As a business owner, you will be faced with difficult decisions a lot of the time – perhaps every day. This is one of the things that makes owning a business tricky and why it’s a challenge that not everyone is happy to take on. If you have decided business ownership is the right thing for you, then you’ll need to know how to make difficult decisions quickly and efficiently – and with the right outcome. With this in mind, here are some things to bear in mind that will help you do just that. 

Photo by Lukas

Use Market Research 

One thing that will help you to make important and potentially difficult business decisions a lot more easily is market research. By using MaxDiff software, for example, you can get a great insight into what your target market wants and needs. 

Conjoint analysis is another useful method for market research, as it provides particularly detailed and comprehensive responses from the customers, and you can view an example conjoint analysis survey here if you’re interested in this method. Once you have this information, you can use it to help inform any decision you might need to make. Keeping the customer in mind at all times is a useful tip, and although you can’t always do everything they ask for, if a decision needs to be made and one route will benefit the customer – according to your specific market research – then it helps to narrow down the options right away. 

Make Decisions In The Morning 

You might not think it, but the time of day you make a decision can have a serious impact on how you do it, how hard it is, and even whether you choose well or not. 

If you leave your decision-making until the end of the day (which many people do because they want all other distractions out of the way so that they have time to think), you are going to be tired. You’ll have worked all day, and now this choice is the last thing you have to do. You might therefore rush through and not consider all the pros and cons just because it needs to be made, and that’s especially true if a deadline is looming. Or you might just be tired and therefore not in the right frame of mind to think too deeply about things. 

If, however, you make any important decisions before you start work and get tired or have your opinion coloured by anything that happens during the day, the choice will feel easier, and it’s more likely you’ll pick the right route to go down. 

Don’t Ignore Your Gut

When it comes to making any kind of decision, including important business ones, it’s easy to ignore your gut feeling about things and to try not to let emotions sway your judgement. However, this isn’t always the best thing to do. Remember that your customers and clients will be working on their emotions too, and sometimes doing the same thing will help you get on their wavelength more easily. This means you’ll be making decisions that make sense to  everyone rather than ones that just look good on paper. 

Instinct is important, and the reason we get gut feelings is that we know something that we’re not aware we know. By going with instinct when it comes to a decision, it’s very possible that you’re doing the right thing (although market research is still important to help you make sure).