- Deadline-driven projects and pressing problems.
- Client demands and cash flow worries.
- Trying to keep up with paperwork and show up on social media.
- Interruptions and other peoples’ agendas.
The hustle has you overworked, overwhelmed…and exhausted.
You’re struggling every day in your business.
To keep up. To catch your breath. To get ahead. To stop putting out fires long enough to strategize and be proactive.
As exhausting as it is for you—knee deep in all that struggle, it’s also tough for those watching from the sidelines. Your spouse, best friend, mastermind group, mother, coach.
Because what we see that you don’t—because you’re in it and we’re not—is the complexity. The totally unnecessary, energy draining, mind numbing complexity.
All those moments in your business where you’re at a crossroads:
- Would you like Complicated or Simple? And you say, I’ll take complicated, please.
- Would you like Inefficient or Streamlined? Oh, by all means, I’ll go with inefficient.
All the points and places you could have chosen to pare down, reduce, revise, renegotiate. But instead you took the path of overcomplicating—everything.
From how you get clients to how you keep clients. From how you deliver your services to how you get paid. From how you create content to how you market and sell.
Now you might think complexity just is. That if you’re in business for yourself, there’s no way around it.
Hmmm…not so fast. Because complexity is a choice. Plain and simple.
Would you like to make your business complicated?
__ Yes
__ No
Having complicated systems and processes in your business is a choice. Likewise, having no systems or processes in place—which causes a slew of its own complications—is also a choice.
Here’s the thing about complexity: It’s often just a twisty, tricky form of self-sabotage.
I’ve found self-sabotage disguised as complexity shows up in two ways for my clients. See if these sound familiar.
You have no system.
You haven’t systematized some aspect of your business—and that means starting from scratch and recreating the wheel every time you need to do a particular task or activity.
For instance, prospects ask the same questions over and over, but you never compile a document of FAQs. Or it takes the same 10 steps to create a new opt-in page, but you’ve never bothered to write them down. And since you only do this every few months, you get to figure out those 10 steps all over again each and every time.
Systems aren’t about being rigid—they’re about setting you free. They’re about saving time and brain power. They’re about not wasting time, energy, and attention on the repeatable To Dos and tasks so you can bring your A-game to the parts of your business that demand creativity and genius.
Real businesses have real systems. Stop sabotaging yourself by treating your business like it’s a hobby and you’re an amateur.
You have a bad system.
Sometimes a cumbersome process is worse than no process at all. Have you put a system in place that’s not really lightening your load because it’s more than what’s needed?
For instance, maybe you have a complex system of folders and subfolders for filing your emails. Your system might save a few seconds when it comes to finding a particular email, but any time savings is overshadowed by how long it takes to figure out where to file each email in the first place. Or maybe you have an overly complicated discovery session with prospects or your proposal template is ultra customized to the point it’s barely a template at all.
Think about where you’re bogged down and doing busy work because the system you put in place isn’t really working. Systems are supposed to streamline and save time.
Which means your systems should make it easier for you to get work done. Period. If they don’t, something is wrong.
It’s time to eliminate the self-sabotage of unnecessarily complicating things.
Working in and on your business is all about process—the series of actions and steps you take in order to achieve a particular end. Well, if the particular “end” you’re trying to achieve is impact + profit with as much ease as possible, then take time to formalize what you do.
You can start with two simple questions:
- Where do I need systems?
- Which systems need to be simpler?
Now, when you get rid of complexity, I’m not saying your business life will be all rainbows and unicorns.
It won’t.
But eliminating complexity gets you one step closer to ease. To the absence of difficulty and unnecessary effort. And that’s when you can truly enjoy being boss and revel in what you’ve created.
