Keeping Things Simple

How is it I can take a three-ingredient recipe for pound cake and make it so difficult and cumbersome that I spoil the cake and hate the process? Three conversations today happened on the topic of simplicity. Solopreneurs, especially us creative types, have a tendency to make everything much more grandiose and extreme than things really need to be. And it's wearing us out.

From the teacher with the new business model who just made herself physically sick because she felt she had to be on all the time in order to fill her class. The class didn't get all the way full and she ended up with digestive problems.

And then there's the new freelancer who has so many ideas and not enough time to finish even one of them, feeling overwhelmed because she's imagining and offering more options than she can manage.

And then there's me, who wants to create an online course but ends up making it include everything. Translated: the course never gets finished because it's just too doggone big and collapses under its own weight.

Giving ourselves limits is a good place to start. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, try being one thing really well for a few people. Instead of creating an exhaustive menu of product options, limit your levels to two and encourage them to take the more expensive of the two.

Keeping things simple starts with the commitment that we don't need a long list of ways to keep things simple. We just need one or two good ways to rein in our creativity for a few minutes while we actually get something done.

#productivesolopreneur #underwhelmedfreelancer #feweroptions