Know When to Hold 'em and When to Fold 'em

Published: Jun 4, 2004

Application

We often get what appears to be conflicting advice. Some people will tell us we must persevere through adversity similar to Sir Winston Churchill's quote, "If you're going through hell, keep going." On the other hand, some advise cutting your losses and getting out of a reversing situation as in the phrase, "Stop beating your head against the wall."

Instead of conflict it could well be a quandary. It's a matter of knowing which way is best for a given situation.

There are many techniques for evaluating different options. Prior to our inclusion of detailed instructions with samples in our Management Skills section we provide a partial list here. Use them in combinations or as cross-checking confirmations. Try to quantify the various options and sub-options as much as possible. This quantifying can be done with absolute data (dollar amounts, etc.) or with subjective values (1-10 ratings, etc.).

SWOT Analysis - List of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for each course of action.
Opportunities Foregone - for each course of action.
Business Plan Review
- review and revise your business plan with updated and relevant data.
- create a new business plan just for the unit of your business being affected.
What-If Analyses
- Spreadsheets are the more popular tools for this exercise. They can work from basic data (revenue predictions) to which you apply multipliers, ratios, increases and decreases for each optional course of action.
- Report Forms from a database are quite effective if available to you.
Calculations of contributions to overhead for discontinued options.
Contributions as a loss leader.
Comparisons of selling, merging, contracting out or closing all or part of your operations.
Analysis of industry trends (networking at trade shows, trade publications, changes in competitor marketing, etc.) Confirm, as much as possible, the reliability of all source information.
Informal polling of friends and acquaintances.

Stories

Stories from members will add great value to these maxims

Please post your story by emailing it to max@unclemaxsays.com.

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Outcomes

Replace uncertainty with more certainty.
Reduce stress caused by indecision and quandary.
Formation of sound rational for explanations to others.

Know When to Hold 'em and When to Fold 'em

Application

Stories

Outcomes

Related Topics

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