Making bold business decisions for faster growth

One of the biggest things that holds us back in business is fear. Fear of change, fear of doing things differently, fear of the unknown. And today I want to explore how you can make bolder decisions in your business so that you can get the results that you want faster.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving, and global impact.

So when I was thinking about the topic for today’s episode of the podcast, I was thinking about how I’ve really changed a lot in my business and I was thinking about the ways that I am showing up differently in terms of how I make decisions in my business. And I wanted to share some of my thoughts about how you can make bolder decisions in your business so you aren’t letting fear hold you back so much. Now, I think it’s really important to note that just because you’re making bolder decisions, it doesn’t mean that the fear goes away. It just means that you are learning to more confidently make big steps. So here are three ways that you can make bolder decisions in your business that I personally have been incorporating to my own business decision-making process lately.

How to lean into your intuition

The first way is to follow your intuition. Now, this doesn’t mean that you don’t use your head when you’re making decisions. There are usually two polarities that come into the decision making process. One being our gut, our intuition, what feels good. And the other end of the spectrum being what our head tells us is the smart decision to make. I’m going through the process of buying a house at the moment and boy, am I super aware of how these two polarities play into a decision making process. So obviously there’s the checklist of things that we’re looking for in a home and then on the other end of the spectrum, it’s that feeling when you walk into a house and you can’t even really articulate it sometimes. It’s just that feeling when you go, “This place feels amazing,” or on the other end of the spectrum where a house ticks every box and something about it just doesn’t feel right.

So when you are starting to make bigger bolder decisions, I really think you can start to lean into that sense of intuition a little bit more than the rational box ticking exercise. Now, I’m definitely not saying that you should walk away from making rational decisions. Of course you need to use your head when you’re making big, bold decisions in your business. But I definitely think that as you start to scale as you want to step into that next level, you can start to trust your intuition a little bit more. Now, the way that I offset the leaning into what feels good for me in business with making sure that I’m not just making decisions on the fly is through the very practical process that I’ve spoken to you about before on the podcast, which is my cash budgeting or my cash forecasting process.

And the way that that plays into my decision making process is that I put money aside to allow for things that might pop up, for things that perhaps I hadn’t foreseen, for courses that I might want to jump into, for opportunities that come my way that I want to take advantage of.

So that’s personally how I balance the two is that I put aside money, not even really knowing what it’s for. Now maybe that doesn’t feel good for you and that’s okay. But I really do believe the more that you start to lean into your intuition as a business leader, it will really allow you to take big, bold steps forward. Like I said before, this doesn’t mean that investment decisions won’t feel scary. That fear never goes away. But to me the distinction between fear and intuition is that fear is a short-term response, whereas intuition is something about a vibe that you get over a longer period of time. Let me share an example. If you are looking to hire a team member, for example, and you’ve known for a long time that this role is missing from your business and you go through a hiring process and the whole time you’re saying, “Yes, I know this is the next logical step for me.”

And then when you actually go to offer them the role, this feeling pops up, “What if this is the wrong decision?” And I personally feel that that is fear rather than intuition. Your long-term decision-making process was saying this is the right thing to do and it’s a last minute thought that pops up and says, “Maybe this isn’t the right decision.” And the thing is with our intuition, it isn’t always right. We all make mistakes, but I really believe that as you step into leadership in business, learning to trust that intuition and feel into it, understand when it’s giving you the right information or the wrong information is a really, really powerful way that you can start to step forward and confidently make decisions in your business.

Letting go of instant business gratification 

The next way to boldly make decisions for moving forward is to stop looking for a direct or short term return on investment.

As a trained accountant, I am taught to look for the payback on an investment. And this means that, for example, if you spend $1,000 on a course, you would want to see the course generate you a revenue or return of $1,000 directly correlated to the investment in that course. In my earliest stages of business, I used to use this metric as a gauge all the time for making decisions. And it’s definitely not to take away from the concept of an ROI. However, our return on investment doesn’t always look like a direct return of the result of that investment. Sometimes it can be something that comes back to you over time. I know I am still implementing things in my business that I learned many moons ago and I’ll remember a little phrase or I’ll remember something that happened, and I’ll bring that into my business now to make a decision that could return many multiples of something that I learned or first heard about many, many years ago.

So when you’re looking for a direct return on your investment in the short term, sometimes it can take your eye off the long-term game. If you are always looking for a really quick return of money that you’re spending, that will keep you focused on really short term solutions as compared to looking at things that are long-term investments. Business is a marathon, not a sprint. A way that I’ve been able to make bolder and more confident decisions is by getting less hung up on what the short-term return on an investment is and really focusing on the long-term game. And is this something that will deliver me results in the business for the long haul? I have found this has been a big game changer in the decision-making process and something that I am definitely using a lot more these days when looking at how to spend my money.

How to make bold decisions, faster

And the final way that I am able to make bolder decisions in my business these days is that I’ve learned to make a decision much faster.

I’ve always been a pretty quick decision maker, but I have found that as my business is growing, as I’m acting more and more like a CEO, I need to make big decisions and quickly. And I’m seeing this a lot with clients of mine. Sometimes an opportunity presents itself and you don’t have the opportunity to get all of the information before you make a call of how to move forward. So that means being really decisive and making a call on the fly. And we can lean into the first two steps, which is learning to trust your intuition more and focusing on a long-term game when making these big calls. The reason why I think it’s important to make decisions faster is because I’ve missed out on things because I’ve delayed the decision making process. I’ve over-thought it, I’ve paused, I’ve awaited, and the opportunity has come and slipped past.

Let me share a couple of examples of how this has played out in my business. There have been courses that I ever wanted to join that I have thought could have a really powerful impact on the results in my business. I saw the emails. I saw the social posts. I saw the reminders, and for some reason, I still left it to the last minute and then bam, the doors were closed and I’d missed my opportunity to jump into the course for another six month’s time. That might not seem like a big deal because if a course opens again six months down the track. But the thing is, you miss out on incorporating those learnings into your business in the short term and who knows what impact that could have had over a six month period of time. Another example of where I’ve seen this play out in my own business, there was a coach that I thought was doing amazing things, and I really wanted to work with her.

She was an American coach. I went on her website and saw that she was still offering one-on-one coaching and I thought, “Wow, I would love the opportunity to be in her energy.” But I thought, “Yes, it’s something I’ll think about. I’ll sit on. I’ll consider.” And I waited a couple of months and by the time I thought about it again and went to jump back on the website, she was no longer offering private coaching and I’d literally missed that window forever. So something I’ve learned from these experiences is that if there is something that I really do want to do, an opportunity that comes up, I make sure I jump on it sooner rather than later. So to sum up today. As your business is growing, as you are starting to act more like a CEO than someone who’s running a little business, it’s really important to start to make decisions like a CEO and to make bigger, bolder, and scary decisions. Some tips of how you can confidently do so.

1. Lean into your intuition, learn to trust your gut. And even if it isn’t right, learn to take the lesson from that experience. But at least know that you followed what felt good for you.
2. Stop expecting a direct or immediate ROI on your investments. Business is a marathon, not a sprint.
3. Learn how to make a decision quickly. When an incredible opportunity presents itself, don’t delay or you might miss out.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of the podcast. And if you think that your audience will benefit from this episode too, please make sure you share it with them and tag me in @clare_wood_coach. Don’t forget that Clare has no I in it. So it’s C-L-A-R-E. And don’t forget to tag me so that I can thank you for taking the time to do so. Have a wonderful week and good luck making some big, bold decisions in your business moving forward.

Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode, please share it with your audience and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @clare_wood_coach, and also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week. And I look forward to talking to you again next week.