the right people, train them well, and then trust them to do their jobs. This doesn’t mean abandoning oversight—it means creating a structure where your team has clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability.
- Create a Scorecard A scorecard or dashboard gives you a snapshot of your agency’s health at any given time. Track key metrics like revenue, profit margins, client retention, and team performance. With a solid scorecard, you can monitor your business without being involved in every detail.
- Change Your Mindset This is the hardest part. You have to stop seeing yourself as the person who does all the work and start seeing yourself as the person who leads the business. It’s not about working harder—it’s about working smarter.
Final Thoughts
If you’re serious about scaling your agency and selling it for what it’s truly worth, you need to stop working in your business and start working on it. It’s not easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but the rewards are worth it. Freedom, profitability, and a business that’s ready to sell—that’s what’s waiting for you on the other side.
The choice is yours: stay stuck in the hamster wheel or step into the CEO role and build something extraordinary. Take the first step today, and I promise you’ll never look back.