by Joe Wallace

I was reading an interview at FreelanceSwitch and stumbled across a word I haven’t seen used in ages. Kaizen is a Japanese word (and concept) imported to the west by management types. The term basically translates as “improvement” but is used in context as “continuous improvement”.

It’s tied to a philosophy–you never stop learning ways to improve your business, and never stop looking for ways to make it more efficient.

Do you use kaizen in your freelance routine?

I’ve had to make several cuts in my work routines that, as it turns out, are rooted in kaizen. I’ve dumped time-wasting gigs, dropped jobs where my expenses for doing the work ate into profits, I’ve even dedicated myself to “non-paying” activities designed to boost my visibility. The lack of income is offset by the rise in clout and future ability to land good work.

For me, the key to kaizen is to keep poking at the business model and see where it’s lacking. What is the weakest link in the chain? What happens if I cut it out? Sometimes you have to nurse along a weak or failing part of the business because your other work is somehow chained to it. If one part of the business tanks, the domino effect on the rest of it could lead to disaster. But the second that weakest link can go…

How do you use kaizen? If you haven’t started using it until now, where do you plan to start?