The biggest mistake in business is often made by not doing anything at all.

It is not about making good or bad decisions, the problem many businesses have is the fact that they’ve made the decision to do nothing. I see it in my own business too. We think, perhaps, that if we just wait long enough the problem will go away or the solution will appear, or we are just far too overwhelmed by the number of options we have that we just take too much time trying to decide. But good things rarely happen without impetus on the part of the company. Just thinking about it doesn’t make it happen (sorry to the followers of the book, The Secret).

Many of us, time and again, will tell ourselves:

•    I’ll consider some new prospecting ideas later next year.
•    I’ll plan my 2012 marketing later.
•    I’ll hire a new staff member later when things are much better.
•    I’ll redo my website to make it more attractive to prospects later.
•    I’ll figure out how to get known in that niche later.
•    I’ll let others get going in social media before I jump in.
•    I’ll replace my under-performing staff member later – maybe he’ll get better…

Decision making, as we all know, is often thwarted by the uncertainty and fear that if a decision is made, it could be the wrong one, thus causing wasteful spending and wasted time that we don’t have. True, but this happens to everyone. The truth is that winning companies take calculated risks and make more decisions to move than tentative, risk-adverse companies. Look at Yellow Book, Borders and other slow to act companies that have suffered the fate caused by a lack of decision-making. Companies that try to stay the same sometimes don’t even succeed at that. The key is to make decisions to move forward. It is a tell-tale sign of future success.