The pursuit of freedom: embracing minimalism in your business
I love running my own business, but it’s so easy to become overly absorbed in the day-to-day running of it, especially when you work from home. I work a lot of hours, not just with my lovely clients, but also ON my business, and recently I started to feel a little overwhelmed. The endless stream of ads, gurus and coaches, all telling me what I need and what I should be doing to make my business a success, but in complete ignorance with regards to what success actually means to me didn't help! I felt like I was slowly being brainwashed into thinking my business needed to make six figures a year in order to be considered a success. But that's simply not the case! It's certainly not my version of success.
The irony, of course, is that I spend quite a lot of my time posting and writing about outsourcing your work to be more productive and less overwhelmed… So I have decided to take my own advice. I’m not listening to the gurus anymore, I’m ignoring the ads, and I'm taking a step back to create a more minimalist business.
What is a minimalist business?
If you’re not sure what a minimalist lifestyle or business is, I would guess your first thought is bare shelves and sparse white walls, but it goes deeper than that. It’s about freeing yourself from unnecessary and complicated things that you don’t use or enjoy anymore, and this extends to not only your life but also to your business. Many people (me included) work for themselves because of the freedom it offers us, and we need to get back our original goal.
Neil Patel sums it up pretty well: “minimalism is a mindset, not just the things you own, what you sleep on, or how you groom. A better way to think of minimalism is to think of it as the pursuit of freedom. Freedom from financial worry; Freedom from tending to things instead of yourself; Freedom from time-wasting activities; Freedom from fear of loss.”
And letting go of the FOMO!
How do we apply this to our business?
I’ve taken a step back from my business to think about every single aspect of it; from what I spend my time doing to the apps and programmes I use and what I spend my money on. I've stopped listening to what other people think I SHOULD be doing; I've started to think about what works best for me, my clients and my business. What aspects of my business do I enjoy doing, what do I dislike, what could be ditched and what could be outsourced?
A great example is my use of Instagram. I, like many of you, felt the need to be on Instagram. For many businesses, including some of my clients, it works brilliantly, but it takes a lot of work both in terms of interaction and content creation. I wasn’t enjoying it and the time spent agonising over what to post was becoming quite stressful. So I’ve taken my own advice for once - MEASURE, ASSESS AND FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS. After checking Google Analytics I realised that Instagram wasn’t converting into enough website traffic or leads to justify the time I spent on it. So I've cut right back and stopped putting myself under so much pressure. And the relief is amazing!
I'm keeping my profile because I enjoy catching up on everyone's news - not just my online business besties, but friends and family too. Without Instagram, I wouldn't know if my eldest daughter is alive half the time! But I've reduced my interaction and posting and put no pressure on myself. Doesn't that sound great?
I’ve also recently invested in an accountant. Yes, I can quite easily do my accounts myself, but I don’t particularly enjoy doing them. It’s not a good use of my time and the much-cleared headspace makes it a worthwhile investment, and (pleasingly) it’s another task that I don’t have to do. I spend my time advising people about the benefits of outsourcing, but I wasn't taking my own advice! How silly is that?
Things to consider
There are many things within your business, but you could look at:
Processes
Tasks
Equipment
Apps
Social media channels
Expenditure
Your time
Services you offer
Marketing
Learning to say “No”
Look at ways of either reducing, outsourcing or just plain ditching, leaving you with the tasks that are a good use of your time, that you enjoy doing or those that are a necessity.
Finally, this isn’t something that I have accomplished overnight; it’s an ongoing process and I've set a reminder to check-in with myself and revaluate every month so that I don't slip back into bad habits.
I’ve also thought long and hard about what success means to me so that I can stop chasing and start enjoying being a business owner. It feels like such a relief to let it go already!
What could you stop doing? What's not serving you well?⠀
