During an interview on NPR, a guest talked about a concept that has always stuck with him, “why wait?” or “do it now,” – “DIN” – which fits really well with what we’re talking about today.

He benefited significantly from the “don’t wait around for something to happen” approach, and so can you.
Waiting, as it turns out, can be expensive.

So, what are you waiting for?

• Everyone can relate to the impact of waiting to save for retirement, because it does cost money. There’s real money associated with that wait. There is a cost of waiting.
• Waiting in business can be just as expensive.
• There are three types of business-related waiting that can be potentially problematic and have the most negative impact.

1. WAITING TO INCREASE PRICES. Waiting to boost your prices, especially for seasonal businesses, can be expensive. The price of indecision can mean a season with lower profits, simply because you held off waiting to put a price hike into place.

That moment of indecision can result in not only lost revenue, but also lost profit because you won’t have the luxury of that price increase bolstering your bank account. Bottom line, there’s a cost to waiting.

2. WAITING TO HIRE. Waiting to hire may not only cost you the best employees, but it may also prevent you from expanding your business and increasing your revenue.

Even if you’re not in a service industry, if you don’t have people to carry out revenue-generating activities, then you’re screwed! You’re basically constraining the top line of your business. It’s costing you to wait. Your business is paying the price.

3. WAITING TO FIRE. There are a lot of reasons why you should fire people. They may be unproductive. Perhaps they cause waste within your organization because they’re not very good at what they do.

Or maybe they are disruptive to other employees, creating an environment of frustration and angst within your workforce.

Throughout your organization, your people are your biggest asset. If unhappy people are the ones interacting with your customers, guess what? That can end up translating into unhappy customers who will remember poor service and will find another company to help them meet their needs. Bad employees impact both revenue and the bottom line – don’t wait to show them the door.

Waiting vs. contemplation
But all waiting isn’t a bad thing, especially when waiting is really something more productive.
Waiting and contemplation are two different things, and one can be a benefit to your business, while the other can drag it down.

Contemplation is the positive side of waiting, and it is much more productive. Contemplation is forward thinking, and it doesn’t bring the same type of time suck as waiting does.

While both can result in lost opportunities, those who contemplate make more strategic decisions than those who wait for something to happen, which puts decision making into someone else’s hands.

Leaders use contemplation to help them make decisions that will benefit their business, and if you’re the head of your company, you want to be seen as a leader.

If you’re ready to stop waiting around and ready to start to “do it now,” call me, and together we’ll turn the cost of waiting into the benefits of making it happen.

“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting the rest of our lives. Let’s go!”
— Lemony Snicket