Folks, following my recent articles, it’s getting tough out there. We need to “fight for it” to get biz and hit profitability. I understand—it’s easy to get overwhelmed when making decisions for your business, especially during these challenging times.
There are so many choices. There is urgency and fear around the state of the economy. Then there are the questions. Should you invest more in technology or more in people? Should you put more money in advertising or more in product development? Faced with these choices, the tendency is to either freeze (do nothing) or make a quick choice to reduce your anxiety (and potentially mess everything up).
When making decisions, I use these two proven and synergistic methods that I learned from working with YouTube executives and USC professors. The first method borrows from Ben Hunt-Davis and his business book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster, and the second uses the method of Dave Brailsford and the British cycling team as told by James Clear in Atomic Habits (full disclosure, James is a friend and client).
Will It Make The Boat Go Faster
The main idea of the book Will It Make the Boat Go Faster is to focus on the ROI of any move you make for your business. For Ben Hunt-Davis and his team, it was about whatever would make his crew boat go faster so they could win the gold.
You can apply this ROI perspective to a typical business problem. Most businesses have limited resources and a need to increase their profits. Often, this results in a common dilemma: Should you invest in a great salesperson to close more deals or in a marketing person to get more leads?
If you use the ROI method, you’ll answer that dilemma by crunching the numbers to see which will give you the better return. There is no single right answer for any business. It depends on your particular situation.
There are so many choices. There is urgency and fear around the state of the economy. Then there are the questions. Should you invest more in technology or more in people? Should you put more money in advertising or more in product development? Faced with these choices, the tendency is to either freeze (do nothing) or make a quick choice to reduce your anxiety (and potentially mess everything up).
When making decisions, I use these two proven and synergistic methods that I learned from working with YouTube executives and USC professors. The first method borrows from Ben Hunt-Davis and his business book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster, and the second uses the method of Dave Brailsford and the British cycling team as told by James Clear in Atomic Habits (full disclosure, James is a friend and client).
Will It Make The Boat Go Faster
The main idea of the book Will It Make the Boat Go Faster is to focus on the ROI of any move you make for your business. For Ben Hunt-Davis and his team, it was about whatever would make his crew boat go faster so they could win the gold.
You can apply this ROI perspective to a typical business problem. Most businesses have limited resources and a need to increase their profits. Often, this results in a common dilemma: Should you invest in a great salesperson to close more deals or in a marketing person to get more leads?
If you use the ROI method, you’ll answer that dilemma by crunching the numbers to see which will give you the better return. There is no single right answer for any business. It depends on your particular situation.
This article was originally published by Forbes Nov 28, 2024.