| This issue discusses the anatomy on indecision and decision-making. Learn the results of indecision in a CPA practice and how to reverse it, thus bringing about positive growth and even influencing your clients' decisions positively... |
Accountancy Marketing Newsletter |
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CPA Marketing Newsletter: What a difference a decision makes |
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CPA - Accounting Firm Marketing Newsletter: What a difference a decision makesIn this issue we discuss the all-empowering effect that decision-making has on improving conditions and obtaining results. Acquiring new clients, obtaining a higher profit from existing ones, or making clients cooperate better and even appreciate your help... all these hinge on this one issue. I hope it will be an eye-opening read!
Indecision, its anatomy and resulting miseryIn the course of my work with more than a thousand accounting firms, I've often marvelled what a difference a single decision can make in the financial viability of the practitioner... to say nothing of improving job motivation and the general sense of success. I'm talking about making a firm decision to improve whatever you want to improve in your practice. Of course, everyone THINKS about improving conditions. Equally uniformly, everyone TALKS about improvements. But before one moves from thinking to doing, from planning to commitment, there is NO DECISION. We ponder over ways to find new and better clients. We mull over various ideas on how to get the work with existing clients to go more fluently, how to make them cooperate better and generally smooth the process so it flows faster and thus helps us improve the profits. Everyone thinks about these things. Some of us think about them fleetingly, caught up in the stress of our daily work routine, too busy to sit down to consider the issue from all sides. We're caught in the rat race, having to accommodate the tasks brought on by clients' disorganised ways... things for which we cannot charge and which certainly produce NO job satisfaction. And others think about these things constantly, worried about having too few clients or being uncomfortably dependent on retaining one or more specific clients on whom the bulk our income hinges. But the element of CHANGE is a scary one for most of us and that fear is what keeps us from actually making the decision. Hence, we live in a self-created world of indecision which is not necessarily the happiest state of existence... and not the most productive one either. We've learned to accept change as something that comes from our environment, a thing which is unfavourable to our goals more often than not. Thus, we hesitate and, the longer we waver the more indecisive we become. We worry about
the state of things, recognise that something needs to be done...
and yet avoid taking the decisive step to change conditions.
The decision becomes "have to think about it until I'm certain." Only here's the thing: The longer you wait, the more you ponder... the MORE INDECISIVE YOU MAKE YOURSELF... and the harder it will be to MAKE the decision. Waiting is fine if you need to collect facts for the decision. But the SECOND you have the facts, waiting turns into poison whose lethal sting is what regret of "could have been" is made of. To quote Marlon Brando's immortal line: "I could have been somebody, I could have been a contender..." Once sufficient data exists and decision is yet postponed, the attempt of deciding will slowly convert into another deliberation, one not voiced but thought: It's called "deciding to wait to decide." Written down like that it's obvious to everyone that now we've moved much FARTHER away from actually MAKING the decision. But the power of this trick our mind plays is in that it occurs unnoticed in our THOUGHTS. Yet though the problem is subconscious, the consequences of indecision will be very REAL. Things slow down, inaction spreads, things are put off to wait for the decision... production slows down, marketing grinds to a halt... you know how it goes. This anatomy of indecision is so much part of human life that any of us can easily find tens of decisions which have been hung to wait for a better time to make them. These (in)decisions then make it even harder to make similar decisions. After all, who hasn't enough problems to solve and decisions to make in their life to keep them occupied from here to eternity without ever having to dig into the pile of even more difficult decisions? And isn't it true that any decision to change your livelihood is very risky? I mean, nobody can guarantee that it will be the correct decision and a profitable one! So true... and yet, NOT true at all...
The difference a decision makesSee. When it comes to your success and livelihood, ANY decision is better than no decision. And I mean any decision that actually IS a decision. "No decision"
means no certainty either way... means it's no use A decision to go ahead with improving conditions can always be made, regardless of whether or not you HAVE a way of accomplishing the goal at this minute. It STARTS with the decision, after which where there's a will there'll be a way. Reversely, WITHOUT the decision nothing will ever really happen, regardless of how many tools and systems you have at your disposal. To put it another way, once the decision to do something about improving conditions has been irrevocably made, you will FIND the way to accomplish your goal. But if you try to figure out the WAY of improving conditions BEFORE you decide firmly to DO so... well, it's not going to happen. You have to walk the road to find out how to get through its problem areas. You have to GET THERE before you can solve the problem... so "no decision to start on the way" means you can't solve the problems either. Decision comes first and then the solving of whatever problems lie on your path to achieving your goal. You don't solve the problems first and then decide to go, now that it's perfectly risk-free. I wish it was possible — wouldn't it be nice to place a bet on a horse who's already made it first to the winning post, eh? Alas, that's not how it is. It's the wrong order of things. Uncommitted, we will always find reasons to continue doing nothing (effective) about a problem. This translates into finding a virtual mountain of uncertainties, potential problems and risks in ANY suggested solution. It's just how our mind works when in its "undecided state" about something. It tries to achieve certainty by NOT deciding — the lazy bugger! — and that's done by looking for potential risks. Now, please don't think that I'm stating this from a judgmental viewpoint. Trust me, I've found myself in this situation many times, thinking up logical reasons why something cannot (or should not) be accomplished, only to find out that it's caused by NOT HAVING COMMITTED myself to FINDING a solution by making a firm decision FIRST. So, if you want my advice, don't try to figure out HOW to accomplish your goal in improving conditions but sit down to make a firm DECISION TO FIND the way... and the rest will become much easier than you ever thought possible. I've seen it many times with my practitioners. All it really takes is the DECISION. Now, I can promise you one thing for certain: If you MAKE your decision, just take a small step into the dark and set yourself a worthwhile goal... then you will notice an INSTANT change in your own life for the better. A decision made makes a HUGE difference as it releases all the indecision and gives you what you can DO. It's amazing what a decision can do. Make yours. And if the decision has something to do with expanding your practice or increasing your profits, why not start by reading what your Modern Accountancy Marketing & Sales Course could do to help you achieve your goals? Do your best to rid yourself of indecision. It is actually proven that if YOU can brave making the decision of your life, then it will be much easier to help your prospective clients to make theirs! So, make a decision and you'll be a happier bunny! Keep up the
great work, Best wishes, Harry Kafka |
