Moving Beyond Gut Decisions: A Practical Guide for Business Owners

How many times have you made decisions on instinct or with minimal information—only to regret it later?

When you’re just starting out, gut decisions often work. Being opportunistic, tactical, and reactive can fuel early growth. But over time, instinct alone becomes risky. Businesses don’t scale successfully on gut. To break through growth barriers, you need to be more strategic, thoughtful, and proactive.

Not every decision requires a process. Many tactical, everyday calls should be made quickly with the best information you have. But when you’re facing big, high-stakes decisions—those involving major investments, debt, outside capital, or significant organizational impact—you need a structured approach.

Step 1: Don’t Jump at the First Option

Business owners often get locked into one idea or path, forgetting there are usually multiple ways to solve a problem or seize an opportunity.

Take acquisitions as an example. There are two ways to grow: organically (building your existing business) or inorganically (buying/merging with another). Many owners, once they start making money, get intrigued by acquisitions. Opportunities show up on their doorstep, and they get excited about a “good deal.”

That makes me nervous. Some deals really are too good to be true. Businesses aggressively for sale are often selling for a reason.

The better approach? Decide what your ideal acquisition target looks like. Build criteria around financial health, culture, customer base, or capabilities, and go after those companies—even if they’re not officially for sale. That’s proactive and strategic.

Step 2: Bring Others Into the Process

Good decisions rarely happen in isolation. Three groups are worth involving:

• Trusted peers – Run your thinking by colleagues or your peer group. Ask how they’ve approached similar situations, what worked, and what they’d do differently.
• Subject Matter Experts – Leverage the skill sets of your professional advisors
• Key people inside your company – Not everyone needs a seat at the table. But those with expertise, those who will execute, and those directly affected should be included. It’s not a democracy, but the right input sharpens decisions and increases buy-in.

Step 3: Define and Weight Your Criteria

Next, clarify how you’ll judge your options. Start with categories:

• Mission and Values: Is this a fit with who we are and what we value?
• Strategy: Is this decision aligned with our business strategy?
• Financial: What’s the cost and return on investment? Will it impact cash flow or require debt?
• People: How will this affect staff? Do we have the skills in-house or need outside support?
• Operational: Can our current processes, facilities, or supply chains support this?
• Customer/Market: How will this affect customers, competitive positioning, and competitors?
• Technology: What level of technological support will be required?
• Anything else you’d like to include

Rank the criteria by importance, assign weights, and score your options. Not everything matters equally—this keeps your focus where it belongs.

Step 4: Check Facts vs. Assumptions

Be honest: are your scores based on facts or guesses? If it’s the latter, pause and gather the data you need. Big decisions built on assumptions usually backfire.

Step 5: Weigh Options, Costs, and Trade-offs

Now run the options through your criteria. Consider:

• Pros and cons – What good and bad outcomes could result?
• Opportunity cost – What won’t you be able to do if you commit to this path?

A great idea can still be the wrong one if it takes you away from something more important.

Step 6: Make Sure Someone Owns It and Build the Plan

Even the smartest decision fails without passion and ownership. Ask:

• Who’s excited to champion this?
• Do we believe in it enough to push through challenges?

Then, build a plan: define who’s involved, what resources are needed, and set milestones to track progress. Involve the people who will execute—they’ll be more invested in making it succeed.

The Bottom Line

Gut instinct may get you started, but strategy is what grows a business. For everyday calls, trust your instincts. But for the big, strategic decisions, use a framework. Explore your options, bring in the right people, set criteria, check your facts, weigh trade-offs, and make sure someone owns the plan.

Great businesses aren’t built on luck. They’re built on thoughtful, strategic decisions executed with passion.

Reflection Questions for Business Owners

1. What’s the last big decision you made—was it instinctive or structured?
2. Did you explore multiple paths, or did you default to the first option?
3. Who are the peers, SMEs and key team members you can bring into your next decision?
4. Which criteria matter most in your business—financial, people, operational, customer, etc.?
5. What analysis is required to ensure this is a good, thoughtful, fact-based decision?
6. What are the opportunity costs of making this decision?
7. Is there someone in the house who has the passion and talent to make this successful?