Upgrade to Simple

I was inspired the other day by a Seth Godin Post, which happens a lot to me. This particular one, he talked about the phrase, dumb it down. It’s a common phrase, people have used it a lot. And how derogatory it is, if you think about it, when in reality simplifying things is one of the most powerful and freeing things you can do and ways to improve almost anything you’re working on, especially your business and how it works. His suggestion was to reframe that and to say, instead of saying dumb something down, instead of saying Dumb it down, say, simple it up. I love that. So in honor of Seth, I want to talk today about things you can do to simplify your business and make it better. 

True Story
First, I believe that ability to simplify your business for the better starts with being very, very grounded in your truth. I call it your true story. That’s what you do, who you do it for, and how they benefit. The more time you spend on that simple understanding the stronger foundation you’re gonna have for everything you do, and the less you’ll need to change it, because you’re grounded in this evergreen truth about your business. Yes, that could change, it could evolve, but it’s very unlikely for it to change dramatically. So first, ground yourself in that.

Have a reason
And then as you move forward with your business, test everything you do to see if it’s helping you move in that direction or if it’s not And focus on justifying every action, every expense, every focus of your team on is it helping us achieve that true story that will be, maybe enlightening for you about how many things you’re doing for less direct reasons than that. And it, it creates a lot of situations where you’ll say no to things that maybe you had let happen before because it was easy, or it just happened by gravity almost. So have a reason for everything.

Start Small
And then when you start something new, start small, use the, the concept of MVP from agile methodology, and apply it to pretty much everything you do. It’s true for marketing campaigns where you, rather than jump in with a big investment or a big, you know, fancy new website, start with the smallest, viable version of that campaign. Maybe it’s to a limited audience. Maybe it’s a simple page that starts before the full website. And then learn from that. And you can then decide whether you’re gonna double down if it’s working or adjust it, or just stop doing that altogether. Starting small is the recipe for preventing waste and extra expense and actually damage to your business from things that may seem like a good idea, but you don’t know until you try.

Those are three ideas. The important thing here is to view simplicity and clarity as a strength, as a positive aspect in your business. If you do less and do it better and measure everything you do, you’ll come out much farther.