DECISIONS, DECISIONS Tactics for Making the Best Business Choices As a business leader, you’re likely well-versed in making decisions, but in the midst of a global health crisis, a political minefield, and environmental disasters, planning for the upcoming year is different territory for even the most seasoned business professionals. So, how do you make the right decisions for your 2021 plans? Start with these three steps. No. 1: Look at the data. Data has never steered you wrong before, so don’t stop using it now. However, you have to use the right data and contextualize it with today’s lenses. For example, when choosing a new marketing campaign or direction, continue looking at the cost, revenue, potential errors, and risk factors. Use those to make an informed decision about which step to take. For example, is the campaign empathetic to the needs of your clients, or will it come off as tone-deaf? ( Hint : Try split testing in 2020 before fully deploying a new campaign in 2021!) No. 2: Don’t go with the status quo. “This is how we’ve always done it” will kill your business. Nothing is the same as it was just one year ago. The entire world has transformed, and attempting to continue with what’s “normal” will only cause you to miss what could be. As you plan for 2021, consider the abnormal. Look at options you would have never considered doing and test their efficacy. If one fails, move on. But there’s a big chance that you may stumble into something that is totally unique and completely worth your time. No. 3: Embrace change. You’ve set your course. You have your team in place. You’re excited to begin. Now, get ready to change everything. Sounds exhausting, right? But it can happen. Rather than being resistant to what isn’t working, admit defeat and move on. If there’s one benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that we were all given a crash course on how to adapt quickly. Take those lessons and apply them to your 2021 plan. Be prepared to admit when your original plan isn’t working because staying on an ineffective course can do more harm than good.
Many people are now working from home, and research is showing that having a workspace separate from the places that are a part of your “home life” can help decrease burnout. This is also true for the little workers in your family: your kids who are doing this year’s school work on a laptop from the living room. That was partly what inspired 44-year-old Mitchell Couch of Lemoore, California, to tackle making desks for his children. That, and just wanting to have some place for them to organize all their school supplies. Couch works as a building inspector and has two decades of carpentry experience. So, after a short trip to the hardware store where he bought $50 worth of building materials, he made a couple of inexpensive desks for his kids. He might have thought that his project would end there, but in fact, it was far from over. After posting pictures of the desks on his social media accounts, other parents who followed him showed a lot of enthusiasm for his project, asking him for blueprints so they could replicate his creation. Not long after, Couch put a video of himself making one of his desks up on his YouTube channel for anyone who wanted to follow suit. The next morning, he received 200 messages about the desk — one of which was from family friends Karin and David McKinney, the owners of the local Grocery Outlet. They decided to reach out to Couch with a special offer: If he would build 35 desks for students learning from home, they would cover the costs of the building materials. Couch signed onto the project enthusiastically, and he got to putting the desks together right away. He even got his family involved with the project. His wife, Janessa, was on sanding duty, and his kids joined the “assembly line” whenever they could. So far, Couch has put together 40 desks, and Janessa has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of creating even more desks. The couple hopes to help their community for as long as is necessary.
Don’t avoid it. Planning for 2021 is necessary — even if you need to change course quickly.
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