What is a slow business? Sounds like a contradiction of terms, doesn’t it? Well, I don’t think so! Because the way I see the world right now, we’re all going to have to learn to slow down one way or another. That is IF we want to continue existing.
The idea of ‘slow business’ came to my mind from the combination of the Slow Movement, which was kicked into motion in Italy in the 1980’s, and my personal approach to running my business. For example, I don’t try to grow my business at all. Very anti-capitalist, isn’t it?
That’s the whole point! As AI takes over the professional markets, we’ll need to figure out completely different ways to spend our days and make a living. And as a result we will also have to create a completely different kind of an economic system.
This may come as a surprise but the answer to these fundamental issues is, in my opinion, found in Italy. More specifically in the Italian lifestyle. You must be pretty confused now so let me explain.
More on the topic: 40 Simple Everyday Tips to Fight Capitalism – Rebel’s Guide
What is Slow Business?
I picture slow business to follow along the lines of how I have approached running a business as a solopreneur. At its core it’s all about creating lasting value instead of forcibly pursuing constant growth and short-term profits. Quality over quantity.
The business’s success depends on the entrepreneur’s wellbeing and intentional pursuit of deeper purpose in the world and in their community. ‘Slow’ in this context does not mean inefficient, slow or opposed to technology. Quite the contrary! The inspiration comes from the Slow Movement: Work smarter, not harder.
I’ll give myself as an example: I’ve been an entrepreneur for over five years against all the odds. I was never supposed to be an entrepreneur;
- I don’t have the classic entrepreneurial mindset or ideas about products and services.
- I don’t do 5-year strategies, I don’t even plan the week ahead!
- And don’t get me started on how few fucks I give about growth predictions for next year.
And yet, here I am still. The question is what’s stopping you from trying a different kind of, maybe an unconventional approach to running your business? Greed, isn’t it? You want to make more, more, MORE money because that’s what everybody else is doing around you.
But is greed really a sufficient motivation to having a successful business? Or could there be more to it?
How Could Slow Business Model Benefit You?
The thing about the Slow Business model is that, in my view, it benefits everyone: the entrepreneur and the employees. It does this simply by removing the pressure of chasing small growth on a finite planet and replacing it with an intentional and sustainable way of operating.
The model emphasizes completely different things than what capitalism has taught us to “value”. Things like:
- quality
- intentional decision-making
- relationships and community
- long-term resilience.
The fact that the mainstream way of doing business is all about ignoring all of the above is baffling to me. Who wouldn’t want to build a resilient company that offers high quality products and services while appreciating the community around it?? Apparently everyone except me…
Obviously the slow business model also shifts the focus away from revenue growth, market share and productivity. Instead, success is measured on a human and a global scale: is what we do genuinely useful? Do we nurture and enable more than we exploit? Are we making enough rather than excess revenue?
What does this look like in practice then? I’ll explain it from both points of view: the business’s and the employee’s.
For businesses
Since this article is about slow business, it’s only natural that I start sharing the benefits that the model holds for businesses first. After these points you can find a quick run down on how this futuristic business model can also benefit employees. Which obviously also benefits the business itself.
1. Improve the decision-making process
What’s your hurry? Oh, the client offers a massive chunk of money in return for you not having any time to understand what is even being offered? Yeah, that’s when you need to press Pause because that client is probably going to do you more harm than good in the long run. The sort of harm that no amount of money can fix.
Taking your time when making big decisions is essential. I don’t even buy anything expensive without first sleeping on it. With time you can get properly acquainted with the client business, its history, the people you’d be working with and the actual offer on the table. Is it in fact worth the money and the bother?
Reactive choices often end up putting especially small businesses in awkward positions sooner rather than later. To make sure that your decision-making process benefits the business itself, you need to consider the long-term consequences.
2. Offer higher quality and ensure sustainable profitability
The enshittification of everything has taught consumers to pay a little bit more attention to what they’re spending their money on. For a while the cheap price was all that consumers cared about. But when it turned out that they didn’t get any value for even that little bit of money, things started to shift.
The slow business model allows your employees to put in the time that is needed to ensure high quality products and services. Careful and thoughtful work can’t be done in a hurry, period. Another problem with rushing all the time is that you’ll end up doing one job twice because hurrying equals mistakes.
Sure, working slowly to ensure high quality can cost you some excess revenue. But on the other hand, it can ensure that instead of quick and unpredictable profit spurts your profits change to a steady inflow of money. This ensures that your business stays financially healthy in the long term instead of obsessively chasing the unsustainable quick wins.
3. Create stronger relationships with your customers
There is no business if there are no customers! So, why would you not make sure that your customers are happy with your service and products? For example, many fast fashion brands completely ignore what’s actually best for their customers for the sake of chasing quick profits.
And sure, they make plenty of profit. But while doing so they also alienate loads of their customers and lose market share. These days consumers are more aware of the effects of their shopping habits and completely fed up with AI chat bots as “customer care”.
As such, brands need to be more mindful about how they build and maintain their customer relationships. To build deeper loyalty among your customers, put some effort into:
- listening to what the customers actually want and need
- responding personally to feedback and questions instead of hiding behind technology
- being reliable in terms of deliveries and your quality promise.
4. Ensure longer employee retention
Great workers are hard to come by these days. So, why would you risk losing the skilled and motivated workforce by micromanaging and overworking the people you have into burnout? Going forward your business reputation as an employer will play a much bigger role than before.
By moving towards the slow business model you ensure that:
- the employees’ workload is reasonable,
- they have autonomy in how to do the work (while hitting the reasonable targets)
- and encourage a healthy company culture that puts the employees’ wellbeing before profit.
I know the last point probably made your skin crawl but por favore! If your employees are not well, your business won’t be well for long either.
5. Bring back meaningful innovation
Something that capitalism has completely killed is innovation. Innovation requires headspace, time and experimentation without fear of failure. Just like inspiration, innovation can’t be forced. Urgency is the firewall against creativity.
Switching from the rat race to a slow business model, imagination and innovation can thrive again! Through researching ethical sourcing, experimenting on responsible ways to maintain well balanced accounts, and taking genuine care of the people you work with and provide for can do a lot for your business, community, and the planet!
6. Ensure better resilience and reputation
The main benefit for businesses switching to a slow business model is the fact that your operations become more sustainable as a whole. A company that doesn’t waste energy and resources on expanding without any actual reason isn’t dependent on constant and rapid growth.
Which is impossible anyway since the planet we’re operating on doesn’t grow, quite the contrary. And that is something that more and more people are currently realising: the planet survives without us but we can’t cope without it.
As a natural progression consumers are demanding businesses to put the planet before profit. Are you going to try and ignore these developments? If you do, your company’s lifespan will shorten significantly in the near future.
And you’ll find out the hard way that no, AI can’t replace human employees. But by then your reputation will be in smithereens. So, even if you manage to find people who are willing to work for you, they won’t be the sort of talents that you’d need to get back on track. Food for thought.
For employees
And as promised, here are just some of the ways that switching a business’s way of operating to a more sustainable direction brings to the employees as well. Because we all need to remember: there are no companies without employees!
- Reasonable workload: When employees’ wellbeing is prioritised, more thought goes into how much one person can actually do to work effectively without burning out.
- More autonomy: Less micromanaging and more trust on the employees’ capabilities clear the air and improve the working environment significantly.
- More time for learning: As time is not of the essence there’s more possibilities to try new things and that way learn, which can eventually lead to new innovations and expertise.
- Work feels more meaningful: An unmotivated workforce can be a huge risk to a business whereas people who feel their work is actually worth their while are a huge asset.
- Opportunities through community: Mentoring and collaboration between employees and departments can lead to new opportunities that we can’t even imagine yet.
- Better work-life balance: Nobody wants to live to work, but many need to work to live. When an employee is happy and balanced in their personal life they are also better employees: a win-win.
Final thoughts on Slow Business
At the moment the success of businesses and nations is measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But this measurement only shows a small fraction of each country’s actual state of affairs.
While in reality when a country’s GDP rises, its unemployment figures rise, inflation makes everything unaffordable for the middle class, and the housing crisis reaches a peak. Can we really call a country in such a state successful? Not in my book!
The bottom line is this: as long as we prioritise GDP as the main measure of a country’s success and wellbeing we accelerate into a situation where the majority of us will die of starvation. Yes, even us privileged European prigs.
This is simply because absolutely everything on this planet is connected. If fertilizers can’t get from West Asia to South American farms and plantations, then the Nordic hemisphere will not have any food to import next year. Especially the Nordic countries will feel the effects of food shortage because the climate up there does not support versatile farming. They depend on food imports.
We can no longer blame the consumers for living over the planet’s limits when businesses are the problem! Growth is not a viable metric so we need to come up with better options that measure the right things. Things that actually matter!
Switching to slow business is a good way to start bringing this change about instead of that insanity-driven chasing of growth. Because when you look at the big picture, the small amount of growth a business accumulates costs so much in terms of people and the planet that the real end result is a wholesome decline. I’d say that’s a failing business rather than successful…
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