More entrepreneurs and business leaders are actively adopting minimalist business practices to achieve their professional and personal goals. Perhaps leaders have finally realized that less is more, and relentless accumulation of material things is not fulfilling for New Age Businesses. But what is a minimalist business, and what does minimalism have to do with the modern workplace?
What Is Minimalist Business?
From a young age, we’ve heard similar perspectives related to success and the idea of a happy life – be it a 5-bedroom apartment on Central Park in New York, a luxury sports car, or a business revenue with millions of dollars and customers. These urges magnify due to the constant bombardment of ads that make us believe every purchase is a building block of happiness.
As a result, we strive for more money, more business, more assets, more luxury items, and more of everything that pleases us. No matter how much we achieve and attain, something new comes along.
However, the tide is now turning, and many among us are growing sick of consumerism and realizing that having more or excess doesn’t genuine satisfaction. Minimalist business trends are already on the rise. Consider any smartphone – a device that has replaced the need to carry a wallet, address book, camera, data storage, etc.
How Minimalism Can Improve Businesses
Minimalism is a mindset that promotes focus on things we value the most while removing everything else. The idea is simple – if something is useful, you keep it. If it’s not, you scrap it. Minimalist business practices ensure that every decision, software, equipment, and process is useful. If it’s not, it doesn’t belong on your computer or in your workplace.
For example, with millions of employees working remotely, many organizations are downsizing their office space to save and invest in IT solutions like Network Security. This is just one conscious decision these minimalist businesses have made due to the slow business movement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are the main benefits of minimalism at the workplace:
- More creativity and resourcefulness
- Lower operating costs
- Reduced stress through the business hierarchy and planning process
- Improved time management
- More streamlined processes
- Quality over quantity
- Improved decision making
- Fewer personnel and workplace distractions
- Personalized customer experience
Minimalist Business Practices
Minimalist businesses practices are about reducing additional unnecessary things you don’t use at your workplace, including:
- Devices you use
- Office furniture
- Number of products/services you offer
- Number of social media platforms you use
- Business communication channels
- The time you spend on tasks
However, minimalism goes beyond simply decluttering and removing tangible items from your space. It also involves conscious and deliberate choices, along with self-assessment to eliminate distractions and time-consuming activities. Lastly, it’s sometimes about putting your ego behind as a leader and share benefits with others as long as they do not violate any policy.
Here are 5 minimalist business practices that can suit your business:
1. Use a Remote Business Model
Not every business can run smoothly on a fully remote structure. However, most businesses can embrace a hybrid work model to allow staff to work from home at least a couple of days per week. We’ve seen that this is possible during the pandemic, and it would be surprising to see businesses go back to the old ways after everything they’ve accomplished with remote work.
If anything, consider the money you can save on physical office space, bills, and equipment. With no daily commute, you can get more hours out of your employees with fewer sick days.
2. Simplify and Automate Processes
Respective to your industry, minimalist businesses should simply or automate as many processes as possible. These include:
- Recurring monthly bills, rentals, and software subscriptions
- Helpdesk services and tickets
- Data report generation
- Text notifications via SMS Gateways
- Email marketing
- Sales and CRM processes
- Tech-assisted training
- Management reporting
- Supply chain and inventory management
3. Use Technology and Tools to Streamline Processes
Are you among those who have 20 tabs open in Chrome or an inbox with thousands of unread emails? It’s time to streamline and automate tasks using technology. We live and work in an era where there’s an app for everything.
Software programs and applications can help minimalist business owners streamline the process for sales, data entry, accountability, customer services, social media, and digital marketing, etc. However, no matter which tools you use or what process you change, quality over quantity should be the objective.
4. Hire Experts
Gone are the days when businesses exploited interns and fresh graduates to do jobs above their pay scale. However, minimal business practices involve hiring the right people for the right jobs. The idea is to reduce redundancy, save time, and money on recruitment.
This allows business owners to delegate tasks without hesitation because they’d be shouldering responsibilities on staff appropriate to their job descriptions. This way, younger employees can spend more time learning instead of diving into problems blindly.
5. Exclude Yourself from Your Business
Make sound hiring decisions and appoint responsibilities to employees. By transferring accountability, you can maintain a better work-life balance. More importantly, you can also highlight that your business is a part of you, but you are not your business. Minimalist business practices ensure that owners protect their time and mental health by not overwhelming themselves with work.
Final Thoughts
Adopting minimal business practices is not a cure-all to remedy your work woes. It’s not an antidote for serious internal issues, but minimalism can provide some peace of mind, simplicity, agility, and authenticity to your business. This will translate into tangible and intangible improvements in culture, revenue, and strategies.
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