The line between working on and in a business

I am amazed at how often I hear the comment from business owners, "I need to be working on the business and not in it!". I have heard it so much over my career that I am tired of it. It's a cop-out. What I have noticed over the many times of hearing this old adage is that more often than not these businesses are poorly managed. What I mean by managed is "good management". Management that enables and empowers the organisation to run as a profit making asset. This starts with systems. The mechanisms within the business that makes it run. Then there is people, sales and financial management. In that order strangely enough. 
So there is a gap between working in and on a business. It is small. It is almost a narrow  line between the two. Yet it is on this line that the difference is made when it comes to survival and generating profits. 
And maybe it would be better to pass the comment, "I need to be managing my business better!". Which is code for running a business like a well cared for machine. This way it is not a distinction between "in and on the business" because good managers are doing both simultaneously.