People like to run away from problems.

They want to ignore, fear them, and wish them away.

I say embrace your problems, love them.

Write them down and study them.

Focus on your problems, because just below the surface, there are solutions hiding in them.

When Henry Ford built his assembly lines he really needed workers.

He needed people that would just do what he needed as fast as he needed.

Many of our companies still operate like this, but more and more it’s becoming a terrible model. If all you need is a flock of people to do tasks that usually means that you’re playing the price game.

You’re trying to get good task people, that show up, don’t ask questions, and that can do the same thing over and over again.

While there are companies making money this way, they are getting few and far between. There is always going to be someone that comes along with a cheaper workforce.

Besides in this new business economy it’s the fresh and unique ideas that both companies and consumers are paying top dollar for.

Which model are you using right now?

Are you looking for people to do tasks or are you seeking talented people with the best ideas?

Adjust while you still can.

It’s so tempting to just put our heads down and drive away at our businesses.

With all of things that we have to manage and all of the day-to-day operations, it’s easy to forget to take the time for a 30,000 foot view of our business.

It’s hard to find the time to look at it objectively.

But it’s so important.

Stop and ask yourself, “Would I buy this?”, “Is this really important?”.

Stop and ask someone else, “Does this make your life better, or would you buy this?”.

What happens when you don’t do this is $200,000 phone systems, $20,000 contact management systems that are obsolete by the time they’re finished, marketing materials that your customers will never read or care about, products they’ll never buy, and ridiculous meetings that never produce anything.

Ask me how I know this…

Simplexity is a word I made up to describe the art of taking complex business structures and making them simple to be more manageable, profitable and open for innovation.

There are so many areas and variables in a business that it’s easy to overlook how disjointed things can become.

These areas can mean how we store documents, how many people a customer has to go through, how good is communication without allowing too much interruption, and so on. The list is nearly infinite.

Simplexity is about ease of flow and having a designer’s sensibility to eliminate everything that doesn’t make your business more beautiful.

Simple is beautiful.

Peace of mind is beautiful.

Adding value to end users is beautiful.

So is enjoying your business.

Simplexity my friend. Simplexity.

A lot of businesses that I work with are bogged down in minutiae that is taking away from their lives, their customer’s experience & the bottom line of their company.

There are a few things that companies should do an audit for every few months:

Bills – Overhead is a killer. If you monitor your spending, you’ll more than likely find wasteful spending. (Like monthly subscriptions & software you’re not using.) Be honest with yourself about what is necessary.

Hierarchy – Nobody likes hierarchy except those that benefit in the short term of it. Even if you’re the king or queen your kingdom will operate better if they feel just as important as your court. Besides, hierarchy is usually artificial, such as giving people perks based on time on the job instead of performance.

Protocol – Having everything as a set protocol works for McDonald’s, but that’s because they don’t higher talented people that they trust. Set protocol means that you’re not open for improving. It means the hierarchy are they only one’s with good ideas. (gasp!) Let all of your people constantly give ideas and let your operations evolve.

Go Lite!

I have a saying, “Love the Clueless”.

The truth is if you want an objective look at what you’re doing as an organization, ask someone that knows nothing about your industry.

Listen to the words they use when they describe what they see.

That’s exactly the words you should use to explain, market, and spread your ideas.

If they can’t describe what they see, it often means you weren’t simple and clear enough.

Love the clueless.

There’s a lot of people out there that are charging thousands of dollars to build you a “brand”.

Some design firms will simply submit to you 2 designs (un-researched) and let you pick one.

Some ‘gurus’ will charge you $5k to come sit in a room and talk about how holistic they should make your brand.

Bottom line, logo doesn’t always matter & you can’t define your brand in just one sitting.

Your brand has to develop over time.

It is what your customers say it is.

Get it started and set it in motion.

You may not even need a logo.

Define your brand by how you’ve executed the intent of what you set out to do for your business.

It’s good to be flexible with it, but have some plan.

Branding is ‘getting the right idea’ & ‘getting the idea right’.

Getting stuck in your business is usually a symptom of stale ideas, too much overhead and a lack of innovation.

Many companies think that their competition is a guy/girl down the street that is in the same boat they are.

The truth of the matter is your competition is hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that are all looking to ‘one up’ you.

If you sit still or get stale you’ll never be able to keep up with them all.

Keep moving.

Keep the ideas flowing.

Keep the innovation factory churning.

Keep flexible.

Keep unstuck.

The reason it is so important to define what your value proposition is, is because it allows you to ask yourself an important question:

Does this thing (action, cost, software) add to my value proposition to my customer?

This question allows you to keep your organization from getting fat.

If it doesn’t add to your value, it subtracts.

It’s so easy to add unnecessary things to the mix.

Before you know it, a small group of four starts your exact business in their garage but for a lot less.

You never saw it coming.

Marketing works best when it’s ‘baked in’ to the product.

As more and more people become savvy to the ways of evil marketers, if your product doesn’t deliver, it doesn’t stand a chance no matter how much you spend to market it.

Imagine if you could invest all of your money into making the product better, instead of having to save marketing money to save your product.

Nothing is better than word of mouth & nothing helps word of mouth more than a product worth talking about.