How I Wasted Thousands of Dollars

Here is a frustrating story that you might relate to. One plagued with chronic indecision and severe analysis paralysis. A story very common for many women in business, especially those launching online courses.

I wasted thousands and thousands of dollars because of indecision. Blah.. I feared making a choice. I feared making a choice so much that I did nothing. Doing nothing cost a whole lot of coins!

I wasn’t sitting around in my activewear drinking peppermint tea and scratching my butt. I was doing a lot of stuff. The problem was that I was doing the same stuff over and over and over and over….

The small decisions can paralyse you

I could not make a decision on the right font for the sales page (which no one cares about anyway), the right header image  (which umm.. no one cares about), the right structure for each content page, the right initial launch content, the right way to display links etc.. All stuff that doesn’t affect the saleability of the course, but was crippling my ability to pull finger from furry peaches and get stuff done!

*None of the decisions were big ones, it was all small stuff. If you’re struggling with BIG decisions then you need to head here.

Indecision has cost me big time. My course launch of 10 initial places (so I could make sure the moving bits all moved the way the were designed to) sold out in just a few hours. That is when the cost of my indecision really hit me hard in a place that hurt (my bank account)!

Holy schmokes… people really want this…

I had sat on something people wanted to buy for MONTHS. I will never know for sure how much my fear-induced obsession of finding the perfect font (which by the way is the same font I started with 6 months ago) has cost but I am estimating at least $9K. Ouch.

Five things I could do with $9K:

• Buy a pony
• Take a ridiculous trip overseas
• Get Ziggy (the toy poodle x bichon furry dictator)  that remote controlled mini BMW he has been bugging me for
• Install a 6 person hot tub and mini fridge stacked with Moe’t on my back terrace
• Invest in 9,000 one dollar scratchy tickets

I could literally take $8,000 and flush it down the toilet and still be $1k ahead. Nuts right? Something I constantly warn my Profit Lovers about; stressing over stuff that doesn’t affect sales, is exactly what I did.

So now let’s put you in the money flushing spotlight

What are you undecided about? Most of us have something we’re not sure about. Maybe you’re struggling with something like:

• Deciding on the right software?
• Updating your branding?
• Choosing a course name?
• Sticking to a price?
• Creating newsletter content?
• Hiring or outsourcing part of your business?

What do you fear will happen if you make the wrong choice?

Often we tell ourselves that if we don’t get it right (hello perfectionist!) we will lose sales, waste money, waste time or maybe p/o some people. If you understand what you see the outcome of the wrong choice being it is easier to figure out if it matters or not.

I should have used this approach to control my bad behavior. I know that the font choice (as long as it is easily readable) is irrelevant to the sale. I know that the right shade pink won’t convince someone to buy an online course that can transform their business. I know that overcomplicate things all the time and I should have been more in tune with myself.

Every single time you fluff about with small, insignificant decisions you’re losing money.

What do you think that decision might be costing you?

This isn’t so easy to figure out, but give it a rough stab in the dark. One of the biggest costs I see is women holding back on launching new products or services because of competitor aggression. They worry about the backlash from vitriolic keyboard warriors with more time than brains stabbing away at their computers to shut others down.

The fear of the “un-subscribe” can be a daunting one too. I lost over 100 people in the week I promoted my latest course offering. The minute you try to sell something there will be people who mistook you for a charity, they will leave if you suggest they might like to whip out their credit cards and buy something.

That’s ok. Those 100 people were never going to buy from me anyway. If you share 80% awesome stuff you’re allowed to offer your goodies at least 20% of the time. Those who unsubscribe are doing you a favour by reducing your list to people who are more likely to invest.

How do you decide on the little stuff?

• Weigh up the loss vs the gain
• Flip a coin and stick to it
• Ask yourself “does this really matter?”
• Jump into the Free Profit Lovers group and share what you’re struggling with. If it is a piece of software, a lack of knowledge or just a blip in confidence I bet we can get you over the line! If we can’t I will flip a coin for you.