SlingBlog.com

Erratic Decision Making Has No Place In Small Business

I work with a lot of small businesses. Mainly Web development and 2.0 marketing. I have clients that are single employee shops all the way up to major corporations. These companies may differ in size, however they all share one common trait. They all have to make decisions. No matter how large or small your business, every business faces decisions they have to make. The success of your business hinges on your ability to make sound decisions.

One pattern that I have noticed, especially with small businesses, is erratic decision making leads to failure. If you look at successful businesses, they all have one thing in common. A plan.

Successful businesses all have a plan or road map for their business. This organization then extends into their decision making process. Decisions are made with education, planning and commitment. They are documented and hashed out with a beginning and an end or exit.

Failed businesses start with no plan, no educated decisions, no planning and no commitment to a decision. Failed or soon to fail businesses to not make educated decisions and do not see decisions through to completion.

So, how can you set yourself and your business up for success?

• Develop a business plan.
• Base your decisions on your business plan.
• Document your decision.
• Document the reason you made the decision.
• Document  how it fits in your plan.
• Document how long the decision should be in place.
• Document the goal for the decision.
• Document an exit strategy for the decision.

Why is this important? It’s important because people are inherently erratic. We have an innate nature to be impulsive and shortsighted. Successful people have learned to conquer this nature with the ability to tame their impulsiveness.

Now the question is, how erratic has your decision making been?