In this episode: Stop making panic-driven business decisions. Use this simple framework to make better business decisions from a CEO mindset, not a place of fear or urgency.
Have you ever noticed a sales dip and immediately jumped into action? Maybe you started uploading all your products onto brand new platforms, or you slashed your prices in a panic, only to feel resentful later when you realized you’re doing tons of work for pennies.
I’ve been there myself, and I can tell you every single panic-driven decision I’ve made in my business has led to one of two things: either regret or wasted time.
Today, I’m going to share a calmer, more grounded framework for how to make better business decisions from a CEO mindset, not a panic mindset. When we’re stuck in the weeds, worried about revenue, or feeling behind, it’s really easy to make panicky decisions instead of CEO decisions. And those panic decisions are almost always bad for business long term.
Let me show you what to do instead.
Table of Contents
The Problem With Panic-Driven Business Decisions
Here’s what I’ve learned from years of making mistakes: panic decisions look productive in the moment, but they rarely move your business forward.
Let me give you an example from my own business. Many years ago, my sales were down on the main platform I sold on, and my panic reaction was to do what I saw a lot of other people doing. I thought, “I need to diversify, so I’m going to put these same products on as many different platforms as I can.”
I spent all this time uploading products to all these other platforms, and it turns out I got pretty much non-existent sales from all of them, except for one. I ended up shutting down all those stores except the one where I was getting decent sales. In fact, most of those platforms shut down themselves, either before or after I closed my store.
The problem wasn’t me. It was that they hadn’t built up an audience using their platform. I wasted all this time and energy loading my products onto new platforms that didn’t result in enough sales to offset the hours I spent setting those stores up.
And here’s the kicker: I thought I was diversifying my business, but I really wasn’t. Because diversifying your business doesn’t mean putting the same products in the same type of storefront on a different website. That’s like Coca-Cola selling their drinks in Walmart and also Target and also Kroger and Publix. That’s not diversifying. That’s putting the same things out for sale in many different places.
Diversifying really means putting different things out to different niches so you’re not fully reliant on the same thing for all your sales.
Ready to see the frameworks and strategies I share in action? Watch the full episode above to get all the details.
What Triggers Panic Mode in Your Business
When it comes to making those panic-driven decisions, the real problem is that something triggers you (and I know that’s a loaded word, but that panic mode takes over).
Some of the things that can cause that to happen include:
- Noticing your sales are low or realizing you’re not on track to meet the sales goals you’ve set for yourself
- Getting negative feedback that makes you feel like you need to change everything
- Seeing lots of unsubscribes, especially on a sales email, which can make you feel like you can’t send any more sales emails
- Playing the comparison game and looking at other people’s success (which may or may not even be accurate) and comparing it with what you’re doing
A Real-World Example: The Email Platform Panic
Speaking of panic decisions, I recently saw this playing out in real time when several email marketing platforms announced pricing changes. Everyone started panicking about switching platforms, and almost every post I saw was driven by one thing: price.
But here’s the thing—your email platform is one of the most important pieces of your business. Before you jump ship to save a few bucks, there are hidden costs you need to consider. I made a whole video about this because I’ve switched platforms 5+ times (embarrassing, I know), and I had to share why price alone is not the way you should be making this decision.
Watch: Should You Switch Email Marketing Platforms Right Now?
The first thing you need to do is realize that the panic is creeping up so you can choose whether you’re going to let that panic drive your decision, or choose a CEO mindset and make that CEO-minded business decision.
What Panic Decisions Actually Look Like
When we let the panic take over, those decisions can look like:
- Staying up all night uploading all your products to a platform you’ve never used before
- Creating a brand new offer that you feel has to get put out right now, so you’re losing sleep over it
- Making steep discounts all of a sudden or dropping your prices for no reason other than panic and worry
- Making major changes to your marketing, either pulling back on anything salesy because people were unsubscribing, or out of panic, you start over-posting and being constantly salesy (which can be a turn-off for your audience too)
- Overhauling or even shutting down your entire website
That last one? That’s a huge mistake if you want to keep a business at all. People make that decision in a moment of panic, and they shut down their website because maybe it costs too much or it’s stressing them out. But all the work you’ve put in, all the blog posts, all of the content, all the SEO rankings—all of that goes down the drain.
If the reason for the panic is changes to your sales on a platform, then now you’re even more reliant on that platform for all your sales, instead of becoming less reliant on it.
Regardless of which of those things you do, a lot of times it can lead you down this road to resentment in your business. You have this feeling like, “Oh my God, I spent all this time, I created this whole thing, or I uploaded all my products to that website. I was afraid that the client wouldn’t say yes, so I discounted my price, and now I’m doing all this work and it took me so long and I’m only making this much money.”
You start to feel really resentful of this effort you’ve put in, maybe out of a panic decision or a discounted price, and you’re not getting what you wanted out of it.
How to Make Better Business Decisions: The CEO Mindset Framework
Learning how to make better business decisions starts with recognizing when panic is taking over. So what’s the solution to this? It’s to press the pause button and assess the situation like a CEO.
It’s totally normal for us to have those panic moments. We all have times where we look at some of our numbers, or something comes up, we see someone else’s posts on social media, or we see how many people unsubscribed, and we suddenly think, “Oh my gosh, I’m doing everything wrong and I have to change it all right now.”
When you start having those feelings, be aware that that panic is starting to come up and press the pause button. Put on your CEO hat and take some time to assess what’s really happening.
Ask Yourself These Key Questions
1. Has anything really changed?
Has anything really, really changed in your business, in the market, or in your audience? Maybe something’s changed in your offers or the technology you’re using. Has anything major changed in any of those things?
If something has, then maybe that’s the thing you need to respond to. Maybe your audience needs something different from what you’ve been selling to them. Or maybe the tech just isn’t working right now like it used to. Ask yourself, has anything major changed recently? If it has, then that’s something you need to look into deeper and assess and address that issue before you make a panic decision to do something totally unrelated.
Because a lot of times with those panic decisions, we start thinking way outside the box and we don’t address the real problems.
2. What are the metrics that really matter in my business?
Go look at those numbers and see what the data is telling you. Are you getting a lot less page views than you used to? That tells you maybe you have a marketing problem or maybe even an SEO problem.
Are you still getting a ton of page views but you’re not getting conversions? That tells you there’s a disconnect in how you’re selling your product or your service with the people who are coming to your pages, and you need to address that.
Check out the video above for more examples of how to interpret your data and make smarter decisions based on what it’s telling you.
Always Look at Long-Term Data
When it comes to making those decisions, always go back to the data and make data-driven decisions. And when you do look back, look at the last six months worth of data, maybe the last year if you can, not just this week’s numbers.
That’s going to tell you really if there has been a long-term trend of change or if it’s just a fluke week. Because a lot of times we can see numbers and we realize we’re having an off week or maybe even an off month, and we start to panic. A month can feel like a long time, so we start to panic, but then we realize a few weeks down the road, “Oh look, it’s turned around and this month is fine. It was just last month that was weird.”
Always look at long-term data and the trends rather than making that panic decision based on just this week or just this month’s numbers.
To be honest with you, I don’t make any decisions based just on today’s data ever, because it’s just never enough data to really make good, solid business decisions on.
Sometimes the Answer Is to Wait
Sometimes the answer really is just to wait and not try to fix it yet.
My husband and I have a great financial planner that we work with, and we’ve been with her for many, many years now. We’ve experienced lots of ups and downs in our portfolio with her, and sometimes she calls us and says, “Hey, it’s time for your annual check-in, but you really just don’t want to look right now. It’s going to rebound. I promise it’s going to be okay. Let’s put a call on the books in a month, in two months, and let’s talk about it then, because right now isn’t a good time.”
I’m sure if you’ve invested money in stocks or maybe you have a money market or anything like that, you’ve probably experienced the same thing. Sometimes you know that we’re at the bottom of the hill on this roller coaster and we just need to hang on because it’s going to rebound.
Sometimes in our businesses, we need to have that same type of response. Let me just hold on and see where it goes.
Then again, just like with the financial planner, sometimes it is time to make a change. Those times when the financial planner calls and says, “I think we need to sell this stock. Let’s go, let’s move in a new direction.”
Those decisions are based on a ton of data and a bunch of really smart people looking at the direction that different companies are going. When we see that trend downward and we don’t expect it to turn back up, take some time to put that CEO hat on and assess what’s going on before you make any changes.
Look at your last three months of data, your last six months, maybe the last year, not just whatever changes you might be seeing right now or whatever this week’s numbers show.
Think About the Long Game
One of the keys when it comes to how to make better business decisions is always thinking about the long game. What are the long-term effects of whatever changes you might be thinking about making for your business? Are they pointing you to where you really want your business to be in two, three, five years down the road?
Create Your Personal Panic Prevention Plan
One thing you can do now to help you be prepared for those moments that inevitably will come up for every business owner is to create a personal panic prevention plan. This proactive approach is essential for how to make better business decisions when those inevitable panic moments hit.
Identify Your Panic Triggers
Start by thinking about what are those panic triggers for you? What are those things that will make you start spiraling into panic when you know you need to stay calm?
Maybe it’s low sales. Maybe it’s negative feedback. Maybe it’s the comparison game.
What can you do to prevent some of those?
For example, with the comparison game: If there’s a certain person or a certain business that you frequently compare yourself to, remove yourself from their world. Unfollow them on social media, get off their email list, and let them live their life while you live yours. Honestly, that’s one of the easiest ways to avoid the panic and the stress of comparing yourself to someone else.
If it’s negative feedback that causes issues for you: Do you have a VA who can be the first line of defense on feedback? Someone else who can look at it and let you know when there’s a problem, but handle the feedback if you don’t need to be aware?
When it comes to low sales or if you don’t have a VA: Give yourself permission to pause. Commit to waiting 48 hours, maybe 72, before you make a major change, and make sure it still feels good to you a couple of days after the panic has hopefully had time to calm down.
Schedule Regular Data Reviews
Put in your calendar time to regularly look at your data, maybe once a month, maybe once a quarter, so you’re not caught completely off guard when the data does change. That can really help you know the trends and see them coming before you hit that panic moment.
When Urgency Is Actually Helpful
Keep in mind that feeling of urgency is normal, and sometimes it can be really good. It can help us pivot towards something important or away from something that’s about to be catastrophic for our business.
But it can also cause us to act impulsively and make mistakes in our business.
The next time you feel that panic mode hitting, take that step back, analyze where the feelings are coming from, look at what the data is actually telling you, and then make a logical, sound CEO-level decision for your business.
It’ll keep you from wasting time uploading to 10 different platforms at 2am, or slashing your prices in half, or shutting down a piece of your business that really was the one that could have been successful in the long run.
Frequently Asked Questions About Making Better Business Decisions
How do I know if I’m making a panic decision or making a better business decision strategically?
Panic decisions usually come with urgency (feeling like you have to act RIGHT NOW), are triggered by emotion rather than data, and often involve staying up late or making major changes quickly. Strategic decisions involve looking at long-term data, waiting at least 48-72 hours to make major changes, and asking yourself if this aligns with where you want your business to be in 2-5 years.
What should I do when I notice my sales are down?
First, press pause before making any changes. Look at your data from the last 6-12 months to see if this is a trend or just an off week or month. Ask yourself if anything major has actually changed in your business, market, or audience. Check your metrics to see where the breakdown is happening (traffic, conversions, etc.) and address the real problem instead of making panic-driven changes.
How long should I wait before making a major business decision?
Commit to waiting at least 48-72 hours after you first feel the urge to make a major change. This gives the initial panic time to calm down so you can assess the situation from a CEO mindset. Use that time to look at your data, identify what’s really happening, and determine if the change you’re considering will move your business toward your long-term goals.
What data should I be looking at regularly to avoid panic decisions?
Schedule monthly or quarterly reviews of your key metrics like page views, conversion rates, email open rates, sales trends, and traffic sources. Look at 6-12 months of data to identify real trends versus temporary fluctuations. This regular review helps you see changes coming and make proactive decisions instead of reactive ones.
What if I’ve already made a panic decision I regret?
Learn from it and move forward. Analyze what triggered the panic, what you did, and what the outcome was. Use that information to create your personal panic prevention plan so you can recognize those triggers earlier next time. Sometimes we can undo panic decisions, but often the best thing to do is acknowledge the lesson and make better decisions going forward.
Now that you understand how to make better business decisions and avoid panic-driven mistakes, there’s one area where strategic thinking pays off immediately: your website…
Ready to Build a Website That Works as Your Best Salesperson?
If you’re tired of making panic decisions about your website or marketing and ready for a strategic approach that actually works, let’s talk about creating a website that consistently attracts and converts your ideal customers—even while you sleep.
My custom web design services combine strategic planning with beautiful execution, so you get a site you’re proud to share that actually drives real business results. No more worrying about whether your website is working for you or against you.
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