📈 Entrepreneur's Guide to Making Decisions

Indecision is expensive.

Every day, business owners waste hours (sometimes days, weeks) agonizing over choices.

Should I hire this person?
Raise my prices?
Change my marketing strategy?

Meanwhile, the most successful entrepreneurs make decisions quickly and confidently.

They don’t get stuck in a mental gridlock.

They gather information, trust their instincts, and move.

I learned this in college building Greenbox Storage: If you’re constantly second-guessing yourself, you’re losing opportunities.

This is what I did:

1. Set a Decision-Making Deadline

Decisions expand to fill the time you give them.

If you allow yourself weeks to decide, guess what? It’ll take weeks.

Give yourself a clear deadline based on urgency:

• Small decisions? 5–10 minutes.

• Medium decisions? 24 hours.

• Big decisions? A few days at most.

Most choices don’t need endless deliberation.

Set a time limit, make the call, and move forward.

Remember: If you’ve spent more time deciding than it would take to actually do the thing, it’s time to stop thinking and start acting.

2. Use the 70% Rule

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has a simple decision-making framework: If you have 70% of the information you wish you had, it’s time to decide.

Waiting for 100% certainty? You’ll be waiting forever.

The best entrepreneurs act on enough information, knowing they can adjust as needed.

Could I have waited a year to start FounderBrands? Sure, but I’d still be waiting.

Business moves fast.

Perfectionists get left behind.

3. Prioritize Speed Over Perfection

Most decisions are reversible.

If you realize later that you made the wrong call, you can tweak it.

But wasting weeks trying to be perfect? That’s time you’ll never get back.

Instead of asking: “What’s the perfect choice?” ask:

“What’s the best choice I can make right now with the info I have?”

Successful entrepreneurs make quick adjustments.

4. Remove Emotion from the Equation

Fear of failure is what keeps most entrepreneurs stuck in decision-making limbo.

Very rarely will a single decision make or break you.

To get clarity, ask yourself:

• What’s the worst that could happen? (And can I recover from it?)

• What’s the best possible outcome?

• What does logic - not fear - say I should do?

When you detach from the emotional weight of a decision, it becomes 10x easier to make.

5. Decide and Commit

Once you make a decision, own it.

No second-guessing, no backtracking. 

Give it enough time to work before pivoting.

Doubt slows momentum, and momentum is what moves businesses forward. The faster you decide, the faster you learn, and the faster you grow.

The Takeaway

Successful entrepreneurs aren’t smarter or luckier.

They’re just faster at making decisions.

They trust their instincts, take calculated risks, and move forward without hesitation.

So, the next time you catch yourself overthinking - set a deadline, get the info you need, and decide.

The sooner you take action, the sooner you’ll see results.

Time to make the call.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

1. FounderBrands: Drive leads to your business from Twitter / X. Grow your online brand in only one hour per month.

2. Hire me as a consultant to take your business to the next level.

3. Offshore Hiring Guide: Learn how to hire inexpensive ($6 / hour) offshore talent in 3 weeks or less.

4. Promote your business to 1,800+ subscribers by sponsoring my newsletter.

Cheers,

Collin Rutherford

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