Last month I put together a desk from Ikea. I'm strong, independent and at the very least... I can read. I sipped coffee, ate a roll of Girl Scout cookies (seriously can anyone just eat one?) and mapped out how I would get the desk up.
90 minutes later...I was annoyed and I vowed to never shop at ikea.
This cute desk that I've been swooning over via Pinterest and Instagram was finally here and up; and instead of being happy and fulfilled...I was annoyed. And this instantly made me think of business.
Here are the 4 things I learned about business from my Ikea experience:
1. Outsource
I realized that I would have been more satisfied if 1.) the desk was already assembled or 2.) someone else assembled it. It has nothing to do with the quality of the desk, because a month later I'm so in love. The annoyance stemmed from the time that I wasted.
If there was an Ikea handy man or lady I could have paid to outsource this task, I could have saved myself the 90 minutes that I slaved over matching pieces and bolts and googling in depth directions that didn’t exist. I could have been doing something more fulfilling.
In business, there are tasks that you may not like to do and they may take you forever. While it could take someone else literally seconds and they looooove to do it. These tasks should be outsourced. Your time and happiness is definitely more important than money.
So often, people penny pinch and hold on to doing things themselves, just so they don’t have to pay someone else. But you have to weigh the options. How much time and money are you wasting in completing these activities? How much joy are these activities or tasks bringing you? And then look at what could you be doing within your zone of excellence during this time.
2. Don’t believe the hype
Pinterest and Instagram hyped me up for this Ikea desk. It’s in everyone’s office and pinned all over Pinterest. All that hype made me want this desk. Not a similar desk, but the EXACT desk that I’ve seen for months.
There are hype artists EVERYWHERE online.
Hype artists are people who are loud and boisterous and always talking, but they aren’t really saying anything. There’s no substance to their message. Their whole objective is to HYPE you up and get you excited and motivated...and that’s where their purpose ends. The usually can’t do much else for you. There’s no true plan or strategy to help you move forward with this motivation developed through hype.
You definitely have to learn to determine what is hype and what is information that you can use. Look through the glitter and pretty websites, squarespace is $10 a month...anyone can look official. Is the information fluff delivered by a hype artists or is it information that you can put to use in your business today and benefit from?
3.There are no directions
Ikea furniture comes with instructions, but they aren’t true directions. It’s a series of pictures. Yet there isn’t any clarity on what to do within the pictures. Truly, a waste of paper.
There are no directions in business either. People will give you blueprints that they used or even what they think may work for your business. But, that doesn’t mean it will work. Business is a series of experiments and you are the chemist. You will determine what works together and what doesn’t. You business chemistry will only work when you are in action working. So just reading and researching will not give you direction...you have to take action to see if it works for you.
If I would have followed the Ikea “directions,” I would not be sitting at my desk now writing this post. I had to take things into my own hands and figure it out.
4. Shipping is high
I don’t live near an Ikea, so I ordered the desk online, and the shipping was HIGH. I didn’t mind because I wanted this desk.
Seth Godin introduced the term SHIP to the business and self development word. And by ship he doesn’t mean transporting, but rather producing and getting your ideas and products out to the world...instead of being held back by fear.
The price of holding yourself back by fear is high. The price of shipping is high because everyday you will have to FIGHT through the fear and the lizard brain telling you negative things to keep you from shipping.
In your business look for areas or holes where you aren't meeting your clients major needs. Do you have a DIY Option and a done for you option?
This could look like a product or course and a VIP done for you service.
I offer agency services which are done for you services where the client meets with me once or twice to express their needs and my team completes ALL the work. Then there's a service where I teach women how to automate their businesses and what steps THEY need to take...but ultimately they do the work.
IKEA left all the work up to me...they easily can hire a team to put together the products and increase the price on products that are pre-assembled. There's a market for that. Just as they're a market for both your DIY and done for you services.
XO, Kimber
