Chocolate or Vanilla? Apple pie or Pumpkin pie?
As we approach the holiday season, these choices can seem overwhelming. As small business owners, we face choices on a daily basis that can also be overwhelming, and crucial, to the success of our business. How can we make the right decision at the right time?
Whether you are just starting your business, or at a crossroads in growing your company, it’s important to make the best decision and act on it, even when it’s difficult. Most decisions involve conflicts or dissatisfaction. The challenge is making a selection that increases the positive and decreases the negative.
Virtual assistants face many opportunities for decision making. Should you offer general administrative assistance or focus on a niche area? What is the best marketing tactic for you to build your business? How can you balance family and business demands without becoming overwhelmed in either arena? How do you determine if you should take on a particular client or drop one that has been difficult to work with? Should you subcontract assignments that are outside your realm of expertise but would produce a satisfying income? The list goes on.
Good decision making, like any learned skill, requires knowledge and practice. Following these steps can help you make informed choices that work for you.
- Identify the problem. Should you keep a problematic client?
- Gather information. What value does the work you do for this client add to the success of your business?
- Brainstorm possible choices with your peers. Exploring different perspectives gives you a feeling for your most desirable options. Decrease the interaction time with the client. Stand your ground only on key issues. Accept that which you cannot change. Dismiss the client and move on.
- Determine the pros and cons of each alternative. What are the risks of each? Keep in mind, decision making is choosing from among alternatives, not between right and wrong. Weigh the impact your choice will have on your workload, your income, your reputation, your sanity.
- Keeping your goals in mind, commit to a choice or course of action.
- Take action on your decision. Start to make it happen.
- Evaluate the outcome.
Conclusion:
Circumstances change. A past decision may no longer be the best path for you to follow. Ice cream or pie choices won’t change who we are (unless we decide to indulge too often). However, the result of our business decisions will reflect our work ethics and impact the value we bring to our clients.
Now, what about that ice cream and pie choice? Recent studies conducted at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab directed by Dr. Brian Wansink showed that people underestimate the number of food related decisions they make each day, by an average of more than 221 decisions! This study found that the average participant made an estimated 226.7 food related decisions per day. That’s more than 10,000 food choices we face each year. Happy eating!
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
Flora Whittemore
Submitted by:
Rosemary Yourtee
Mark It Done Freelance Proofreading and Copy Editing Specialist
859-384-4572
www.markitdone.com
proof+@markitdone.com
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