How Desperate Decisions Can Destroy Your Business

One of the most powerful skills you can master is decision making, especially when it comes to your career. Many books have been written supporting the fact that impulse decisions, that is going over the facts and then deciding rapidly and affirmatively, is a good way to proceed. The argument is that even if you spend hours going over the pros and cons, ultimately the best path is the one you initially lean towards. We all know people who can decide quick and move on, who don’t second guess themselves. One of the things we hear more often is that to get better at decisions, just make more of them.

But the bottom line remains: decisions are tough. But why are they hard? Because most of the time, people don’t have a lot of options. For example, say you are a web designer, you have built up your business through marketing and networking. Several businesses are actually courting you, they want to work with you. You have three potential clients who want you to design a high-end site for them. But you only have time to work on one of the three projects.

This is a great position to be in.

You have options. You may pick the highest paying client. You may choose the company you will learn the most from by doing their project. It does not matter who you choose..it only matters that you have three options.

Let’s look at a different scenario. You have not been marketing too much, clients are few and far between. Finally the phone rings. It’s a potential client. They want to work with you. They don’t have a real budget to speak of and they want stuff done immediately. You do a quote and they can only afford a fraction of what you typically charge.

But you take the job.

What choice do you have? Things are slow and you really don’t have any other options. The problem is this can easily snowball. You take on several new clients that are low paying and they encompass huge amounts of your time. Clients you would never take if you were busy. Problem is, these clients take up so much time they prevent you from marketing and networking for good clients. This cycle can often continue and repeat.

The key is when you have one option, decisions will always be hard. If you have two or three options, decisions not only get easier but the benefit to you and your company dramatically increase. Marketing, ramping up your empire, networking, advertising, spreading the word about what you do…all of that work provides more options.

Decisions won’t always be a piece of cake, but you can definitely move away from constantly being backed into a corner, taking low paying jobs and being dragged down by needy clients.

If you are reading this blog right now, or blogs like this, reviewing many of the articles and implementing the ideas and concepts, you are taking steps in the right direction. Most of these articles tie in to spreading the awareness about your empire. Getting out there and letting the world know what you are doing in unique ways. This expanding scope will typically provide an increase in options, allowing you to make decisions based more on your preference and not by desperation.

Decisions are hard. But they don’t have to be.

Is it easy for you to make decisions? What can you do to make decisions easier?