As a business owner, you have to spend every day making difficult decisions. You have to decide which suppliers to work with, the technology you’ll invest in, marketing channels to use how many delivery loads to ship, who to hire, where to hold this meeting, how much to pay your employees, and so on. Some of these decisions will be easier than others, while some could have dire consequences if you get them wrong.
It’s a lot of pressure to be under, as people will often look to you to make the hard choices. You need to show you can take decisive action while taking full responsibility for the subsequent results. The best business owners are those who can make decisions in this confident manner. The worst thing you can be in the competitive, fast-paced world of entrepreneurship is weak and uncertain. You will end up making poor decisions and struggle to gain respect from your colleagues and workers.
So how can you make better business decisions? Here are a few tips to help you.
Identify your goal
No business can succeed for long without goals. Short-term and long-term objectives that drive your business operations and provide targets to work towards. Having a goal is essential because it will inform every decision you make. Every time you have to make a tough choice, think about your objectives and where the impacts of your decisions will put you in relation to these goals.
Your goals might be to do with revenue, the number of customers, or brand awareness. They could relate to business growth or the number of stores you own. But whatever they are, they should be SMART. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. Therefore, a goal such as “making more money” isn’t SMART, but “growing profits by 25% by the end of this financial year” may well be.
If you’re interested in reading more about the SMART technic, here’s How To Set Financial Goals.
Evaluate information
Although your goals will give you a focus, you may still need more information when weighing up two choices. Don’t be headstrong and rush into making a decision. Take a moment to gather all the information available and identify all possible courses of action. Use your imagination to consider the consequences of each possible decision, and evaluate the probable success or failure.
Sometimes, this will mean reading through the comprehensive terms and conditions of contracts you get into, including their implications over time. It also means being aware of the warning signs of business failure, such as what happens when you need insolvency services, or fully analyzing your company’s goodwill before rebranding, charting how you can sustain that level of trust into the new image. A careful, analytic mind is required for the best outcomes.
Be confident
When you come to make your decision, you must be sure about it. A business owner and employer must look confident to their team. If you lack self-assuredness and you um and ah over your choice, you will appear unassertive, and you may lack the drive to follow through on your decision. Take charge and have faith in your good judgment.
Assess your decision
After you have made your choice and the consequences have become apparent, take some time to assess your decision. Did you make the right choice? What could you have done better? Scrutinising your actions will allow you to determine whether or not you acted appropriately and will give you information that will help you to make better decisions in the future. Everything you do is a learning opportunity.
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These are some great tips! I particularly love the idea confidence! The idea that being more confident helps in the business but also in your day to day life is amazing!
This is one thing I have been working on in my own business. It goes hand in hand with mindset, which is just as important to running a successful business! X
Great post!. I think it great to set goals whether short or long term in mind. For me, I think it great to just look at your goals on a regular basis to see if a milestone has been accomplished and go from there.
These are great tips in helping to making better business decisions Kayleigh, identifying your business goal is definitely key! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Awesome tips!! Confidence is so important! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Great post. I definitely think goal setting is key when you have your own business as you need to be aware of both your short and long-term aims.
Tash – A Girl with a View
Such a great tips. Making better decisions is definitely something I’m trying to do regarding my blog.
Antonia || Sweet Passions
Thank you so much for the tips, so simple yet effective! So helpful for me right now as I venture into business!
These are all great tips!Evaluating the information and setting smart goals is so important to appreciate how far you go and what you achieve! Thanks for sharing these x
Thank you for sharing these awesome tips. The confidence is the hardest one, everything else seems so easy to do.
Love this! I think this is so important and I honestly wish they taught it in school. These tips come to play more than calculus has lmao I usually am just true to myself and trust myself when making business decisions. Can’t say that I haven’t thought twice about a previous decision I’ve made BUT long term, my intuition is usually right for me! Thanks for sharing x
http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Great tips! I think I mainly need to work on actually setting goals. I’m often a little bit to lazy for it to be honest, but it would help me so much!
What amazing tips! I wish more things like this were taught. Being confident in your decision making is vital and something that I’m finally starting to take on board haha xx
Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/
I neeeeeed to work on my confidence so much. While my brain can rationalize the normalcy of being anxious about decisions when you’re fresh on your own two feet, like I am, it somehow gets stuck in that phase and won’t move past that process into the ” yes, we’re anxious, but we’ve been preparing for this so we know what we’re doing” phase. Super useful post, thanks for sharing!
Super useful post darling!!
Miki x
https://www.littletasteofbeauty.com/
Great tips! I like to look around and do some research after making the decision to make sure it’s not going to be bad. This is very helpful!
Love these tips! I’m starting a business this year and can be so indecisive sometimes so I’ll be putting these into action!
Alice x | The Alice May Edit
YES! Number one is soo important. If you don’t have a goal, how can you know what to do. How can you measure your success!? Sometimes peeling back the layers and starting at the beginning is the best way to go forward.
Great post, making me feel very pumped!
Rosie
Great tips. Goal setting is always important and also knowing when you’re slipping out of alignment with your goal / intention / purpose. That’s been hugely important for me over the last few years and as soon as I noticed that happening and acted accordingly, I saw much more success!
Great tips! I’m always surprised by the number of people who claim to be falling short of their goal but they either completely overlooked the actual goal setting step entirely or set a super vague goal that they couldn’t possibly measure and track.
Another brilliant post! I totally agree confidence is a big thing when making business decisions. It helps so much if you’re 100% sure and confident in what you’re doing and putting out there to people xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk