In business today, we as business owners are tasked with the responsibility of making good business decisions. Some business owners get caught in the “trap” between actually “making a decision” and “inability to make a decision” or perhaps “procrastination”. There is probably not one single thing that can ruin a perfectly good business faster than procrastination. We often hear from employees that “we talk about it forever; he or she just can’t make a decision.” Well, perhaps the best business decision won’t be popular with our people or so we sometimes think. Don’t let that stand in your way. Owning a business is not a popularity contest and these employees are the same people who are betting their individual livelihoods that you can in fact “make a good business decision”, so don’t disappoint them.
What is the worst that can happen if you make the decision and it turns out to be wrong? You can fix it! What you can’t fix is the decision that you put off because of procrastination. While it may not be what you intended, it is actually a decision to do nothing. So whatever the issue was that could have been dealt with by making a decision, still hangs around out there unresolved including all of the continuing costs or lost profit.
In order to make a good business decision, you need adequate information. That doesn’t mean every single word or scrap of information that has ever been written on the subject but rather “adequate information”. Don’t use the lack of more information as a basis to procrastinate. If the information you have at hand is sufficient to answer any and all questions that can be identified, then make the decision.
There are essentially two kinds of business decisions, Operational and Executive. We tend to want to involve our core management teams in the decision process and that works well with operational decisions. A word of caution about allowing non owner employees to participate in Executive decisions should be noted. Though well meaning, their recommendations sometimes tend to smack of self-interest and of protecting one’s turf. Employees can go somewhere else and get a job tomorrow. Very few business owners have that option; you have to stay here and make it work!
When you are involving employees in high level decisions, make sure that they are knowledgeable about your financial statements and the actual financial condition of your company. If not you will find that you are asking for their input on decisions which have a financial impact without any knowledge of the cause and effect financially of the decision. If I don’t have to be concerned about the financial impact of the decision then almost any decision will do. This of course is not the position you are in as a business owner.
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At Cogent Analytics, we never stop looking for ways to improve your business and neither should you. So, check out some of our other posts for helpful business information:
