Making it easy!

Have you ever done something and struggled at it just to watch someone else come along and do it with ease? Or put something together that took you hours only to later realize that there was a much simpler way to do it?

From personal experience, this is a trend I see too many businesses take part in.

Do you want to know what makes Apple so successful? They offer simplicity. It's not that their phones are top of the line specs, or the software is superb. No, it's the fact that everything is easy enough that even the very tech illiterate can excel at it.

On the other hand, think about the last time you filed your taxes. This process is incredibly easy in different countries, but not in the U.S. It's navigating through options, menus, cross-checking items, referring back to different sections and so on...

While I understand these are not comparable services, the difference is night and day for consumers.

You WANT your company to be like Apple in the sense that you can make it as simple as possible. Think about it from the consumer side of things. If I send you an email asking you to reply back to me in order to get a link to a downloadable page with a discount code on it vs. me just sending you an email with the discount code highlighted and a big, bright button right below it, which one will you choose?

In all likelihood, you're going to ignore the first email or possibly even spam it. Making things any more difficult than the simplest they absolutely can be is a sales death penalty!

A very wise man by the name of Albert Einstein spoke on simplicity quite frequently. Here are some of the things he had to say on the matter:

- "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

- "Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

- "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

The last one may not speak directly to simplicity, but we'll circle back around to that one in a minute...

Simplicity is a form of art. It shows that a person who is able to break things down in the simplest, most elegant way typically has the most knowledge about the subject. This is a psychological 'trick' that helps build trust. But like I said, it's an art. Some people are good at it and others aren't.

This comes back to the last quote. You need to figure out the question before you can find the answer.

Let me give you a personal example of how it works. I'm really good at cooking. This isn't to brag, just simply stating a fact. I enjoy it. I also do most of the cooking in our family - which my wife is perfectly happy with. However, when I cook a meal, I don't think about the ingredients on an individual level. I cook from the end.

What does this mean? Well, I figure out the WHAT, or the question, of how I want my food to taste and begin to work backwards. Once I have the finished product in mind, I can then break it down into sections and ingredients. I know the end, so I can now easily start from the beginning. If this doesn't make sense, don't worry, it will! It comes with practice and mastery of skills.

Each and every person has different talents and skills that we're good at that are different from the next person. But when it comes to business, we have to make sure to realize what skills those are and what skills we need help with.

If you know you're not good in a certain area, then stop!

Read this next part carefully and read it again until you understand it completely!

If you're not good at something, it's okay. But find someone who IS!

Your business is like your child. You want to nurture it and grow it to be the best it can be. However, if you stink at cooking, don't try to prepare a 5-star meal. Find one who can.

Trying to do everything yourself can actually hurt your growth.

You want to make your life, as well as the customer's, as simple as possible.

Do you remember how Google got so big in the first place? It made a search engine that compiled webpages in one place. Then it gave us free email along with calendars, notes, and other tools all accessible from one account that could be sync'd across multiple devices. They offered simplicity for personal productivity.

If you can seriously analyze your company and operating procedures, along with marketing and client acquisition methods, and figure out the WHAT, then you can easily figure out the how.

Find out what in your business needs streamlined or what is overly complex and doesn't need to be and make those changes. But remember, what may be simple to you isn't necessarily simple to others. Get other people to look over your business and offer suggestions. There's ALWAYS room for improvement.

Make things simple, but no simpler! 😉

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein (again)

We get it and understand that everyone thinks and sees the world differently. If you're stuck somewhere and need some help, let us know! Simplicity is the base of our business and we're quite good at identifying ways to help simplify your life and business! You can contact us HERE.