Chris Guillebeau has a thought-provoking post with tips on his business strategy:

“My model is: keep it lean, hire no one, and outsource very little.”

Some comments:

“1. Hire no one. [...] If I have to supervise someone else doing boring work, it’s not that different from doing it to begin with. The things are still on my mind one way or another.”

Basically, I think this is right. Before hiring someone, you should consider how the business can a) not do whatever it is you might be hiring them for, b) automate it, c) find a third-party (that operationally will be basically like automating it), or d) get a consultant who works on a project-based (and if it makes sense outcome-based) remuneration model.

In that order. If you want a business that doesn’t start to take up your entire day and bog you down with management stuff, and where instead you can focus on what you’re really good at related to the business, the exceptions to this will be few (namely, where there is something very, very important for the company that requires a longer-term focus without easily identifiable projects, but even there … my advice is to consider a)-d) ).

“2. Outsource very little. [... Instead] of outsourcing, you can just stop doing stuff. I don’t want employees, assistants, or clones in India to answer my email. I actually like hearing from my customers and don’t want to create a barricade between them and me.”

The latter is an important point. For his point about just stopping doing stuff, see a) above.

“3. Offer no customization. [...] Once you start providing options, color, sizes, and so on, things get complicated. If you want to stay deliberately small, don’t customize.”

I would put this a little differently. If you are going to get big (in revenue), you need to simplify or the complexity curve may easily overwhelm your company (maxim: simplicity is required for effective complexity).

“4. Pursue a lot of opportunities, but don’t be afraid to cancel. [...] Failing quickly is OK; dying a slow death is not.”

Important point. See also Quit often and quit early, but note that what you don’t want to do is drop something just because it’s getting a little tough.

“5. Offer more to the right people. Properly set up, the creative use of cross-selling and upselling can rock your business world.”

Yep. Note that cross-selling requires having multiple products. Also see How to turn customer service into an asset.

Now go forth and keep it simple in your business, and you will soon be as Zen as this.