The Best Business Decision I Ever Made

If someone were to ask me what the best decision I ever made was, I would be able to quickly answer – my wife. If someone were to ask me what the best business decision I ever made was, I would have to think a little longer.

Every business owner has to make decisions every day.  When you are just getting started, the decisions you make may be the difference between making payroll or not. Sooner or later, there will be a decision you make that you will look back on as the one that put you on a path to success.

I have asked the question of small business owners as well as read what some of them have written. While their decision may not be the right decision for your business, examining what they chose may help guide you in the decision of your own. Here are a few decisions that some of these small business owners said was the best business decision they ever made:

Picking a customer focus and using technology to streamline my processes.

This business owner started off serving everyone and with it they were competing against everyone else who did the same work. He decided to start to narrow his focus towards a specific client type. With the focus, they were able to target their marketing and gain new business as well as become and position themselves as expert providers to their clients.

The second part of their answer was to use technology to track and manage various parts of his business. He was able to see progress in projects as well as the costs that were going into them. This allowed him to make better decisions using data and not just opinions or gut.

Letting Go and Delegating

Another business owner said delegating and letting go of some of the tasks that he felt he needed to be the one to do freed up over 30% of his time to focus on other things to grow the business. Starting out on your own, we get in the habit of doing everything ourselves and letting go can be hard but it really does allow you more time to create more value when you let go of things others could do or even do better than you.

Listening to my customers or my market.

A bakery owner had planned to service only special events but their customers wanted something different – they wanted counter service. The demand for counter service was so great that there were lines out the doors. She quickly made the decision to drop her special events catering plan and began to serve her walk-in customers. The demand continued and she has since opened locations across the country. By offering what the market wanted rather than what she had in mind, she has grown her business tremendously.

My best business decision ever – Leaving my well-paid corporate job and going into business on my own helping my customers rather than just my employer.

What has been the best business decision you have ever made?