Blacksburg Belle

  • Home
  • New? Start Here!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
    • Courses
    • Get My Book
    • Sunday Society
  • Speaking
  • About
  • Connect
  • Blog

Decluttering Your Business through Editing and Elimination

- March 22, 2017 | by April -

Glance down at what you’re wearing today.

If you were back in the store, would you pay to buy those pieces again at full price?

This is the question that I ask myself each time I clean out my closet. I used to feel guilty about donating a $98 dress even though I knew I wouldn’t wear it again because I’d already spent a good chunk of money on it (and there’s always maybe someday, right?). But, if I was in the store, looking at it and trying to decide whether or not to buy it, it would be an easy no.

That’s how I know I’m making the right decision to eliminate it from my closet and donate it, hoping that someone who really loves it will get to wear it.

It doesn’t make sense to keep it hanging in my closet, taking up space and making me feel guilty everytime I look at it just because I spent $98 on it a couple years ago.

We tend to hold onto projects and paragraphs in blog posts and commitments the same way.

If we’ve already put hours and hours into a new product, we have a much harder time letting go instead of adding it to our Etsy shops even though it doesn’t work with our other products.

If we’ve spent six hours writing and editing a blog post and realize it’s crap, we publish it anyways or feel like the six hours was wasted.

If we’ve already said yes to speaking at an online summit but then receive the details that include emailing our lists about the speaking engagement three times and know it’s not the right fit, we follow through instead of saying, “Sorry, I’m out.”

“Sunk-cost bias is the tendency to continue to invest time, money, or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recouped.” -Essentialism, Greg McKeown

Here are four steps I recommend you take to make sure you’re spending your time on the right things:

Step 1: Inventory Your Business

It’s important to regularly look at everything we’re doing in our businesses to see if we’re doing things just because we’ve been doing them or have committed to something in the past.

Mark a day in your calendar to do this each quarter over the next year. On that day, make a list of all your products, services, projects, tasks and commitments.

For each, ask yourself these questions:

If I was starting from scratch, how hard would I be willing to work to start this project? What would I be willing to give up to make time for this project or commitment?

Ask yourself these questions about each of your products, your daily uploads on Instagram, your FB live videos, your meetings with your team, the interviews you’ve agreed to, etc. Evaluate anything that takes up time in your calendar.

Step 2: Get Past Your Fear

When I began blogging, years and years ago, I started a wedding planning blog. I wanted to blog about something and I was planning my wedding at the time, so I thought it’d be a great topic.

I built a readership into the thousands and a side income of around $450/month in ads and sponsored posts.

Once I got married, I realized that I didn’t want to spend my days looking at bouquets of peonies, wedding cakes and mermaid dresses.

Even though I knew that I didn’t want to continue blogging about weddings, it took me a few months to get past my fear of giving up something I’d worked incredibly hard to build.

I spent those months talking it out with my husband and friends, walking and thinking about what I’d really like to blog about and crying over my stupidity of wasting so much time on something I’d never want to do long-term.

I wrote a blog post for CreativeLive about giving up my readership and side income and I was shocked by a couple of comments from readers who couldn’t believe I would give it up including this completely ridiculous comment:

“Just because you get married doesn’t mean you have to shut down your wedding blog! If something is financially working, why shut it down? You are either an idiot, or you are not explaining yourself fully (or you are embellishing your story for drama). If you had nothing more to say about “weddings”, you could transition from weddings to family, but within the same blog, to the same followers, as…duh! They are progressing in their lives too! I am transitioning from photographing weddings to photographing babies because my friends are all married and are having babies now. Does that mean I throw my camera away? Do I close down my photography business? NO!!! It just means I take it in a new direction…At the very least, you probably could have sold the site to someone who would have gladly paid for the list of followers and paying advertisers…SOMETHING other than just shutting it down! And you want me to take advice from you? WOW!” -Latara Dragoo

When I first read this comment, I thought…what a you-know-what! How dare you scream at me with your capital letters and presume to know what’s best for my life and business when it’s obvious your business is struggling.

Then, I took a deep breath and realized that this person didn’t get the meaning of my post.

She didn’t get that closing my wedding planning blog was the best decision I could’ve made because it gave me the time to build THIS successful business that I truly love and brings in a much bigger income.

She didn’t get that life is way too short to spend it doing something I resent. She was proving the point that people fear giving up something they put hundreds of hours into even if it’s the exact right decision.

This was my response:

“First, I started the blog as a hobby–not as a way to make money. When I started my blog, none of the blogs I read had ads on their blogs or wrote sponsored posts yet, so I had no way of knowing what it could (and would) grow into. Second, when I realized that I didn’t want to continue with daily blogging about a topic that I no longer cared about, I wasn’t about to start another blog that I’d end up resenting. I don’t have kids and blogging about family is not a direction I would’ve wanted to go. Most importantly, if I didn’t let go of that blog, I wouldn’t have had the time or room to create the business that I have now which I love. Third, when you create a blog that is based on your interests, strengths and personality, it’s hard to sell it, because it’s not as if the person who buys it can just pick up where you left off and be you. If you’re planning on selling your blog, you have to create something that can live on without you being the blogger.”

I tried my best to explain my viewpoint while realizing that this person is shortsighted and not my ideal customer.

When you’re looking at all of the things you spend time on in your business, try to do so without the baggage of fear and the what ifs.

Don’t torture yourself by thinking about how you could’ve done things differently and holding onto products, services and tasks just because you already spent time on them.

You can’t change the past, but you can make sure you don’t waste another second on something that isn’t worth your time.

Step 3: Edit Your Business

You’ve already made a list of all your commitments and realized that some of them need to get cut. Make the time to cut them now, including sending emails or hopping on a Skype call to let anyone else involved know that you’re eliminating the task or project from your calendar.

For the ones that you’re hemming and hawing over, ask yourself this question:

If you were starting from scratch, would you say yes to this commitment, project or task again?

If you were just starting your business, would you still sell one-of-kind jewelry? If you’d never posted a picture on Instagram, would you still commit to posting three times a day? If you’d just received the email about guest posting monthly on a blog in your niche, would you say yes again?

If the answer is no, try letting it go for a short period of time and see what happens.

Try selling jewelry you can make again and again for a month. See if that business model works better.

Try posting once a day on Instagram for the next week. Do your numbers drop? Does your engagement drop? Or…do you have enough time to also do an Instagram live video twice a week that has resulted in multiple sales?

Tell the blogger that you’re unavailable to guest post for her for the next two months. Does it really hurt your business? Or…do you realize that guest posting for the past twelve months has probably resulted in all the new readers for your own blog that you’re going to get from it?

Edit your business by removing the non-essential tasks so that you have more time to focus on high-leverage tasks that actually move your business forward and make you money.

Step 4: Take a Moment Before Committing

Now that you’ve eliminated tasks that are getting in your way instead of bringing you joy and income, you don’t want to fill your calendar back up with crap.

Before you say yes to ANYTHING, take a breath. Really scrutinize what saying yes means. Consider whether this task or new product idea or interview request is helping you to achieve your overall mission and goal.

Think about the time and effort it’ll take and what you’ll have to say no to in order to make time for it.

It’s incredibly hard to say no (especially for people pleasers and to things that might turn out to be great opportunities), but running a successful business is all about editing out the unproductive, unrelated stuff.

Learning to say no, instead of automatically saying yes, will make you less overwhelmed and your business more profitable.

I say no to about 95% of the opportunities and requests that come my way. There are many that I wish I had the time to commit to, but I know if I want to ensure I have enough time for the things I really want to spend my time on, I have to say no.

What will you edit out of your business today? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

18 Comments · Filed Under: Productivity, Success

Comments

  1. Heather says

    March 22, 2017 at 11:34 pm

    I’m not going to bother posting anything on Twitter for now.
    I figured I might as well, since I’m creating the posts for the other platforms, but I don’t have a lot of time, Twitter is my least favorite platform, and I don’t think my customers are there anyway. I’m going to focus on the social media platforms I enjoy using and where I get the most results and engagement from real customers.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:30 pm

      And, what’s the worst that will happen? Maybe you’ll realize that your customers want to connect on there? Then, you engage. Otherwise, you save yourself overwhelm and make another area of your business much stronger.

      Reply
  2. Marieke says

    March 23, 2017 at 1:05 am

    I tend to commit to too many volunteer commitments. I like to volunteer but doing too many volunteer jobs doesn’t leave me much time to work on my creative business which is important to me too. I’m working on learning when to say no and only committing to those volunteer jobs that give me joy.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:36 pm

      My mother-in-law tends to do the same thing and then she wears herself out. She now picks and chooses which ones to participate in. It’s no longer, “Oh, nobody wants to do it. Linda will do it.”

      Reply
  3. Lucy PARSONS says

    March 23, 2017 at 5:45 am

    I recently stopped posting on Instagram. I was burnt out by the launch of my book and Instagram was just taking too much time out of every day. I’m so much happier and freer now I’ve made this commitment to myself not to post on Instagram. Am I Twitter following and Facebook group are both growing at a lovely rate that I’m really happy with.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:40 pm

      I hate how we feel like we have to be on these platforms we don’t really like. But, I guess it’s the way of the world right now and probably forever. Glad that you’re focusing on the areas you like most.

      Reply
  4. Bonnie Lecat says

    March 23, 2017 at 9:07 am

    This is super timely for me, April. I am currently trying to build a new website, really clarify my brand and design some products that create some passive income. I have an Etsy store that features a (too diverse) variety of products that I create on demand. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some really successful items, but I fear my products don’t all have enough similarity to build a strong cohesive brand. It’s really tough to decide which things to let go, especially when my biggest sellers are the biggest time sucks and the least rewarding for me creatively. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to hire someone to help me fill the orders or just move on. Thanks for the advice and perspective!

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:43 pm

      Hey Bonnie – The question I’d ask is ‘do I really make good money on those products I don’t like creating and take me forever to create?” Are you really charging enough to make at least $15/hour? How much do you want to be making? Just because someone is selling doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s your biggest money maker.

      Reply
  5. Dana Lynn Thompson says

    March 23, 2017 at 9:44 am

    Hi April! I really enjoyed this reminder that sometimes we need to stop and take stock of how we are spending our time. I think sometimes I get so caught up in the “doing” of things that I forget to question the “why” and to analyze what I’m giving up to do those things. I’ve recently been trying to ask those tough questions (and they are not easy!) in an attempt to make time for the things that are more important. Thank you for giving me some more good questions to ask.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:46 pm

      I’m so glad to add to this reminder. We do need to take time to stop and ask ourselves why we’re doing certain things and if they’re really paying off. Thanks for adding to the conversation!

      Reply
  6. Nick Colakovic says

    March 23, 2017 at 9:55 am

    Sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze if the things we’re doing are actually worth it. People tend to hold on to situations that actually doesn’t do them good.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:46 pm

      Exactly!

      Reply
  7. Lisa says

    March 23, 2017 at 10:17 am

    This was a great post! I totally agree with you that, mentally, everyone should be honest with themselves and ask, ‘Why am I doing this? Am I doing this as a business or a hobby?’ If it’s a business, yes you definitely need to get comfortable firing projects and moving on to the ones that are going to succeed and be profitable. If it’s a hobby, you absolutely should evaluate if the monetary gain is worth the headache that it has turned into, when the purpose of doing it was to make you happy.

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:47 pm

      Such a good point about looking at something as a business versus a hobby. So true!

      Reply
  8. Madeline says

    March 23, 2017 at 10:22 am

    Wow…. how did you know I’ve been asking myself these exact questions?! I swear, April, you are a mind reader! For the past six months I’ve been working on a 365 project (where I take and post an image every single day for a year) and have really enjoyed the growth I’ve gotten out of it. However, this isn’t something that is making me any money, and it consumes so much of my time, that I find I hardly have the time to work on other projects that I care even more about and that will eventually be a source of income. I’m ready to drop it completely, however a small voice keeps saying to me “You’ already made it 140 days into the project. You shouldn’t stop now!” The anti-quitter in me hates the idea of dropping the project, because it feels a little bit like I’m just quitting because it’s “too hard.” I’m going to create that list and start asking myself these questions to get some clarity!

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:49 pm

      I sooooooooo feel you. I started a project a few years ago where I blogged once a day. For the first few months, it was a lot of fun and then it started to become a pain in the butt. I kept up with it even though I really wanted to quit. I have that ‘NO I’M NOT A QUITTER’ mindset, too.

      Reply
  9. Alison Butler says

    March 23, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    Hi April,
    I’ve been following along with you for a few years now. I don’t usually say much (which is unusual for me!) but hmmmm WHOA….are you, inside my head right now?!??!
    This post is really speaking to me. You are so true to everything, as always. Thank you!

    Reply
    • April says

      March 30, 2017 at 2:50 pm

      You’re so welcome, Alison! I love when my magical wizarding powers work and I get inside my readers’ heads!

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Nick Colakovic Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Blogging for Business

Get in Touch

Get a FREE Copy Here

Follow April on Twitter Follow April on Facebook Follow April on Pinterest Follow April on Youtube Follow April on Instagram
Get Weekly Inspiration to Design a Business You Love
read our privacy policy

Get in Touch
Get in Touch

Blacksburg Belle. All Rights Reserved.© 2021 · Designed by Amanda Creek Creative On the Genesis Framework

Get Weekly Inspiration to Design a Business You Love
read our privacy policy
We use cookies on this website. Read our cookie policy here.