Good sound decisions require ‘mental energy’ that gets depleted throughout the day by various circumstances. That’s why simplicity has so much power. When you keep things simple in your business, you can maximize your decision-making capabilities and with it your results.
Did you know why Steve Jobs was almost always dressed up the same in simple clothing? Because he didn’t want to lose his decision-making power for the day on trivial things. He wanted to conserve his mental energy for the most important decisions he had to make each day.
Isn’t that mind-boggling that every day an average person makes 35,000 conscious decisions?! And 227 of them are just on food alone (according to researches at Cornell University). No wonder by the end of it, we feel mentally exhausted. And research confirms that.
Hence today, I want to help you simplify your business. Here’re five tips on how to declutter your business.
1. Simplified Offering
How many products or services do you promote to the same audience at once?
Research shows that the more options your potential client has in front of them when trying to make a decision, the more likely they’ll walk away overwhelmed without making any.
How many options are too many, you ask? I guess it depends.
It depends on whether you offer products or services and also on your industry. But anything more than seven almost guarantees the choice overwhelm for your potential clients.
So, have you looked at your offering lately? Maybe it’s time to review and simplify. Less can bring you more sales, more focus, and save loads of time. Less is better :).
2. Strategic Marketing
Now that you have fewer offers to promote, your marketing is already simpler. But you can do soo much more!
Let’s look at your audience now. Assuming that you know who your ideal client is, think about where they hang out the most online. Are the majority of them on 1-3 social media platforms?
Now, look at how many platforms are you on? 3-5?
I’m sure that right now, you’re seeing an excellent opportunity to streamline your marketing and focus only on the platforms where your ideal clients are. And I can guarantee you that it’ll help you be more consistent with your posts, deliver more value, and become less overwhelmed with your social media management.
3. Focus on the Important
Pareto principle is my favorite tool to achieve a compound effect in your focus and results.
The 80/20 rule can help you simplify many areas of our business. Focus your energy on 20% of clients, responsibilities, decisions that create 80% of your results. And once you do that for a while, review and repeat the exercise.
When you make a habit out of it, your business will grow exponentially guaranteed.
4. Outsource and automate
As your business grows, the time comes when simplification means automating and/ or outsourcing tasks that need to get done but aren’t your most vital priorities.
Whether it’s bookkeeping, administrative tasks, or responsibilities around the house like house cleaning, the choice is yours. Whenever you can, outsource anything that can help you focus on the 20% of essential things. I promise that it will save you time, money, and open the door for other opportunities.
Also, don’t forget to eliminate the tasks all together you shouldn’t be doing at all.
Prioritization and understanding of what NOT TO DO are as critical.
5. Be strategic about self-development
I LOVE self-development. Learning is one of my passions. But if I didn’t have a plan on how to do it and wen, I could easily get overwhelmed.
There is soo much fantastic information out there in the world. All available at our fingertips online. A lot of free or very affordable prices.
The trick to effective personal development is to be strategic about it. And you do that by knowing what skills you need to work on right now to lead your business to the next level.
So start with self-awareness. Assess your business and yourself as its leader. Pick one or two areas you need to grow now for your business to grow. Then pick books, seminars, podcasts, coaches that can help you develop it. Say NO to everything else.
Too often, I talk with entrepreneurs who do courses and skill-development that they don’t need at all or will need five years from now. My take on it is that whatever you learn today might be obsolete in five years. The world around us changes with unprecedented speed.
Don’t lose time, money, and energy on things that don’t serve you now. Only learn what you need now, not in five years. And if you have a strategic plan for your business, your self-development plan will create itself out of it.
I’ll conclude with Hans Hoffman’s words:
“The ability to simplify means eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
So what are you going to declutter in your business starting today?
If you’re unsure where even to start, think of making a strategic investment and hiring a business coach.
We will guide you on your journey to keep things simple, to grow in the areas you need to develop now to up-level yourself and your business. If you’re curious to know how coaching with me would look, schedule a free initial consultation here.
