Making Tough Decisions | Side Hustle Saturday Vol. 3

It's been a while since I added to my Side Hustle Saturday posts (check out previous installments here). I've been thinking a lot about making tough decisions as a "solopreneur" and whether there's a better way for me to make decisions, so I wanted to share a recent experience with you guys.

The thing about running your own business is that you truly do it all, at least in the beginning. You're doing inventory planning, social media content creation, marketing, advertising, sourcing, finance, etc. And if you're a bit of a control freak like me, being the HBIC is pretty awesome.

I get to showcase amazing indie brands who create clean makeup and skincare. I get to curate a pretty cool Instagram feed and connect with clean beauty lovers all over the world.

On the flip side, I get to handle invoices and taxes, manage office supplies and hire freelancers. All of these tasks mean lots of decisions and whether I'm making a small decision like how much packing tape to order, or a big decision like what the label should look like for our first product launch, there's always a temptation to put off making that decision. Or, better yet, to get someone else to make that decision for me.

This leads me to a recent debacle I had finalizing the labels for CVTD Beauty's first product launch. Now this is something that's been in the works for months and I thought that everything was finally, finally coming together. But I had a nagging doubt about the labels. I wasn't 100% in love with them. Although the decision was ultimately mine to make, I didn't want to make it.

So, I asked my best friend what she thought about the labels, and she loved them. This momentarily appeased me, but I wanted another opinion. I asked my brother, and he was lukewarm. He voiced my inner doubts. However, the thought of going back to square one and thinking about new concepts, and maybe even finding a new designer, was crippling. I couldn't go through all of those decisions again!

There I was, faced with the choice to start over again and make dozens of decisions, or to just make one decision to say yes (despite my misgivings). I decided to move forward with the labels as designed. Maybe I was just having cold feet. Maybe it's normal to feel uncomfortable making big decisions. Or maybe I was making the wrong decision.

The moment I got those labels, my stomach dropped. And I wasn't surprised at all, not in the least, because I knew they weren't right all along. I'd attempted to take the easy way out by continuing along a path that didn't feel right, just so that I could avoid making more decisions.

I know that most of the time, "done" is better than "perfect." Often, if we're waiting for perfection before we move forward, we'll be stuck forever. So at times we just gotta make a decision and move on. Unless you have a gut feeling that you should think a little bit longer and deliberate a bit more.

This major fail taught me an important lesson - you're the boss for a reason. You can delegate and solicit opinions and input all you want, but ultimately you make the decisions. So make sure you feel good about the decisions you make. And if you don't it's okay to slow things down and wait until it feels right.

Now that I've spilled my guts about the highs and lows of running a business, check out CVTD Beauty and let me know what you think! Or sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop.