STOP BEING WISHY-WASHY IN YOUR BUSINESS

“This may sound really simple, but I’m faced with a quandary about how to organize my team. I’m thinking about hiring a manager, but maybe I just need a senior level clerk. I can’t make a decision and it seems like it’s a pattern with me. I’ve had so many turnovers, too, that every time I think I have things nailed down, I have to start all over. Help me!”

Can we just say…we have the best clients! They come to us with all kinds of great questions about issues that every business owner faces at one time or another. Sure this wishy-washy stuff is a real problem, but the fact that this person recognizes that there IS a problem and is asking for help, is half the battle.

Before we dive into how to stop being wishy-washy in your business, let’s look at why indecisiveness can be detrimental to your business, whether it’s your book of business (as a salesperson) or your brick & mortar business (as an owner).

• You’ve been working on 5 projects (or 5 new customers) and you can’t close any of them
• You spend weeks training your new hire and before the end of the first year, they leave, and you’re starting to see your long-term employees jump ship for no good reason
• Your work is never done and even working 70 hours a week isn’t enough to make a dent

If you recognize any of these scenarios, you might be suffering from wishy-washy-ness which can be caused by analysis paralysis or second-guessing your decisions. So how do you avoid this syndrome and keep your business on par and moving forward?

1. Take responsibility and stop making excuses. As I said, half the problem is recognizing the issue and committing to making a change. So get to it! Search your soul if you have to – are YOU the problem? If so, make the commitment to your business that you will learn how to make quality decisions in a timely manner.
2. Don’t pay for expert advice and then not take it. If you’re open to asking for help—fabulous! Just make sure you choose your “expert” very carefully. You need to trust the expert you choose so that you are comfortable following their advice. Seriously, don’t try to break all the rules– unless you’re a super hero. Stick to a system—the recommended course of action from your expert. And stick it out until you see results. Even if they’re not what you hoped to achieve. At least then, you’ll know you worked the plan and now you need to make a new decision.
3. Do not be distracted by too many ideas or projects. Making a decision can be hard sometimes. But…

If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.
Latin proverb

Narrow down the projects you work on in your business so that you can stay focused and “close the deal.” Once you complete something, you can move on the next area. And although you may have customers on 3 phone lines at once, you still have to focus on one at a time in order to overcome their objections, make them feel heard and get that sale.

Jackie and I fell for this problem ourselves early in our business strategy. We hired expensive business coaches and had a million great ideas for growing our business and establishing multiple revenue streams.

The problems were that 1) we didn’t take the advice of our coaches and 2) we tried to run down every rabbit hole that looked promising. It wasn’t until we narrowed our focus, selected one thing at a time to work on and FINISH, before moving to the next project, that we finally started to be effective in our business.

Sadly, we learned the hard way how to stop being wishy-washy in your business. So we feel your pain! Don’t make the same mistake!

Do you have wishy-washy syndrome? How do you plan to overcome that? Or if there are other things you’ve done to become more decisive, we’d love for you to share your tips on how to stop being wishy-washy in your business.

If you need more help, give us a call. We’ve helped many clients get focused and learn how to make decisions effectively. We can be reached at [email protected] or 972-821-7971.