Yes, you are reading this right, procostination, not procrastination is most likely stealing value from your business. What is procostination? It is (apart from a word i made up) the action of delaying or postponing spending money on something that will deliver value. I am sure you have countless examples of where you have seen this or even done it yourself.
How do you fight this thief of value? These are some tips that may help you achieve this in your business:
- Don’t overthink it – Keeping things simple means outcomes can be achieved for low cost and value quickly measured;
- Believe in your ability to make good decisions – Typically we already know what will create value and what won’t, don’t underestimate your instincts;
- Approach opportunities with an open mind – Be prepared to modify the opportunity as you go and discover things on the journey. Being nimble while keeping the end in mind can help avoid big cost blowouts. Better still you never know what value you can uncover with a minor detour;
- Test your ideas with your peers and start small – Spending large amount of money with long paybacks increases risk and makes it hard to justify – try eating the elephant in small bites with the help of your trusted advisers;
- Fail fast – Be prepared to have some failures, not everything can work every time, the success pathway always has some steps of failure, just don’t bet the farm on each step.
Try taking some of these steps with an initiative in your business. Do up a pitch-deck for your ideas, showing the key steps and highlighting the commercial reality of the outcome. You will be surprised at how you can change the perception of the value and opportunity of your idea by following a simple pitch-deck framework.
Do you have a great example of where you have overcome procostination? I am keen to hear what you are thinking.
Feel free to send me an invite to connect, at Simon Cohn, networking is one of the most powerful tools you can use to improve your business knowledge.
Written by Simon Cohn (Managing Director)