The price and the cost are never the same thing.

For example.

• The price of a TV set can be a fraction of the cost attached to watching it. Some people who spend hours watching TV every day, find it costs their health, relationships or education.
• Other’s buy a TV and find the price is an investment, because they limit their TV time, selectively choose what to watch and expand their knowledge.

The internet is packed with business advice, ranging from toxic to gold dust. And the stuff that seems like gold dust is usually the most toxic.

This is especially the case, with anything that claims to provide a shortcut to success. There are no shortcuts. Just direct routes.

If you want to make better decisions, before you decide to pay the price, stop for a moment and consider the cost.

The best decisions you ever made all had one thing in common.

Can you guess what it was?

They were BIG decisions! All of them.

Think about it… the decision to start a family, to buy a home, to spend a year travelling the world, these decisions are huge. Life-changing, even. And they’re risky, because they come with no guarantee of success.

Commercial success and decision making

The same is true in business. Breakthrough success only comes, after you’ve made breakthrough decisions. And breakthrough decisions are big. Big enough to break through the challenges that are holding your business back.

Every big business decision will always carry an equally big risk. That’s because it’s the size of the risk that determines the size of the decision. This explains why making small decisions is so easy. They carry little or no risk, so they feel safe.

In speaking with business owners, I find that ongoing business problems can always be traced back to a big decision, which is being avoided.

It looks something like this.

• They know there’s a persistent or recurring problem in their business.
• They also know something needs to be done about it.
• The decision to do what’s required (usually to make an investment or make a significant change) feels too risky.
• So they decide not to do what’s required.
• Instead, they do something that seems easier (less risky).
• The problem persists.

The entrepreneurial mindset

The most successful businesses in every niche are directed by people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s because entrepreneurs evaluate risk in a more effective way.

Entrepreneurs believe that letting a problem persist is riskier, than deciding to do what’s needed.

Interestingly, the entrepreneur is still avoiding risk. All that changes, is what they attach risk to. And by defining risk correctly, they make far better decisions and achieve far better results.

Their mindset is based around what their business needs, rather than what feels easiest. It’s no coincidence that the world’s fastest growing businesses are founded by entrepreneurs.

In short, if you want the right results for your business, you need to make the right decisions for your business. Old ways won’t open new doors.

You don’t have any clients.

You also don’t have any customers, email subscribers or readers. Oh, and you don’t have anyone connected to you on social networks either.

• You don’t have them. They’re not your possession.
• Instead, you borrow them.

Once you’ve earned someone’s custom, trust or attention, it’s just the beginning. If you want to retain their custom, trust and attention, you then need to keep on re-earning it. The moment you begin to think otherwise, you risk becoming complacent.

Closing the sale or opening the relationship?

For decades, sales trainers talked about the importance of closing the sale. Some still focus on it today, though mainly in high-pressure sales environments. Closing the sale was all about closing tactics, which you could use to motivate someone to buy from you or hire you.

Once this was achieved, the deal was closed.

Today, we know better.

The smartest business owners don’t focus on closing the sale. Instead, they focus on opening the relationship. This is the mindset that says when a sale has been made, a new client acquired or a new subscriber gained, it’s only the start. It’s the mindset that compels us to continuously seek to re-earn their custom, trust and attention.

Let your competitors become complacent. Let your competitors wrongly assume that the people doing business with them, are THEIR clients or customers.

But not you.

Instead, remain focused on opening relationships, being useful and constantly delivering value.