29 | Simplify to Succeed: Embrace the "STEVE" Approach to Business

What if the key to transforming your small business is simply being "more Steve"? This episode promises to reveal the secrets behind the "Steve" framework, starting with how to simplify your work. Join me, your annoyingly optimistic host, as I leave Tim—our struggling small business owner—a voicemail packed with inspiration and actionable insights. By stripping back complexities and focusing on what truly matters, we aim to help Tim (and you) get unstuck, energized, and back in control.

Through a light-hearted yet insightful discussion, we delve into the first element of being "more Steve": Simplifying work. Rather than drowning in tools and quick fixes, we explore how breaking things down into manageable tasks can make a world of difference. Whether you're a Tim stuck in a rut or just someone looking for a fresh perspective, this episode is your first step toward a more streamlined and successful business life. Tune in, take notes, and let's get you moving forward with clarity and purpose!

If you are self-employed or run a small business and feel more like you're self-annoyed then get in touch, visit the website www.theannoyinglyoptimisticshow.com where you can submit a question or problem and start your journey to becoming self-enjoyed! 

The majority of 'business advice' out there isn't aimed at self-employed or micro businesses, following it leaves you frustrated and chasing quick fixes. I specialise in tools, systems, techniques, inspiration and help specifically designed for YOU, the person who has to do it all, who doesn't have a team of people, unlimited resources or the time to spend months learning complicated techniques. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey there, listeners, it's your annoyingly optimistic host here bringing you another season of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Welcome to Season 2, voicemails to Tim. Now let's meet Tim. He's been running his own small business for almost three years now and let's just say he's hit a bit of a rough patch. You know how it is Sometimes you get so stuck, you make yourself busy and just avoid finding the real problems. Well, that's Tim. So, as a good friend, I decide to leave him a daily voicemail, if I can't get hold of him, filled with nuggets of inspiration, insight and wisdom and downright brilliant ideas to help get him unstuck Every day.

Speaker 1 0:35

In just under 10 minutes, I'll share some tips, tricks and a healthy dose of optimism to get Tim, and maybe even you, back on track, because, let's face it, we're all a little tired, in need of help and muddling through. So here we go. Oh wait, never mind Tim's being busy. Here's the voicemail I left him today Hi, tim, me again, and hope you're maybe less tired, less in need of help and less muddling along. I hope you managed to listen to those last three voicemails that I left you and, as promised, I want to talk today about being less Tim. I know you are Tim, so that's fine. So being less tired, less in need of help and less muddling along, and more Steve. Now, I've teased this in the last few, so I'll tease you no more, because this is the basis of a framework to be more Steve that's going to be available in a few weeks time. You're going to be the first one to get it, tim, but anybody else can have this as well. So if there's anybody else that you know that resonates as being Tim I hope you've gone around and done the Tim test that if they find this useful, then they can get a copy as well.

Speaker 1 1:47

So what is being more Steve? Why is Steve better than Tim? So now I do like my acronyms and metaphors and just fun ways, and it's part of as I said before about breaking these things down and making them accessible. It's just my way of doing it, basically. If it makes it easier for my brain, then I know it's easier for me to explain to other people and therefore make it easier for them. It's also not lost on me the fact that I ended up with calling this Steve, being a self-professed fan of Steve Jobs. So that was. That was kind of quite nice of Steve Jobs, so that was. That was kind of quite nice.

Speaker 1 2:28

Um, if you really want to find out something, tim, next time we speak, um, ask me about Ron and Daly, because they are two others that I'm going to be talking about. There's links with Tim and Steve, but they're very, very different anyway. But let's concentrate on Steve. So I'm going to take you through being more Steve. What are the elements of this, and you'll see how this combats Tim and. But it's. There's some very specific elements and again, I'm not going to go into the whole kind of framework, just the headline of what these five areas are and these five key areas in order for you to to basically feel better your business, feel more happy about your business and understand it a little bit more.

Speaker 1 3:06

So, starting with S of Steve, this is simplifying work. So this is one of these key aspects that when we start to get tired, when we start to be looking for different solutions, we'll buy more software, we'll buy more things. We'll try and get more information, more quick tips. We think that if we just find some magic thing, that it's going to make it better. And almost every single time when we're in this position, what we actually need is we need to simplify things. We need to break it right down into the key components, making it easier for you on a day to day, easier on a big level. But it's actually we chase complexity when we want to solve problems, when, in fact, we want to chase simplicity. Fact we want to chase simplicity and so that simplicity of breaking things down, because as we do a job more, as we're doing it, more we collect things, and by things in this instance I mean bits of software, bits of workflow, bits of ideas, bits of tools, and we keep bolting them on and bolting them on and bolting them on and it feels like we're yeah, we're improving and systemizing the business. What we're doing is we're just we're improving and systemizing the business. What we're doing is we're just making something that's more liable to break catastrophically at some point. So every so often we need to just kind of step back, simplify things. So that's one of the first, that's the first s of steve is to simplify. The next one is to thrive in the business.

Speaker 1 4:36

Now you might be thinking well, I want to thrive in business, but I can't just want to thrive in the business. Now you might be thinking well, I want to thrive in business. But I can't just want to thrive in my business. Well, you can, because this comes down to setting your goals and really aiming for the things that you want to achieve and understanding what it is you want to achieve, what processes you want to kind of stick to in your business, what profit means for you? What drives your business? Do you want more, more time, more happy clients to work less, to make x amount, more money, whatever it might be? But it's really not only just focusing and working these out, but making these the cornerstones of your business, because if you find those right purposes and those right things, that will make you thrive in your business.

Speaker 1 5:20

Thrive. They are always based on giving something even more to your customers, even better to your customers, because when you're self-employed you thrive. When your customers love what you do, spend money, come back, tell others about it. When we we chase I want to make my business more money, we tend to do that at the expense of the customers. So by thriving we focus customer first, we put those goals in place and we go from there. So the first is to simplify. The second is to thrive. The third is energized and excited.

Speaker 1 5:59

Now this, as I talked before is about focusing on that passion what got you here in the first instance, and really you know keeping hold of that, and that goes hand in hand with this thriving and focus on customers, so that you have a business that is based around your core beliefs, your core experiences, your core enjoyment and passion and making sure each day that your business delivers to that level. Your business doesn't become successful as an end result. It comes successful based on the decisions you make in every moment of every day. And if those decisions are based on simplicity, based on this overall guide of you thriving and with your energy and excitement that you bring to that, then your reward will be a great thriving business. By, in each moment, focusing on those elements so we get get back to the energize and excitement that got you here in the first place, and by simplifying things, getting rid of that baggage and by really focusing on what your business wants to be, you will get that energy back.

Speaker 1 7:11

Now the next one slightly controversially, so we've got S, which is simplifying. Controversially, so we've got. We've got S, which is simplifying. T, which is thriving. E, which is energized and excited I like the two.

Speaker 1 7:22

And we've got V, and this is valuing yourself, and this is one of those big ones. That isn't as relevant in big businesses and big organizations, relevant on a personal level, but as a self-employed, you need to value yourself, and what I'm really focusing on in this one is health and happiness your mental well-being, your physical health, the happiness of making sure you have not a work-life balance, because a self-employed person that doesn't exist, but that you have those elements in your life which nourish you in terms of food, sleep, exercise and and those things which drive you and fulfill you as a person. Because unless you value yourself, because you are the most important part of your business, and unless you really value that get rid of this idea of oh, it's cheaper for me to do that Because I don't have to pay myself Something, I hear a lot you have to truly value yourself. You have to look after yourself as if you are the most important piece of software or equipment that you own, because nothing else works without you, nothing else functions properly without you. Your customers don't get their amazing products and services without you, and this is one of those areas that is so ignored and so disregarded that it's one of those fundamentals and you can see if you are looking after yourself and I don't mean in a selfish way, but I mean in a self-sustaining way. If you're looking after yourself, you will feel less tired because you will be nourishing yourself, you will be able to simplify things, you will feel energized and excited and you will be able to thrive.

Speaker 1 9:21

So s is for simplifying, t is for thriving, e is for energized and T is for thriving. E is for energized and excited, b is for valuing yourself and the final E because I wanted to make it hard by having a name with two of the same letters in. Why choose an easy name? So the final E is enjoying your passion. Now, this is slightly different from the others and I want to focus on a particular point here, because this is really and this is why it's the last E and not the middle E because if you simplify what you do and you make your business simple, fun, easy, enjoyable, all those things are available.

Speaker 1 10:07

They are not things that you can't have. Business doesn't have to be complicated and difficult and annoying and frustrating. So you simplify it, you focus on what you want to do, what you want your business to achieve, what you want it to bring you. You reconnect with the energy and the excitement that you started your business on. You value yourself in this process and then what all of those things together systematically do is they bring you back that enjoyment and passion. And this is the, the final kind of benchmark, the final marker to make sure that you're achieving all of the other things.

Speaker 1 10:50

And it's this constant drive to feeling reconnecting with your enjoyment and passion, because running being self-employed is hard by default, because there is no one there to pick up the can. You have to make the money, you have to make ends meet, you have to do everything yourself, you have to be a jack of all trades and you have to be the master of some, not none some because you have your passion and things like that. But it doesn't have to be crushingly hard that, but it doesn't have to be crushingly hard. But you always have to keep sight of that enjoying your passion, because if you cannot be energized and excited, if you cannot look after yourself, if you cannot simplify things, if you cannot make your business thrive and and serve you, enjoying and passion will go.

Speaker 1 11:48

And when that goes and unfortunately I've said this to a handful of people over the years and there's some amazing people that had amazing, amazing self-employed businesses which are no longer self-employed and because if you, if that spark completely goes out, if it completely, it's very difficult to get back. It's not impossible, but it's very, very hard and, unfortunately, the best thing at that point is to walk away. I had one person this year who got to that point. I'm still hopeful that they will come back because they've got so much to give and they were doing so many amazing things and they got so close, but the burden was just too high at that point and that's what happens sometimes.

Speaker 1 12:39

So you have to simplify your work. You have to thrive and work out what thriving means for you. You have to regain that energy and that excitement and reconnect with it. You have to value yourself and really make sure that you look after yourself in this business, and then you have to enjoy your passion and make sure you're following that passion and that and you can see, being Steve is the opposite of being tired, in need of help and muddling along. So, as I said, I'm going to send you the first one of these, tim, the first Steve framework, and if there's anybody else that you think would enjoy it or find it useful, then let me know. If anyone else finds it enjoyable or useful, then they can let me know as well. And it's part of my mission and there's various things coming out this year that is really to kind of shine a light on the Tims of this world um, not people that just call Tim, but the people who are running amazing self-employed businesses but are tired or in need of help and muddling along, and to help them become more Steve and to refocus what they're doing and basically get back to where they should be with their business, not where they found themselves. So I hope that's been useful. I've now been teasing Steve, so I hope that's made you kind of think and been useful. Let me know what you think, tim, and we'll speak again soon.

Speaker 1 14:03

Bye for now, and that's it for today's episode of voicemails to Tim on the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Now, remember, tim might be busy, but we're all in this together. Whether you're tired, in need of help or just muddling through, tim is here for you, because, well, tim is you. Yes, you heard that right. Tim isn't just my friend. He's a reflection of all of us who are struggling to make it work. T-i-m stands for tired, in need of help and muddling through, so if you're feeling like a Tim, you're not alone For all those ambitious listeners. If you've got a burning business question, a quirky thought or just want to see if you can leave an even weirder voicemail, head over to the website voicemailstotimcom. Submit your question and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear your idea in a future Voicemail to Tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail about it.