Ever notice how you can work harder than ever but not see the progress you want? If you’re spending all your time creating social media content, serving clients, updating websites, and answering emails, you’re likely caught in the cycle of working in your business rather than on it.

While these daily tasks matter, they’re only part of what makes a coaching practice successful.

The Critical Difference Between Working “In” and “On”

Working IN your business means handling all the day-to-day operations: coaching sessions, email responses, and content creation. It makes us feel busy and productive because we think it’s what puts money in our bank account today. And yes, these tasks are important, but they’re not enough for sustainable growth.

Here’s a helpful way to think about it: Imagine you’re a gardener. Working IN your business is like watering plants and pulling weeds…the daily maintenance that keeps things alive. Working ON your business is like designing the garden layout and building irrigation systems…the strategic work that creates long-term success.

Many coaches get stuck in the doing without taking time to build the foundation they need for real growth. They’re amazing coaches, but they’re creating a job for themselves rather than building a business that can grow and scale.

The Five Pillars of Working On Your Business

1. Strategic Planning and Goal Setting

Strategic planning isn’t about setting random goals. (We talk more about setting goals for your business here.) It’s about intentionally designing every aspect of your business. Block off dedicated planning time when your energy is highest. Just like budgeting your money often feels like getting a raise, becoming more intentional with your time through planning can make you feel like you’ve gained extra hours in your day.

2. Creating and Optimizing Your Client Journey

Your client journey, which we talk about in our Ultimate Growth Guide for Financial Coaches, is crucial to business success. It needs to balance personalization with efficiency. You can’t reinvent everything for each client, but you also can’t treat every financial situation the same. Think about each touchpoint:

  • Initial contact and discovery calls
  • Onboarding process
  • Regular coaching sessions
  • Between-session support
  • Progress tracking
  • Celebration of client wins
  • Referral opportunities

Consider how support needs change from session 1 to session 40. Build support mechanisms into your program that evolve with your clients’ journey.

3. Building Systems and Automation

Your systems are like rituals: they help ground us and make important tasks more automatic.

Most businesses will need several key systems:

  • Client scheduling and calendar management
  • Initial consultation process
  • Client onboarding
  • Session follow-up and documentation
  • Progress tracking
  • Resource sharing
  • Billing and payments

A great system should:

  • Feel automatic but not robotic
  • Save time while improving client experience
  • Be documented for future refinement

For example, set specific days and times for client meetings. Maybe mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays, afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This creates a rhythm while preserving time for strategic work.

4. Professional Development Strategy

Your business can only grow to the extent you grow. With so much information available, be strategic about your learning. Focus on:

  • Core financial coaching skills
  • Business operations and systems
  • Marketing and outreach
  • Time management and productivity
  • Mindset and personal growth

Create regular rituals around learning. Maybe it’s reading industry news with morning coffee or blocking off Friday afternoons for skill development. Make your content consumption active, not passive. Ask yourself: “How am I going to implement this in my business?”

5. Measuring and Adjusting Based on Real Data

Just like we teach clients to track their spending, we need to track our business metrics. Key areas to measure include:

  • Client progress and wins (great for marketing and confidence)
  • Time spent per client (crucial for future pricing decisions)
  • Marketing effectiveness (what’s actually working?)
  • Referral rates (where is business coming from?)
  • Revenue and profitability (know your numbers)
  • Time allocation across activities (stay strategic with your time)

Check out our Success Stories Series on YouTube to find out how other coaches measure their own success.

Making Time for Strategic Work

Block off about 20% of your total work time to work on your business. If you have 40 hours per week, spend eight hours on strategic work. If you’ve only got five hours total, dedicate one hour to this type of work.

Schedule this time when your energy is highest. If you’re a morning person, do your strategic thinking with your coffee before the day begins. If you’re working full-time while building your practice, maybe use your lunch break or create an hour of alone time after dinner.

The Power of Support Networks

Having support impacts every aspect of your business. Look at your network and create time to connect with people who can offer guidance. Entrepreneurship brings up natural insecurities:

  • Rejection fears
  • Selling anxiety
  • Marketing uncertainties
  • Client vulnerability
  • Self-doubt
  • Imposter syndrome

These challenges are normal, but they’re easier to navigate with a strong support system. Whether it’s joining a coaching cohort or finding an accountability partner, make building your support network a priority.

Capacity and Focus

One of the hardest things about entrepreneurship is wearing many different hats. There’s no way to excel at everything, so focus your efforts. Get really good at two to three things versus being only okay at a dozen things.

I know this feels counterintuitive. You may need to fight against the urge to do more, more, more. Remember: if it’s not a “hell yes,” then the answer should probably be no. Progress beats perfection every time.

Celebrating Growth and Progress

Take time to acknowledge your business growth and milestones. Consider keeping a dedicated notebook just for strategic work to help you see how far you’ve come when you flip back through past pages. Often, what was once a major project becomes a foundational system you rely on daily.

Success in coaching comes from small gains stacked on top of each other. There isn’t one thing that will change everything overnight; it’s the culmination of consistent action, which becomes easier when you dedicate time each week to working on your business.

Taking Action

Start by carving out time this week to map out your schedule for working on your business. Identify a few key areas where you want to focus first. Remember, working on your business is what transforms it from a job into a true business. It’s what allows you to help more people while building something sustainable and fulfilling.

Try beginning with one small change, like blocking off two hours next week for strategic planning, or starting a dedicated business journal. The key is to start somewhere and build consistently from there.