“Choosing” as a powerful weapon for growing a small business

One of the most exciting aspects of launching or growing a great small business is the sheer thrill of all the opportunities in front of you.  You’ve got a great business concept, tons of energy and there is nothing but opportunity in front of you.  Whoo hoo!

We often refer to those opportunities at FreshBooks as “Green Fields”.

At the same time, as exciting and appealing as all of that opportunity is, it can also pose an equally powerful threat to your growth.  On more than one occasion I have referred to this threat as being “paralyzed by choice”.

Are you paralyzed by choice?

The reason you are paralyzed is that you are a small business constrained by your own resources.  There is only so much you can actually do.  Trying to deal with all the opportunities at once can become overwhelming.  You start and stop so many things that suddenly you can’t make any of that great potential happen.

That’s where “choosing” becomes the single most powerful enabler of growth.  And its power is not in selecting…it is really in eliminating.   By choosing you are both deciding what to do and what not to do.   That’s powerful.  And once those choices are made, you and the rest of your team can start to really mobilize around those choices.  Every day people can move and make decisions using your choices as the guide – and eliminate all the other opportunities from the decision equation.

And that’s when things really start to happen and you begin to advance your efforts.  All of a sudden you feel like you are moving forward and growing.

Making choices is more important than making the right choices

I’ve often said that the act of making choices is more important than making the right choices.  And I believe that because it drives you into action and results.  And, with so much opportunity in front of you nearly all of your choices are going to be good ones.  So even if you choose your fifth best idea to go forward with instead of what would have been your first that’s great!  At least you move that forward.

And, in the unlucky and unlikely event that you do make a bad decision, at least you will figure out early that it was a bad decision because you moved it forward fast enough.

Finally, the beauty of choosing is that you can keep choosing.  Once you’ve moved one agenda or priority forward sufficiently, be sure to look at your choices again and see which might be best next.

So, if you find yourself facing the “Green Fields” of opportunity in front of you and feeling a bit “paralyzed” then choose your way out.   Make your choices, get in action behind them and start growing!