Simple scale, complex fails. 

Has a catchy ring to it, right.

And, a whole lotta truth. 

Here’s how I know. 

As a person, I am naturally someone that tends to overcomplicate things. 

Give me a task to complete, and I will somehow singlehandedly find the most complex, convoluted way of completing it. 

Back in my corporate days, I worked as a Marketing Manager. 

Working closely alongside me was our PR Manager – who was the exact vision of what you would expect a PR Manager to be. 

Vibrant, sociable, vivacious.

And, light on detail. 

Whenever we were given a project to work on, she and I would approach things so very differently. 

I always admired her approach: 

Pick up the phone, get it done, smiling all the way. 

Meanwhile? I would sit at my desk for hours upon hours, writing up complex plans and generally just overcomplicating things. 

Of course, both were strengths in a way – and our very different approaches complimented each other. 

When I started my business, though? 

I noticed myself taking that same tendency to complicate things into it. 

And, let me tell you: 

THAT did not serve me well – until, it did. 

In many ways, it was my tendency to overcomplicate things that resulted in the business I have today.

I have spent many years learning the art of simplicity. 

As a result? 

I create online courses sharing the same simple strategies I created for MYSELF to eliminate my tendency to overcomplicate. 

Of course, old habits die hard, and the truth is?

That still every day I have FIGHT MYSELF not to overcomplicate my business. 

It’s easier to do now, because I know and have experienced for myself the life-changing power of doing so. 

And so, today I am going to share with you the power of a simple business and “less is more” lifestyle business blueprint for achieving it. 

The Power of a Simple Business

The best thing about being a business owner is that we get to intentionally design it to suit the life and business we want. 

Of course, a necessary first step BEFORE that is clarity on what that actually is. 

For me, it means a lifestyle business – one that creates deep impact for me students, whilst also prioritising high profit margins, the space to work 5-hour days and a lean team. 

With that “endgame” in mind, I have been able to intentionally design my business to achieve it. 

And, inherently?

Achievement of that goal requires leverage, and simplicity. 

Leverage has been achieved with the model of business I have chosen, which allows me to create digital assets where my value is divorced from my time. 

But, it doesn’t end there. 

Often, a “dream” is sold online that simply having a leveraged model is the thing that gives you time freedom. 

Not. True. 

YES, a leveraged model is the best way to set yourself up for more time in the future – but it is not the only prerequisite for achieving it. 

The other factor is simplicity. 

Here’s what I have realised: 

Every time I add something to my business, it requires either more time, or more team. 

Every additional offer. 

Every additional sales system. 

Every additional pricing option. 

Or traffic strategy.

Or social channel. 

Each one requires MORE. 

Often, the decision to add more happens in slow increments over time. 

“Oh, it’s just one little thing”  – you think. 

Except, it’s not – every one little addition has so many flow on consequences, and those “one little thing”s add up over time. 

Given that one of my core business values is working 5-hour days with a lean team, I am required on a daily basis to fight my natural inclination to add more because I know the consequences of doing so will take me away from my endgame goal. 

Of course, if your intention is to build a big business, to hire big team and to angle for a big exit, your endgame might be more conducive to adding more. 

But, mine is not.

And I think that is the big power of being really clear on the business you want to build. 

So, with all of that in mind, I want to share with you my “less is more” lifestyle business blueprint for building a very simple business. 

Mo’ complexity, mo’ problems – this blueprint helps you build the antithesis of that. 

The Lifestyle Business Blueprint

The first principle of this lifestyle business blueprint is that you prioritise a leveraged model. 

For example, a business focused around an online course, or group coaching program, or mastermind as your core offer – or, anything where you are able to divorce (to a greater or lesser extent) your value from your time.

I won’t dwell here, because its not the main focus of this piece other than to mention that it’s an essential element. 

(And of course, Lifestyle Business School gives you everything you need to decide on your model, and then to build the entire thing out).

One you have that, you will want to build out the “business machine” with as much simplicity as possible. 

Put simply?

It’s ONE of each of the following: 

• One Goal 

• One Core Offer 

• One Traffic System

• One Selling System
  

Associated with each of these are metrics. 

One Goal 

Your goal is your revenue “enough number”. 

This is the one number that you determine in your business is the business revenue you need to generate to fulfill all of your needs. 

This is something we help you determine to the dollar in Dream and Design, which is included in Lifestyle Business School. 

Once you are clear on that, you can reverse engineer into the right offer to help you to achieve it and how many units of it you need to sell to achieve your goals. 

One Core Offer

Creating multiple offers is the biggest trap. 

More offers, more complexity, more time and more team. 

Instead, the simple lifestyle business blueprint focuses on just one CORE signature offer in your business. 

Later, you can choose to add something on top of it (an anchor offer), but it’s not needed or recommended to start. 

So, what is your core offer? 

Simply, it is the thing you are known for. 

It needs to fulfill three “criteria”:

1. Founder alignment: It should allow you to achieve your enough number with JUST the sales of that offer;
   
2. Goal alignment: It should deeply fulfill you; and
   
3. Market alignment: It should be positioned to solve ONE specific, painful and urgent problem for ONE person. 

Note: These three criteria are the focus of next week’s podcast episode, so make sure you listen to that one if you want a deeper dive into the creation of irresistible offers. 

It’s also important to prioritise simplicity in the offer itself. 

For example, there should be one clear transformation, one price (with just ONE alternative option), and so on. 

A common assumption is that having just ONE offer is limiting your revenue potential. 

In fact, the opposite is often true. 

It means less complexity, fewer sales system, less resource, less tracking, less optimisation… and less of EVERYTHING. 

This allows you to focus, and grow. 

One Sales System

Your sales system is the way you generate sales for your core offer.

It is a sales “machine”. 

Your sales system is the way you generate sales for your core offer. 

Of course, setting this up takes time – and when you are constantly creating new sales machines, you are always stuck in the upfront build phase.

When you focus on just one sales system, you have the ability to move past the “build work” after the initial set up and instead focus on optimising into a well oiled machine.

An example of a sales system is a live (or automated) webinar launch. 

Every sales system has three key parts:

Traffic: This is the number of clicks to the sales system.

Leads: This is the number of registrants that register for the sales system. 

Sales: This is number of people that purchase. 

By focusing on just one sales system, you are able to get data on each of these three elements, optimise based on the data and iterate into your enough number. 

The alternative is always creating new sales systems, throwing spaghetti at the wall and never quite achieving your goal. 

One List Building System

Here’s the bit a lot of people miss. 

To reach the traffic goals for your sales system, you need to be growing an email list. 

Why? 

Because, your sales systems are reliant on the number of clicks (traffic) you are able to drive into them. 

However! Given that you often need this traffic fast, you need to have an audience in place that grows consistently to help you drive the requisite volume of traffic each time you deploy your sales system. 

The best way to do that? 

Is with an email list. 

Your list building system is how you build and nurture that list.

To kickstart this system, you need a lead magnet. 

Your lead magnet is the valuable resource that you give to someone in exchange for their email address. 

Once you have it, you need to build your list building funnel. 

It has three parts. 

You should have just ONE focus for each: 

One Top of Funnel Focus:

This is how you are driving NEW eyeballs to your lead magnet.

Notably, this is not “posting on social media”. It’s a proactive borrow or buy strategy for driving new eyeballs.

Example: Meta Ads.

One Middle of Funnel Focus: 

This is how you are nurturing the new eyeballs. 

Example: Podcast

One Bottom of Funnel Focus: 

This is getting more advanced, but ideally you have an entry level product to offer your brand new email subscribers to help you cover the cost of acquiring them – essentially, making your marketing free. 

—

These four elements are the ONLY recommended elements of a simple business that priorities profit, impact AND time freedom. 

With a leveraged model, these elements in place and a simple system to track the metrics associated with each element, you can build a lifestyle business that achieves your unique sweet spot – without burn out, complexity or trying to spin multiple plates on a daily basis. 

Inside of Lifestyle Business School, we give you six courses in one to build each element of this style of business. 

Once it’s built, we also give you the simple one spreadsheet tracking system for tracking the numbers associated with each element to help you achieve your goal enough number. 

Of course, business is “hard”.

There is work involved, it takes time (I always say that it’s 3 – 5 years to achieve your lifestyle business sweet spot). 

But, it can be simple and you CAN focus on the right system to get there without adding complexity, taking wrong turns and trying to throw spaghetti at the wall to get there. 

I wish that for you, and I hope that this podcast has helped you see how it might be achievable.