Small businesses owners know that they need to spend time on crisis planning and risk management. The ability to make decisions wisely will affect the outcome of both of these in a positive way. This means that you are able to deal with unplanned events, from small problems to outright catastrophes.
Preventing problems relies on your being able to recognize a negative decision when you make one. Adding up the pros and cons of decisions you make can help with your perception of where you went wrong, when you decided to do one thing rather than the other. Looking back, once a decision has been made and the outcome was negative, it shows you where you took the wrong path and your reasons for choosing it.
Most negative decisions come from not realizing that underlying problems exist and that certain issues should have been considered. Most of the time, small business owners become excited over an idea and rush into opportunities without fully exploring the downside of their decision. An example of this would be expanding your business into a geographical market that already has what you have to offer and at a competitive or lower price. While this may not necessarily have a negative impact on your business, once the action has been put in place to continue with the decision, you may see that there were other options that would have been better choices.
Any major decisions within your business will be time consuming, so look closely at your objectives and realize you may have to give up something to get what you really want. Always have an alternative plan in place so you have something to fall back on if what you considered a positive decision turns into a negative one. Going back on a decision you made because it isn’t working out is difficult because it gives you a sense of failure, even if you haven’t failed. However, it does give you a lesson in decision making.
How do you ensure that the majority of your decisions are positive instead of negative? Start with information gathering and learn to dig through your information to find what will pertain especially to you and your business. The more experience you have with this, the easier it will be. Some people have a natural born ability to make decisions while others tend to respond emotionally rather than rationally. If that sounds like you, realize that emotional factors come into play because you are so attached to your business personally. Putting things in perspective will mean looking at it from an outsiders point of view.
Dealing with major changes in your business and responding accordingly is a learned ability and as you gain more experience and your business grows, the positive decisions will far outweigh the negative ones.
Chris Draper © Copyright 2016 All rights reserved.
image courtesy of gustavovampre
