Marie Kondo Your Business
by Ellen Fruchtman, President
Marie Kondo and the KonMari method is still all the rage. If you haven’t read any of her books, the most famous being The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, or seen one of her Netflix shows, Tidying up with Marie Kondo, or heard about her at all, then you must be living under a rock. Or, worse yet, a pile of stuff. Marie Kondo, who was listed as one of Time’s most influential people in 2015, is a best-selling author who talks about the art of organization and how life-changing it can be. According to her website, The KonMari Method™ encourages tidying by category—beginning with clothes, then moving on to books, papers, komono (miscellaneous items), and, finally, sentimental items.
Kondo wants you to keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy. You thank them for their service – then let them go. Literally.
Let me just say, I approached her method as I conducted a large move from Ohio to California. I held up every platter, piece of sterling silver, and crystal I will never use and asked, “Do you bring me joy?”. Unfortunately, far too many things did. And, so now I’m paying for that joy in the form of storage costing over $100 per month. On the other hand, I did dispose of at least 12 large trash bags of clothes (like I would ever fit into that size 6 again), and a houseful of items that once brought me joy, but evidently not that much joy, since they remained in my basement for 17 years when I moved from my first home in Toledo to this last home. I thanked them for their service. Breaking up is hard to do.
Having gone through the exercise myself, I gave great thought to this notion: Maybe it’s time to Marie Kondo your business.
What if you pulled out every piece of jewelry that was over 18 months old and asked if it still brought you joy. I bet the only thing it has brought you is less cash-flow. A decreased return on that original investment. Go ahead. Get it out of the case and bring it to your heart. I bet it’s time to Marie Kondo that aging inventory.
Now move on to your staff. Look around. Does every one of your staff members bring you joy? Do they consistently meet their sales quotas? Portray the image you’re looking to portray? Do they get it? No? Time to Marie Kondo your staff.
Don’t stop there. Move on to vendors and partnerships. Do your current vendors bring you joy? Do they provide you easy terms you can live with; buy-backs when the product isn’t selling? Easy ordering systems? Some of them don’t? Maire Kondo them! Maybe fewer vendors will bring you tons of joy. Now, bring everyone up to your heart. Your insurance company, security company, phone company. Bring your lender up to your heart. Now, that one is tough, since most are heartless.
What about customers? Are there some that aggravate you the times they grace you with their presence? How often have you seen them? Kondo that preferred list. Because they no longer bring you joy. Or help your sales volume.
Are you happy with your marketing and marketing partner? “Not really”, you say? You know what you need to do. Now that I think about it, it does seem a little ironic that a person who makes a living trying to get people to buy more stuff is espousing you start getting rid of it.
Life is already filled with clutter and obstacles. Business is certainly no different. And, who knows. Maybe a little Kondo will make everything seem a little clearer.
I’m reviewing my list of clients. Uh-oh.
Thinking of doing a little Kondo on your existing marketing firm? We’d love to hear from you. Kondo, I mean contact us at suits@fruchtman.com.
