Even if you know nothing about business – if your only link to business is listening to this show – you’ve probably heard about the distinction between working in your business and working on your business.

Working in your business is what you have to do to get it up and running. Working on your business is what you have to do to keep it running — and specially to grow it.

How you make that transition – from starting a business to running a business – is vital. It’s the pathway to success. And that pathway is not always easy to find. To help you, there are a wide range of books that might best be described as self-help literature for business. There are business gurus. And there are whole companies of business consultants. All of these options offer various techniques for working on your business.

Now there’s a new product that pulls a lot of these threads together. It’s a piece of business development software, appropriately called Align.

Doug Walner

Align was founded in 2014. So far it’s been used in over 15,000 cases in 64 countries. The company is headquartered in New Orleans, under the leadership of CEO Doug Walner.

The Ultimate “Working On Your Business” Transition

Bill Hines

Bill Hines is a prime example of a person who moved from working in his business to working on his business. For 20 years, Bill worked as a corporate attorney. He specialized in transactions and financing for public and private companies, both domestically and internationally.

You might have heard at the beginning of this show, some information about our sponsor, the law firm of Jones Walker. That announcement says, “Jones Walker has over 375 attorneys in offices throughout the US.” Well, the person who manages all of those attorneys, and most other aspects of Jones Walker’s business, is none other than Bill Hines.

Bill started at Jones Walker in 1982. In 2006 he became the company’s Managing Partner.

Doug Walner, Bill Hines, Peter Ricchiuti

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Commander’s Palace restaurant in New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur.

Meet Michael Leachman, Jones Walker’s intellectual property expert, here.