In my last post I discussed the importance of taking the time out to do a SWOT, on ourselves, our business, our web page.

A SWOT is merely one way that we can take the time to work on and not in our business. It is a concept discussed at length by Michael E Gerber in his books E-Myth and E-Myth Revisited.

He discusses in that book the concept that every business needs managers (people who organise), technicians (people who do what ever service or productions the business offers) and entrepreneurs, (people who come up with the vision of where the business is headed).� He says that many people who start their own businesses start it as freedom seeking technicians.� They know that they are good at what they do, and they want the chance to do it in an uninterrupted manner.� But they find that they are not so good at managing or strategic thinking, and this leads to a number of problems.

The truth is that all businesses tend to involve all three kinds of work.� And if you are your business� only employee you will need to learn to think in all three ways and make time to do it.

There are some things that you might outsource � a common one to out source being management of the financial side � you might hire a book keeper and or accountant.� Often we tend to seek legal advice when needed as well.

But often there is still more imbalance in our businesses than there should be.� Some operations are very chaotic and could do with more time being spent on the manager side of things.� Some businesses lack entrepreneur vision and do the same things the same way and get the same results, year after year.� It often becomes very apparent that this was happening when someone else takes the business over (if it survives) and it suddenly blossoms, taking advantage of opportunities that may have been there all along, but no one else saw or was brave enough to pursue.

And I use the word brave intentionally.� It often involves risk to act on what the entrepreneur is telling us would be a good idea.� We may need to invest in new machinery, new advertising, new staff etc.

And sometimes you will come across a business or person that is all entrepreneur � they always have a new idea or scheme which is full of promise, but they don�t spend enough time in the manager and technician roles, so the necessary work to capitalise on these opportunities does not get done.

So, as a second exercise in working on your business, and not just in it, sit down and look at what you have done this last week or month, and divide it into groups, manager, technician and entrepreneur.� Where is most of your time falling?

Can you see any areas of your business that would benefit from a slightly different division of time?� Do you need to clean up?� Do some strategic planning?

Schedule time with yourself during the coming week to make sure you (or an employee) spend time on all three areas and get the balance your business needs.