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Working ON your business, not IN your business

By Becky McCray

Mark Taylor, another small town Oklahoman, put together his experience in business, education and workforce development, and came up with this article on changing your thinking.

Albert Einstein once said, “The significant challenges that we face today can not be solved at the same level of thinking at which they were created”.

The world of small business is a world of constant change and thus of needed constant evolution. An acquaintance of mine, from a former period in life, Maurice Maskereenis (phonetically spelled) used to claim to be the consultant that spoke to more small business’s every year than any other consultant. He did about 100 days a year with audiences that probably averaged in the 30’s. He said that the most common failure of small business was to keep working in the business at a time when they should have been working on the business. They miss an evolutionary step.

Years of planning on what it takes to start a small business must not be the same thinking that is required to grow it.

Peter Drucker, the father of modern management said he asked businesses the same three questions every time he consulted. What do you do, how do you do it and why do you do it the way you do.

They say that 95% of the franchise operations that start every year are still there 4 years later. Franchisers must be provided with assistance in working on the business.

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Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
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June 20, 2006 Filed Under: failure, planning, rural, success

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  1. Chris says

    June 20, 2006 at 11:38 pm

    I’m a giant fan of “In the Business, On the Business” as a way to think about your work. Thanks for bringing it up. It’s a lesson that never gets old.

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  2. Becky McCray says

    January 17, 2008 at 8:51 pm

    Here’s an updated link to Chris’ “In the Business, On the Business” article. It’s worth a read!

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