07/23/2026
The phrase “work on your business, not in your business” has gained a lot of traction over the years largely as a result of the book “E-Myth Revisited” and the author’s relentless use of this tagline. We are not surprised by that, as it is, in fact, very good and succinct advice for how to manage a small business.
What we are more surprised by is how many people know the phrase and even claim to be an advocate of the idea but yet run their businesses in a way that suggests they’ve never heard of the idea.
Our guess is that the concept seems solid to them, but they aren’t sure where to start, and the idea of reorganizing the whole business from where it is right now seems overwhelming. Our advice to counter that problem is to just start really small.
It may take a year (it could easily take less), but once you get there, or even most of the way there, then you will finally start to get a sense of the freedom running your own business can truly offer, but never does for people who never bother to do the above.
The choice is yours!
