Why Making Decisions Feels Harder When You Run Your Own Business
Nobody really tells you quite how many decisions you'll have to make when you run your own business.
Some are big. Should I increase my prices? Is it time to take somebody on? Should I invest in this? Is this the right direction for the business?
Others are ridiculously small. What should I post today? Should I reply to that email now? Which networking event should I go to? Do I need to change this wording on the website for the seventeenth time?
Individually, most of those decisions aren't particularly difficult. Put hundreds of them together, week after week, and it's hardly surprising that sometimes your brain simply says, "Nope. I've had enough."
When every decision belongs to you
One of the hardest parts of being a business owner is that ultimately, the buck stops with you. There isn't always somebody sitting at the next desk who you can turn to and say, "What do you think?" Even when you have a team, there will still be decisions that only you can make.
That can make us put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to get every decision right. We research. We ask five different people. We Google it. We think we've decided, change our minds, sleep on it and then start the whole process again the following morning.
Sometimes the amount of energy we spend trying to make the perfect decision is far greater than the decision itself deserves.
Not every decision needs to be perfect
This is something I talk about regularly in mentoring because the fear of making the wrong choice can keep business owners standing still.
Of course there are decisions that deserve careful consideration, particularly when money, people or significant changes to your business are involved.
But there are plenty of others that simply need a decision.
You can change the wording later. You can try the networking group and decide it isn't for you. You can test an idea without committing to it forever.
Running a business isn't one long series of permanent decisions. Quite often, it's about making the best choice you can with the information you have at the time and being willing to adjust as you learn more.
Too many opinions can make things harder
When you're unsure, asking other people for advice feels sensible, and sometimes it absolutely is. The problem comes when you ask so many people that you end up with six different answers.
Everybody gives advice through the lens of their own experience, business and circumstances. What worked brilliantly for somebody else may be completely wrong for you.
This is why having someone who will help you think rather than simply tell you what they would do can be so valuable.
Sometimes you don't need another opinion. You need the space to hear your own.
Give the decision the importance it deserves
A useful question to ask yourself is, "How much will this matter six months from now?" If the answer is "not very much", perhaps it doesn't deserve three days of your mental energy. If the answer is "quite a lot", then give yourself the time and information you need to make a considered decision.
Learning to recognise the difference can save an enormous amount of headspace. It also means you have more energy available for the decisions that genuinely matter.
Trust the experience you're building
Every decision you make in business teaches you something.
Some will work brilliantly. Others won't go quite as planned. Occasionally you'll make one and wonder what on earth you were thinking.
That's part of running a business.
Experience isn't built by getting every decision right. It's built by making decisions, seeing what happens and taking what you've learnt into the next one.
The longer you do that, the more you begin to trust yourself.
Final Thoughts
If you've been going round in circles over a business decision, perhaps the answer isn't another hour of research or another person's opinion. Give yourself permission to make the best decision you can with what you know right now.
You can review it. You can change direction. You can learn from it.
What matters is that fear of getting it wrong doesn't stop you from moving at all.
Need a sounding board for your business?
Sometimes you don't need somebody to give you the answer. You need somebody outside the day-to-day noise who can ask the right questions and help you look at the situation from a different angle.
That's a big part of how I work as a business mentor. If having an independent person in your corner would help you make decisions and keep moving forward, take a look at my mentoring packages.
