Originally Posted 7/15/22

Does the word “Minimalism” make you roll your eyes? Does it invoke images of men or women dressed all in black or gray and sitting on their living room floor because they don’t have any furniture? Many people have that image when the idea or practice of minimalism is brought up. It used to be mine. However, minimalism isn’t about getting rid of everything you own or having a closet with 15 copies of the same piece of clothing. It's more of a way to create a mindset of peace. It creates freedom in your life because you aren’t drowning in excess. It's more of an idea and practice that returns your time and energy. Today, I want to talk about applying those principles to our businesses.

Personally, I have been on a minimalist journey of my own. I may have jumped on the bandwagon when minimalism was the thing to do, but as I moved through my space and cleared out what we didn’t need and what was just sitting around, I found it gave me a greater sense of peace. I did it with my wardrobe; I'm down to 50 pieces of clothes - it makes it super easy to get dressed in the morning and makes our small closet seem giant. This journey for me personally has been enlightening, and learning how to apply it to my business is an adventure I am excited to take. So let's get into it.

I am thrilled to introduce you to author Paul Jarvis. Jarvis wrote one of my favorite books on business, and we will visit that later in this post. He also wrote a compelling and fantastic article for Inc.com on a minimalist business. “Is a Minimalist Business Right For You” outlines the tremendous benefits of adopting this principle in running your business. I want to share his opening statement, but I highly recommend reading the entire article.

“Minimalism isn't just for people who want to live out of a backpack or cram their life into a tiny house. The idea of being minimal can also easily apply to business - and I should know because I've been using them for nearly twenty years. Minimalism is a mindset rather than a blind purge. If something is useful or pleasurable, you keep it. If it's not, then you consider scrapping it.” -Paul Jarvis.

Now we could apply this principle to our work stuff. You know, the pens, the post-it notes, the notebooks, and the planners. (That one stresses me out!) We should address that at some point, but what I want to focus on in this post is the WAY we do our business, how we prioritize the jobs we take, and the services we provide to work more effectively and spend less time on the activities that don’t work towards our enjoyment and financial goals. The main theme in Jarvis’ article is that we put more energy into the activities that bring us joy and income. Suggesting that hustling to chase the next big deal and doing that repeatedly can defeat the purpose of being your own boss. I don’t know about you, but I entered the entrepreneurial world because of the freedom that came with it. For me, it's being home for dinner, and able to help taxi my kid around and taking time off whenever I want. If I constantly chase the next dollar, I know it will take away some of that freedom. I am not suggesting that you not hustle; that's not what this is about; I am suggesting that you take a look at what is enough and what you do and don’t enjoy doing in your business.

To put this in perspective, my notary business has four current avenues of income and work. General notary and loan signing work is my main source of income. I have recently launched Apostille agent services and Inspector of Election services, but neither has taken off quite yet. So my two primary services are the only income-earning services I have. Neither of them is very hard or very stressful. I never walk into or away from most of these jobs stressed out. The part of my business, if I was to purge or clean out of my daily work responsibilities (for example), that I would love not to have to do is the admin part. As an entrepreneur, I am the owner, operator, CEO, CFO, janitor, and secretary. My goal, right now, is to create multiple streams of income that work together and keep me busy enough and create enough income that I can stop spending my time on tasks that I don’t enjoy and hand them over to virtual assistants and social media managers. Tasks like bookkeeping, social media posting, management, scheduling, etc. For me, that end goal would be to create a minimalist business. Working smarter and not harder, right?

So, again, the idea of a minimalist business is doing what you enjoy and earning what you need. It's also the idea that you don’t need to grow your business for growth. If you need to grow to reach your income goals, that's one thing, but to grow your business, because that's what everyone's goal is, won't make you happy. It's not going to give you freedom. It's not going to provide you with easy control.

As I mentioned earlier, Paul Jarvis also authored an awesome book, “Company of One.” This book is about not following the swarm of other entrepreneurs whose goals are almost exclusively growth. It's all about this idea that less is more. In fact, less is exactly what we need. Why must you hit 6, 7, or 8 figures with your business? Does that mean it's successful? What will you have to sacrifice to achieve that? All this is to challenge the mind's idea of what we need! I encourage you to read Jarvis’ book; it's worth the time.

So, in summary, to have a minimalist business means, per Jarvis: “...minimalism is a mindset, not a blind purge. So running a minimalist business doesn't mean staying small for the sake of being small. It means staying small when it makes sense to be small and only growing in areas where growth provides value to you and your customers. Growth isn't inherently evil, but it comes at a price. And running a minimalist business is more about creating freedom than profits. Sometimes the price makes sense to pay, and sometimes you're better off sticking with what you've got.”

I hope you found this post helpful and informative. I know it's not something we hear about often in the business world but something I think would benefit us all.

Thanks for stopping by,

Till Next Time- Jennifer K Cooper, JKC Mobile Notary