Why is Decision Making Important?
This is the first in a series of short articles on decision making, as
it may affect the progress, or otherwise, of your home based online
business. The main purpose of the articles is to get you thinking, more
than you might have done, about decisions that affect your business. It
is not possible in short articles to cover what is really an endless
subject, but I hope by the end of the series you will be more conscious
of the decisions you make which may affect:
1.The profitability of your online business.
2.The scope for expansion.
3.Your efficiency.
4.The productive use of your time.
5.Your family.
6.Your enjoyment of working online.
plus many other aspects of working at home online, in your own business.
Why is decision making important? You only need to consider that for a
moment to realize: that it is a dumb question. From the moment you
wake, you are passing through a series of tens of thousands of little
decisions. You are not very aware of most of them, they are routine,
semi or sub-conscious decisions. Any one of those “little” decisions
could have a major influence on the future path of your life.
For example, you are in a hurry and decide to cross the road at a
certain point. A car comes hurtling around the corner, and knocks you
into the air. Thankfully you are still alive after you land, but are
taken to hospital and are there for a couple of weeks, at one point in
Intensive Care. You are employed, but your employer is not sympathetic,
will not pay you, and for a few days you lie there worrying about
losing your job. You have no insurance, so how will you pay the bills?
Was crossing the road at that point, at that time, a bad decision? On
the face of it, yes, it was stupid to say the least. But what if, in
the two weeks in hospital, you fall in love with a nurse? Later, you
marry and have several wonderful children? Was that still a bad
decision, crossing the road then and there?
Not only did you meet your future spouse, the person in the next bed
turned out to have some good business ideas they wanted to put into
practice. You got chatting about them as your condition started to
improve. The two of you found you saw eye to eye on lots of things, and
it was clear that you would both benefit from the synergy of working
together on a business project. The other person had the ideas and
money in place, but needed you as a partner to take it forward. When
you were both fit and well again, he subsidized you while the business
was set up. It prospered, and within months you were earning 4 times
your previous income. Was that still a bad decision, crossing the road
then and there?
That is fiction, but is it unrealistic fiction? No. There are probably
many thousands of very similar stories. And there are countless
millions of true stories about seemingly little decisions that have
altered the course of people’s lives.
What I have been referring to are almost random events. I say “almost”
because the decision to cross the road was not random. An adult
crossing the road like that had sufficient information to make a
correct decision. They did not make use of their knowledge and
information. As decision making goes, it was a bad decision, regardless
of what random events followed.
Making decisions in your every day business needs to be more focused,
more scientific, and much more aware, than you may have been used to in
your life as an employee. Most of us have, at some stage, passed
through a zombie like existence of repetition, working for a company or
other organization. It may even be that you have had little scope to
make decisions other than when and where to cross the road, what to eat
for dinner, what to watch on tv, and what to wear today. Now, though,
with your own online business, there is massive scope for making key
decisions, every day. How you do that will have a serious impact on the
future of your business.
I believe that just by being more conscious of your decisions, your
business will benefit, and so will you. Relying on the business
equivalent of crossing the road at the wrong time, meeting the love of
your life and your perfect business partner, is not an option if your
are serious about your business. You cannot rely on random events,
although undoubtedly some random events will affect you in the future.
Business is often a percentage game, and you want to make decisions
that tilt the odds in your favour.
Decision making in business is about bringing together as much relevant
information as possible, in a structured and understandable way, and
consciously reviewing that information before arriving at a decision.
It is about assessing possible outcomes, probabilities, future trends,
past experiences and all other relevant factors. Ignoring those factors
may not put you in hospital, but would harm your business.
I will cover elements of business decision making in future articles.
In the mean time, if you are in search of a new loved one and business
partner, please do not step out in front of a car. Your local hospital
may not be the place where they are currently waiting for you.
