Marie Kondo Your Business
Who is Marie Kondo?
One of the Times top 100 Most Influential People, Marie Kondo is sweeping the globe with her magical art of tidying up and inspiring millions to clean out their homes and start folding their laundry into little self-standing, joyful bundles. It’s no wonder her KonMari method is so sensational – who doesn’t have too much stuff and need a good cleanout? And who doesn’t love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when all your junk is gone and everything is right where it should be?
Ok sure, but… what does folded laundry have to do with my business?
Oh so much – not only is that warm fuzzy feeling attainable in your business, but the principles she follows to get there are exactly.the.same.
Last week, I was watching Marie Kondo’s new Netflix show, and just like everyone else I started having visions of getting rid of everything I own. But I was also powering through a process streamlining project for a client, and the parallels between her method and what I was working on were uncanny.
So here goes, fill up your coffee cup and follow me through the exercise of applying the KonMari method’s rules to help you magically tidy up your business.
Side note: for those reading who are process driven, these rules are not sequential. Knowing this will save you some head-scratching, you’re welcome.
RULE 01 Commit yourself to tidying up –>
Commit yourself to streamlining your business
The first rule of the KonMari method taps into the fundamental truth that any type of change takes commitment and follow-through to yield results.
If you want different results, then it’ll require doing things differently. If you’re not in the right mindset, then change won’t come easy – or at all.
This clearly applies to how you run your business, too.
RULE 02 Imagine your ideal lifestyle –>
Imagine your ideal business
The second rule of the KonMari method inspires you to formulate a vision. Doing this early on in the process forces you to look ahead, and ensures any decision you make throughout the rest of the process will help you get there.
So in business terms – What impact do you want to have? What are your goals? How do you want your business to operate? What do you want to do more of? What do you want to do less of?
Dream big, friends, that’s how we get to the magic!
Formulating a strong vision is a great exercise for any business owner. Read this article with some tips and examples to get inspired thinking big.
RULE 03 Finish discarding first –>
Ditch what’s not serving your business first
The third rule of the KonMari method gets you to get rid of things you don’t need before designing the perfect systems for storing the things you do.
Sometimes, letting go means re-homing items that once served you or finding new purposes for them. My grandmother’s mink stole will make the perfect gift for my niece in a few years. My mis-matched containers will create the best drum set for my rock-n-roll crazed 4 yr old.
Many small businesses hold on to things that they don’t need anymore too, and they take up not only space but also time and money – think inefficient processes you may follow or software licenses you may not really need.
In your business, you can also find ways to honor things that may not have a place in your future. With digital items there are lots of ways to do this – repurposing content, cleaning out and archiving past projects, re-working a process until it is useful again, to name a few.
Let it go. Paring down first gives you the capacity to design and implement for the future. You’ll start getting the warm fuzzies, I assure you.
RULE 04 Tidy by category, not by location –>
Zoom out to see the big picture
The fourth rule of the KonMari method gets you to make big, messy piles of similar items (think clothes) so you can make decisions based on everything you have. Categories include clothing, books, papers, miscellaneous (Komono) and sentimental. Even “straightforward” categories like clothes can mean you have to include your gym bag the emergency clothes from your kids’ schools, and even the Halloween costumes stored in the garage.
So let’s say in your business, you decide to clean out and optimize a particular software – like a CRM (customer relationship management tool) which manages your contacts. To really have an impact, you’ll need to consider other places you are storing contact information – like your phone, that stack of business cards in your drawer, your invoicing system, your mailing lists. You’ll need to consider your business vision and how you want to be interacting with contacts, and design solutions that help you achieve this easily.
Tackling categories in their entirety is how you open the door to real improvements. If this were my project, yes we might optimize your CRM, clean out your contact and mailing lists, but maybe we also design tags to help you manage your contacts easily and target your communications, and maybe also start using a business card scanning app. Ideally, we’d automate too – to make sure the tedious job of contact maintenance is happening without your continual oversight.
This is where I really start to get the warm fuzzies.
RULE 05 Follow the right order –>
Don’t get ahead of yourself
The fifth rule of the KonMari method guarantees you hone your decision-making skills so you can tackle difficult categories with greater ease. You start with clothes, then books, then papers, then Komono (Miscellany) and all its subcategories, then lastly, sentimental items.
In business, it’s also about following the right order and not getting ahead of yourself, although more conceptual. Like Simon Sinek’s bestselling book, you start with your Why (your vision). Then you tackle your Who and What (customers and products/services). Only when you’ve got a good handle on those does it make sense to tackle the When, the Where, and the How (processes, systems, software).
For example, once you’ve wrapped your head around your customers and services, you might realize that you don’t need to be using [insert platform name] for promotion at all.
Following the right order gives you the confidence and clarity to tackle the more complex questions with ease, and is essential to any impactful business improvement.
RULE 06 Does it spark joy? –>
Does it add value?
The last rule of the KonMari method is to ask yourself if each item sparks joy. It’s a simple question that’s loaded with complex undertones, as it allows you to weed out items that just aren’t sitting right with you. It’s that cast iron skillet you want to love but hate the process of seasoning, or those clothes that were expensive but never fit right. If they don’t spark joy, it’s time to let them go, and any emotional baggage or harbored resentment you may have attached to the item goes right out of your line of vision along with it.
The business equivalent of this is to ask yourself each and every step of the way if it adds value (although if it also sparks joy too that’s a bonus!). This goes for every aspect of your business –your contacts (working with this client is exhausting and not profitable), your services (I don’t like doing newsletters and no one ever reads them anyway), your vendors (I always have to double check their work), your software (I dread logging in and I can never find anything).
Does it add value? Does it help you reach your goals? Are they supporting your vision? If the answer is yes, great! Keep it! Take care of it, find the right place for it, use it, enjoy it. If the answer is no, examine what you can do – either let it go or transform it into something that is adding value.
Because here’s the thing, you don’t get warm fuzzies in either your personal or business life when you are surrounded by things that just don’t sit right with you. By following this method, you free yourself of what’s not working for you and surround yourself with what is – and that’s the magical little secret of success – and of Marie Kondo’s exponentially growing net worth.
Take-Home
If cleaning out your house seems daunting, I bet cleaning out your business does too! Marie Kondo’s method takes about 6 months to fully complete (not the 22 minutes you see on Netflix). It is not a quick fix, it’s messy and challenging, but here’s the good news – most people can benefit from the KonMari method and rules without needing to clean out their whole house.
Just like you can choose in your household to clean out books one rainy weekend in February because it’s a real problem that nothing fits on your bookshelves anymore – you can also choose to address particular pain points in your business. In my line of work, I see small businesses focus on two problems with great benefits: losing money (and missing opportunities) and wasting time. Resolving current problems is an immediate win no matter how small.
However, let’s say you’re planning to move to another city or have a baby – the business equivalent being selling your company or growing in a big way – resolving an existing pain point won’t cut it. You’ll need a more comprehensive approach, and it’ll involve designing for the future which needs a bigger clean-out. If your company’s vision includes big dreams – then big changes will be needed to make that transformation possible.
As a small business owner, there’s a lot to be learned from Marie Kondo’s method and rules that can be applied to my own business too. And as a software consultant, many insights parallel the approach I take with my clients – and at the end of a project, a smooth business process definitely gives me all the warm fuzzies.
Please don’t call me to clean out your closets, that’s not the take home here. But please do reach out if you’re having pain points in your business and want support resolving them, or if you’re stuck wondering how your business will be able to handle upcoming change. I just might be able to help you transform and give you the warm fuzzies, too.
Photo credit: FuzzyStitch Etsy vendor – purchase your own does it spark joy embroidery here.
Great article, I like the affinity you suggested with the Marie Kondo’s method applied to small business too.
Thanks Angela! Appreciate the feedback always. Small business operations are indeed very similar to messy closets 🙂
Very apropos, Sara!