Business owners face complexity daily. What if we could simplify the business world? What would be the advantages? If we have everything simple in our life and in our businesses, it would be the gateway to doing and achieving everything easier. That’s the appeal of simplifying entrepreneurship. Here are but a few things to get the journey of simplification underway.

Customizing a Financial Snapshot

Finances are the life blood of business. As an entrepreneur, you want to be able to get a snapshot of your financial status quickly. When you look at your financial information, can you understand quickly what’s going on with your cash flow, your bottom line, and other financial measures? Complicated finances make it hard to respond to negative indicators in those measures. Simplifying finances, more than in any other operation, in your business increases your response time to identified problems and improves your chances to course correct.

Let’s say there’s a change in the marketplace or a change in customer habits. If you can’t quickly grasp where you stand financially, you’ll be delayed in responding. Simplification can mean implementing a financial dashboard, creating a daily report on paper, customizing a spreadsheet, or any number of creative ideas that could work for you. It’s important to develop an approach that works for you and not to accept someone else’s way of looking at the data. Use whatever tool or method gives you that quick access to meaningful financial status for your company.

Removing Friction in Your Customer Relationships

You can simplify your relationships by removing any friction and frustration that exists, often it is about the way you communicate between each other. Find out how your customers operate. What is their modus operandi? What is their strength? What type of schedule do they like to run? When you know as much as you can about your customers, you can design your interactions and approach to doing business around their characteristics. As you align that with your schedule you will find more peace. Find out how they like to be corresponded with so that communication goes smoothly.

Working in the way the client works removes obstacles and friction in your relationship. Stop doing the things that aren’t working and implement the things that will work with your clients. Simplify the relationships for better success.

Identifying Your Frustrations

What is something that frustrates you? All business owners review performance on a regular basis. They might think that everything is going well because it seems so on the surface. Is that the indicator that all is well? Ask yourself, “Is everything going okay?” When you answer this question, you’ve found points of friction. When something frustrates you, it’s crying for a solution. Remove the friction and frustration by offering the simplest solution. A simple solution may be identifying a faster way to complete a task, investing less to get the same result, or implementing a new tool that will manage the problem.

Where to Start with Simplification

First, start with small steps. Let’s consider a small change in your life that you can take right now: simplifying your calendar. Most people think they can get more done in a day than is possible. Business owners are in demand, and calls for attention to an issue can come up at any time. If your calendar is 100% booked, you’ll fail at getting everything done and at attending to those urgent issues. Clear your calendar so that you have 25–30% of your time free for whatever comes your way.

A good way to start each day is to ask yourself, “What is one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?” You might be surprised at the answers. This allows you to eliminate what’s not needed and save time and to focus on those tasks that make the rest of the day much easier. If you practice this day, you are mastering the art of simplification.

You can listen to my weekly podcast at Simplifying Entrepreneurship where I interview a different guest each week as we explore ways to transform your entrepreneurial worries and wants into wins by cutting through the chaos and making better decisions as a business leader.

This blog was based on a conversation with Dr. Kayvon K from episode 1 of the Simplifying Entrepreneurship Podcast or you can watch the interview below.