Less Really Is More - In Business and Marketing

Less Really Is More - In Business and Marketing May 29, 2011 http://www.SmallBusinessNewz.com Is your business model too complex? Tell Us Here

Less Really Is More - In Business and Marketing Stacy Karacostas | Staff Writer I was just reading one of Rich Schefren's articles, "Duct Tape and the Ultimate Key to Success", in the Early to Rise newsletter about the need for simplicity in your business in order to achieve success. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Because in my quest to work only 2.5 days a week, I've had to seriously look at the value of every strategy, tactic, product and service. I am looking at everything I've ever done, offered or thought about doing, and asking: • How much work does it create for me to do? • Do I have to spend money on outsourcing to get it done? If so, how much? • Am I offering too many options or trying to add too many bells and whistles? • How much net revenue does it bring in? New Compete Data Shows Value in Facebook Pages - Watch Now Because, I, like so many of my entrepreneur clients, want to offer tons of value. I want to give everyone an option that works for them. But when I try to do that, I end up making things more complex, difficult, time-consuming and expensive to implement. And I may end up offering so many options I confuse my prospects and they walk away. Years ago as a copywriter I learned to edit ruthlessly-cutting at least 30% from any rough draft. And I try to do the same ruthless editing in my business. But I still struggle with making things too complex in an effort to give more. And I see others struggle with the same. Here's an excerpt from Rich's article explaining why this is such a huge problem: "When you fall in the love with the complex, you run the risk of spending more time learning than earning. Building knowledge instead of your business. Analyzing instead of taking action. It means more work, more hours spent strategizing and developing, and making less progress toward your goal. No matter how much efficiency you think it may add, no matter how much you may think it saves you, complexity always adds to your bottom line costs When you focus obsessively on creating a bigger and more complex system, you naturally shift your focus from your goal to the path to achieve it. You start focusing on the "How" instead of the "What." It misdirects all your efforts and resources. Rich also asks an important question to determine if you're in love with the complex: "In an effort to make my business more productive, am I more likely to add more steps or options to it or am I more likely to strip something out of it?" Take a hard look at the actions you've taken in the past. Beyond the start-up, how big has your business grown? Not in terms of revenue and customers but in terms of tasks and workload. ...More complex does not mean better. What more complex does mean is more demanding. " Yep. Couldn't agree more. Been there, done that, done with that. Thanks to the Internet and all the options it offer, it's WAY too easy to get sucked into complexity. Into building endless Webpages and Websites. Into offering everything under the sun in an effort to make everyone happy - and ideally make more money. If you do this, in the end, the only one who won't be happy is you. Because you'll be working WAY too hard for WAY too little money. The people succeeding are the ones who've narrowed their focus - and stay focused. Are you trying to be everything to everyone? Do you want to have something everyone can afford? Do you cram more and more in to offer more value? Is doing this sucking away your time, energy and money for little returns? Step back. Look at what you've built, and what it takes to keep it running. Simplify. Do more with less. Focus on a few, key, activities and offerings. Then use your newfound time to get out and enjoy life! Read the rest of Rich's article at http://www.earlytorise.com/2011/05/09/duct-tape-and-the-ultimate-key-to-success-2/ You can learn more about Rich Sheferen at http://www.strategicprofits.com/ You can subscribe to Early to Rise at http://www.earlytorise.com/ What do you think about simplicity in business? Are you prone to over-complicating things? What have you done about it? Please do share by leaving a comment... Originally published on The Unchained Entrepreneur

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