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Minimizing Loss Aversion in Your Business
How to Handle Loss Aversion in Your Business
We’re all afraid of loss: loss of revenue, income, customers. We could make an incredibly long list of the things we’d rather not lose.
But it’s not just loss. We’re also afraid of the potential of loss, and that fear overrides our desire to gain something. This is loss aversion, a psychological and economic bias that suggests people would rather not lose something than gain something. It’s not uncommon to see traits of loss aversion among business owners and entrepreneurs. However, successful business owners don’t let the thought of loss aversion deter their success and growth; they’ve figured out how to limit it instead. According to Daniel Kahneman, a 2002 Nobel Prize winner for his work in economic sciences, the biggest thing standing between you and overcoming loss aversion is risk. You accept that every decision you make comes with a measure of risk. Sometimes it’s minor; sometimes it’s not. Your goal is to have confidence in your decision-making, which makes it easier to overcome loss aversion.
Let’s say you’re developing a new marketing campaign. It’s going to cost you $10,000 to run for a quarter, but you aren’t confident about how it will perform. Ideally, it brings in $100,000 worth of business, but you did minimal research. You just copied someone else’s campaign you read about online.
Your first instinct may be to scrap it because you decide it’s not worth the risk. You aren’t confident in the campaign or the results, so it’s best to spend the $10,000 on a safer campaign or aspect of your business. But what if you ignore that first instinct and do your due diligence? You work together with your marketing expert or department to pull relevant data related to your campaign, like demographics, rate of interest, and deals your competitors are offering. Unless the data suggests otherwise, chances are you launch the campaign. It still comes with risk, but you understand the risk. You have data that shows your investment of $10,000 will bring in business. Confidence is key, and confidence comes from information.
So how do you increase confidence and reduce your risk in any given decision? The answer is data.
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APPLETON: 920-944-6020 • NORTHEAST GEORGIA: 678-491-9744
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