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15 Ways to Add Simplicity to Your Purpose-Driven Business

Simplifying your business can be a great strategic move when things start to get hectic. We asked business leaders this question for their best advice.

What is one way you can add more simplicity to your purpose-driven business? 

Simplifying your business can be a great strategic move when things start to get hectic. That’s why we asked business leaders and management experts this question for their best advice. From focusing on your mission to diving into project management, there are several ways you can add more simplicity to your business.

Here are fifteen ways you can add more simplicity to your purpose-drivenbusiness: 

  • Stick to Your Values

  • Focus on Your Mission

  • Simplify the Writing Process

  • Streamline Your Workflows

  • Build a Team Environment

  • Look for Ways to Improve Systems

  • Establish a Decision-Making Process

  • Know Your Market

  • Create Communication Efficiencies

  • Be Guided by Your Why

  • Don’t Try to Reach Everyone

  • Simplify Project Management

  • Honor Your Uniqueness

  • Intuitively Organize Processes

  • Adopt Technology for Efficiency

Stick to Your Values 

One way to add more simplicity in business is to know your values and stick to them. That makes for fewer choices on a daily basis that you really have to think about. For instance, if a healthy environment is important to you, you will incorporate this value into your activity by commuting in a way that feels right and noting big nature in its forms beside you.

-Diane Henkels, Henkels Law LLC

Focus on Your Mission

"Complexity is the enemy of execution" is one of my favorite Tony Robbins quotes. Stay focused on what your mission is, and don't get caught up in the minutia. And say goodbye to the notion of multi-tasking.

-Jody Foster, BOOM Media

Simplify the Writing Process

Adding text predictive AI-powered software with grammar correction capabilities to your business resources can simplify your company’s writing process. Lightkey’s software can be used for a wide range of content domains, including technology, law, finance, and academia, so you can write freely while getting up to 12 predicted words and real-time spelling corrections. It’s a great way to write faster and with confidence.

-Guy Katabi, Lightkey

Streamline Your Workflows

Simplify your life and your business with Agile project management. By using Agile methods, you can streamline your operations for greater efficiency to better manage change. While software companies typically use agile, other types of businesses can benefit from some of the same practices. For example, at Markitors, we use Kanban boards to organize and better manage our team’s workload for a much better workflow. 

-Rronniba Pemberton, Markitors

Build a Team Environment 

Business owners need to wear fewer hats and trust in their team. As a leader, our main focus should be to guide our company and ensure each unique focus is running smoothly. We can easily get bogged down and overcomplicate things when we spend effort in micromanaging as opposed to spending the same amount of energy on cultivating a confident team environment.

-Erik Croswell, Bridge City Media

Look for Ways to Improve Systems

Simplicity comes after a lot of hard work. No system, process, or piece of culture comes without a history of iteration and analysis. Simplicity is the product of a continuous force for betterment in a company. It only looks simple after the work is done.

-Mathew Smith, Tribe Pilot

Establish a Decision-Making Process 

I find that most businesses don't have clear decision-making processes. It's one of the most common recommendations I make to my clients. Adding a little formality to clarify how a decision will be made and by whom eliminates so much confusion and conflict later on. The key is to establish who will be invited to provide input, who is responsible for making a decision, and who needs to be informed once a decision is made and then following through.

-Jen Coyne, The PEAK Fleet

Know Your Market

One way to add more simplicity to your business is to understand your client base. Identifying who your client is and how you serve them can create efficiencies and focus. It can refine your products and services. When you are trying to be everything to everybody, you can be all over the place and not doing any of it well. If you have multiple business lines, hiring the right people with experience to run a specific line will show specific expertise to your client base. This helps your marketing efforts and can lead to new business.

-Lisa Faust, Pacific West Bank

Create Communication Efficiency 

An easy way to add more simplicity is to cut out extra steps. Sometimes this also means cutting out extra people. The phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen" applies to work projects and work responsibilities, too. Sometimes, it is best to have one person from a team representing the interests of that team on a call rather than the entire team. The same thing goes for emails. No one likes to be on chains of emails that aren't imperative to their day-to-day.

-Sarah Vito, Yellow Emperor

Be Guided by Your Why 

When you know your business purpose, why you are coming to work, everything becomes natural and simple. Daily tasks become part of a much greater thing. Having a clear purpose provides a guide to all employees in how things should be done. You can also add more simplicity in your business by establishing clear policies and procedures and by making sure those processes are followed through. However, there should always be an open channel to propose changes for good and hear complaints.

-Silvina Skverer, Thinking Beyond Business

Don’t Try to Reach Everyone 

Be clear on what you are offering and who you are trying to reach. Try not to get caught in the mindset that everyone is your perfect customer or that you have to work with every type of person out there.

-Jennifer Leonard, Planet to People

Simplify Project Management

Good project management is a start. Streamlining and prioritizing are important skills. Truly examine ways to do away with time sinks that are relatively useless. Don't have meetings unless there's a true forward motion purpose to them. Do have conversations along the way.

-Kim Allchurch-Flick, Mighty Epiphyte

Honor Your Uniqueness

I am involved in multiple businesses, so simplicity can be hard to establish. However, I have found the art of simplicity by staying true to the original principles of my business. When I first started, I had outlined what I wanted my business to stand for. I incorporate these principles every day as I interact with both my employees and my customers. Remembering what makes my business unique helps me stay focused. 

-Henry Babicheknko, Stomadent

Intuitively Organize Processes

If you can make many things feel like fewer things, you’re well on your way to simplicity. Being organized creates a feeling of simplicity. How do you do this? Make things work for people in a way that is as intuitive as possible. In company letters and emails, make your headings simple and logical. Organize your website to flow simply, without over-complication of what it is you do. Create a taxonomy that makes searching for things simple, easy, and intuitive. Keep all aspects of your business organized, and you are well on your way to creating simplicity in your business. 

-Vicky Franko, Insura

Adopt Technology for Efficiency

You can simplify your business by incorporating technology where possible. I would recommend outlining your processes via SOPs or flowcharts and identifying arduous tasks that can easily be automated by technology. Some examples of helpful technologies are Asana, DocuSign, and Hubspot!

-Jonathan Cohen, Generated 

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