What is an Effortless Business?

Your Effortless Business gives you the Good Life you want. You have the time, energy and money you need to live life on your terms. You continually grow, give back and you make a difference in your world.

Your Effortless Business attracts the best customers because you delight your customers by solving their problems in a way that helps them live their Good Life.

Your Effortless Business attracts a dedicated, engaged team who live their Good Life. They are well paid (because your business model is robust), they continue to grow and they are excited to give back to the community with you and make a difference in their world.

Marketing in Your Effortless Business is telling the stories of your best customer. You tell those stories everywhere and as often as you can.

Operations in Your Effortless Business is delighting your customers within your robust business model. You put efficiencies in place only after you are sure the processes are effective. Everything else is dropped.

The term Human Resources is banished from Your Effortless Business because your people aren’t resources to be exploited, they are a vital part of your business and they bring you joy. Your best work is to nurture and support them.

Finance in Your Effortless Business is automated using systems and technology. Your robust business model means that decisions can be made based on effectiveness and not the cheapest alternative. Cash flow is regulated and taxes paid on time with ease. You get and track the 2-3 key indicators that tell you what you need to know to make good decisions.

I like to use a volleyball analogy

Let’s say you like volleyball (it can be any sport or hobby). You get together with some friends once or twice a week. You get access to a good court, you make sure you have sneakers that feel good and make you happy. You have comfy shorts that don’t fall down, a shirt that’s not so big your arms get caught in the billows and not so small you are constantly adjusting it. Over time, your group evolves to one where you all play well together. It’s a group that brings out the best in each other so you are continually improving and you all have fun together.

Then you play your heart out

That’s what I mean about an effortless business. Not a sitting-on-the-couch-guzzling-beer-and-hoovering-chips-watching-volleyball kind of effortless. I mean the kind of effortless where friction is minimized, where you're free to give it your all, where you can continually get better, where the people around you help you and bring out the best in you. It’s the kind of effortless where you throw yourself onto the bench, spent and happy at the end of each day.

Sure, stuff happens, but look around you. You’ll see plenty of businesses that are not putting out fires all the time and you’ll see many areas of your life that flow predictably. If they can and you can in other parts of your life, then you can in your business as well.

Take an outside view over the next few days at the fires that come your way. Where do they come from? Are predictable and can therefore be avoided? What can you tweak in your processes to catch them earlier? Can you automate to avoid mistakes?

That's a start to working towards Your Effortless Business.

Note: I traveled #vanlife this past summer across Canada and back through the States. I'm not a great photographer, so I'll use online photos of places I went.