🤑 Money loves speed

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Raise your hand if you want to earn more money in 2024.

In our fast moving world, where each of us are inundated with more options, more info, and more content than ever, there's a very powerful, 3 word mantra to keep in mind as you plan your upcoming year: 

 “Money loves speed.” 

Whether you’re an employee, a CEO, a side hustler, or a solo marketing pro: rapid decisions tend to reap rewards.

This makes logical sense. After all, moving quickly is a competitive advantage, letting you:

1. Capitalize on trends

2. Meet market demands, and

3. Outpace competitors

BUT

Speed doesn’t mean rushing. “Money loves speed” isn't about being recklessly hasty.

It's more about:

1. The efficiency of your systems and/or processes, ie., what structures do you have in place to filter a big decision through?

and 

2. The speed of your execution, ie., how quickly you can implement things once a decision is made.

It's one thing to recognize an opportunity and act on it quickly; it's another to act on it effectively.

Winning firms do both.

OK, HOW?

Well, save this email because I am about to go into exactly how to build an efficient decision making system so your startup or side hustle can move faster than ever. 

1. Set a clear objective / Before you dive into making decisions, know your end goals cold. If you can’t answer the question “what exactly are you trying to achieve here?” then stop. Really: go no further.

   You may be moving quickly, but you’re not ready to move wisely: you need a goal in order to guide all the choices you’re about make.

2. Organize your intel / Yes, time is of the essence, but so is informed decision-making. So. If you need to decide on something quick, gather your relevant information in one place so you can analyze it. This could be a Google Doc, a piece of paper, or the Notes app on your phone. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is having all of the relevant intelligence in one place, so you can read it, digest it, and assess what to do next. 

3. Empower quick consensus (if applicable) / If you’re involving others, create a framework for speedy consensus. This could be regular quick-fire meetings or a group chat where decisions are made swiftly without sacrificing collective wisdom.

   Pro tip: Rapid consensus can sometimes melt into harmful “groupthink.” Leaders should definitely encourage diverse viewpoints and constructive dissent to ensure that decisions are well-rounded and consider multiple perspectives. Your group chat or meeting room should be a safe space where there are NO wrong or bad ideas. They’re just ideas, after all, not plans.

4. Engage in some rapid risk assessment/risk management. To assess risks on the fly, understand and list out the potential downsides of any decision you’re considering. This is the (perhaps) the most fundamental step in this whole email. While calculated risks are sometimes necessary for big wins, risk management is unfortunately one of the most overlooked components to running a small business (or any kind of business actually.) 

SIDEBAR! (Because I love this stuff and couldn’t resist): 

Here’s a step-by-step risk management cheat sheet for the non risk management experts amongst us: 

i. Take a deep breath, turn off your phone and focus. Think hard about what risks are baked into your current way of working, or baked into the decisions you have on the table.

ii. Then, assign a likelihood score to all of those risks.

Pro tip: This score doesn’t have to be numerical, especially if you’re not a numerical person. It could just be “low,” “medium” or “high.”

Then…

iii. Assign an impact score to all of them. Meaning: Something could have a high occurrence likelihood, but actually in the end not impact your business all that much if it happens. (ie., your 7 year old laptop may stop working this year [high likelihood], but all your projects are in Google Drive, so you’ll be all good if it does [low impact]).

iv. Prioritize. Rank these risks based on their likelihood x their impact. Highly likely and significant impact risks go right to the top of the list.

v. Create a response or an action plan for each of them. Not sure where to start? To kick off your response, just remember the acronym ARTA. Your response to each risk is basically going to be a decision on whether to:

Avoid the risk entirely (and if so, how?)

Reduce the risk (and if so, how?)

Transfer the risk to someone else (and if so, how?), or just straight up

Accept the risk 

^^ Note: This is not an exhaustive list! 

Pro tip: Revisit and assess risks regularly, as more info surfaces, or your situation evolves.

OK, sidebar over.

5. Implement with precision / Once the decision is made, it’s all about execution. This whole email is about systems and processes, so ensure you have a streamlined process for implementing decisions. Efficiency here means “less time wasted” and more time capitalizing on opportunities. 

6. Iterate and adapt / The market is dynamic, so should be your decision-making. So, post-decision, keep an eye on outcomes and be ready to pivot or iterate as needed. 

YOUR MOVE

I’m approaching my sixth anniversary running my own marketing services company as an independent entrepreneur. 

Take it from me: opportunities can vanish just as quickly as they appear.

As 2024 opens, if you want to actualize “money loves speed”, be prepared to make swift, yet informed, decisions. 

The point of this email: that is so much more than just “being a decisive person.” It means having the systems to let you implement your decisions with wisdom, efficiency, grace, and precision.

As we usher in 2024, let this be the year where you not only make quick decisions but also informed ones.

Good and speedy systems are the way.

Written by Jon Kallus. Thanks for reading.