Solopreneurs, Use This Method to Make Every Decision a Great Decision

W hat’s the most valuable skill a solopreneur can possess?

Marketing brilliance? Maybe.

A gift for sales? Every small business needs it!

Financial prowess? Very helpful.

Production efficiency? An absolute necessity for a solo business.

A Spartan work ethic? You can’t be a solopreneur without one.

All of those skills are integral to solopreneurial success, but I say great decision-making trumps everything.

Successful multi-person organizations typically have processes in place for making decisions. Most decisions draw on the talents of many individuals, and each person brings a unique perspective to the discussion.

But as a solopreneur, you have to make decisions mostly on your own. This makes it critical for you to have a decision-making method, one that uses varied perspectives to evaluate the questions at hand.

The Eight Decision-Making Perspectives

To improve the quality of your decisions, make it your practice to evaluate all decisions by using the eight perspectives below.

(And if it doesn’t make your head explode, you can bring imagination to the process by creating a persona for each of the perspectives…What’s that?…You say you want to create a different voice for each persona?…Well, that’s a little weird and it might scare your dog, but sure, whatever works, use it.)

1. The Financial Perspective: What would it cost in time and money to do this? What would it cost if I don’t do this?

2. The Rational Perspective: What are the pros and cons of pursuing each option?

3. The Intuitive Perspective: What’s my gut feeling? What feels right?

4. The Principled Perspective: What happens if I apply my core principles to this decision and its options?

5. The Ethical Perspective: How would this decision affect other people, the community and the world?

6. The Religious Perspective : How do my beliefs inform this decision?

7. The Passion Perspective: How does this decision align with my passions and goals?

8. The Risk/Reward Perspective: What is the payoff for each option? What is the risk? Can I live with the worst-case scenario? How could I minimize the risk?

There is overlap between these perspectives, but that does not diminish the importance of each. And certainly, not every point of view will carry equal importance with every decision.

But if you use the eight perspectives for every decision, your decision-making skill will improve and your business will be much better for it—assuming you work hard and are skilled at marketing, sales, finance, production and all the rest!

How Do You Make Decisions?

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