I’ve noticed a number of article recently about the benefits of keeping things simple in businesses, particularly small businesses. This is not a new idea of course, but it’s one worthwhile revisiting for the sense that it makes. It’s the old K.I.S.S! (keep it simple stupid!) principle.
As any ‘older’ business person will tell you, one advantage of advancing years is, experience. And one advantage of experience is that one knows that K.I.S.S!should be taken seriously in business management, particularly in smaller businesses such as most textile screen shops. We humans, especially those of us who run businesses, have a tendency to make things unnecessarily complex, and the problem with complexity is that it leads to confusion, which ends up being unproductive. An author on the topic of simplicity, the late Edward de Bono, point liked to point out, “From complexity comes stress, anxiety and frustration.”
In the context of a textile screen shop, it is a good idea to K.I.S.S! by regularly pausing to remind yourself that the business starts with the customer and that you are in business to serve the customer. That introduces that first cousin of simplicity—focus. Keep it simple by focussing on the customer. Understand their needs, make sure that your product (in your case, a print on a garment) meets their needs, and make sure that you maintain their level of satisfaction. That, right there, quite simply, is the focus of your business. Get that simple concept of focussing on the customer right, and the rest will fall into place.