Practicing Simplicity In Business

Practicing simplicity in business is easier said than done. When you begin a business, you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. You've worked towards your strengths, discovered a need to be filled, and you have a neat business plan all worked out on paper.

However, you discover that customers do not always need what you think they do, and your business plan that works on paper actually translates to an impractical ideal. You are working longer hours than ever and providing multiple levels of services, but your customer base is getting thinner and your profit margins are shrinking. You find yourself staying up late at night, formulating complicated strategies to improve your market position and squeeze out more profit.

You may need to focus your efforts on doing less in order to achieve more. Much like large cities, businesses tend to experience sprawl as they grow. Growth in business is an excellent thing as long as it is growth in the correct direction. Growth simply for the sake of growth results in an excess that diverts valuable time and resources away from the areas where growth will result in better products, better service and ultimately better profits.

Some roses produce rapid and abundant growth in favorable conditions. If allowed to grow unchecked they quickly send out weak and spindly branches with a single puny bloom. If this same rose bush is carefully pruned back, it will produce handsome, upright branches with lush foliage and gigantic blooms. A business can act in much the same manner.

The best way to prune a business back judiciously is to make simplicity your byword. Some areas to start simplifying are your mission statement, your core offerings, your place of business, and your policies. If you are feeling like your business has experienced sprawl, take time to do an inventory of these areas and see if you can find ways to streamline them a bit.

Let's look first at your goals and mission statement for your business. Your goals for your business should be simple, clear-cut, and measurable. Your mission statement for your business should be a few clear sentences that spell out exactly what it is that you hope to accomplish. If a child of 12 years of age would have a hard time understanding what it is that your company hopes to achieve you may want to simplify your mission statement.

Your core offerings should likewise be a simple matter of your doing what you do best. If your business aims have gotten floppy and weak, try going back to basics. Perhaps you need to offer less services or products in order to ensure that your offerings are of the highest quality. When you consistently go back to what you do best and nothing else, growth will occur naturally.

Your place of business should be equally basic. You should provide yourself and any employees you may have with a simple, workmanlike space in which to operate. Your place of business should indicate that you are focused on fulfilling the needs of clients. Filling the place up with gadgets or trinkets is distracting.

Finally, all policies and procedures should be based on a basic and simple value system. Sam Walton embodied one of the most effective business strategies in this country. Mr. Walton wanted to supply things that people needed at prices they could afford. This simple idea provided a set of policies that would eventually see a Wal-Mart in cities all over the world. Your business should have policies and procedures that everyone can understand and enthusiastically embrace.

Keeping things simple in business is not easy. Often it takes real strength of will to resist the urge to keep tweaking and adding on until things are perfect. However, a simple system is a strong system. Keeping things streamlined and basic within business will result in a stronger company that experiences healthy growth.