Short Terms Wins vs Long Term Gains
As an entrepreneur, you understand the importance of making decisions that will benefit your business in the long term. However, balancing these decisions with the need for short-term wins can be challenging.
In this blog post, we will explore the importance of mindset in business and how to make decisions that strike a balance between – helping you move forward in the short term but that will also benefit you in the long term and help you work towards your bigger vision goals and ambitions.
The Internal Struggle Between Short-term Wins and Long-term Gains
As business owners, we have to make so many choices every day, and one of the most challenging decisions is whether to make choices that will benefit us now or focus on those that will benefit our future selves.
We live in a world where we are used to instant gratification, and we often get stuck in the mindset of “What can I do right now to see a difference?”. But, this fear of missing out on short-term gains can prevent us from thinking bigger picture and having a long-term strategy.
It’s important to think about the actions you are taking in your business.
Are you taking actions that will help you achieve a longer-term strategy and goal or just surviving and firefighting?
Day-to-day decisions have a significant impact on your business.
Bigger picture impact: Short-term Wins vs. Long-term Goals
Short-term gains often cause longer-term difficulties. Playing the short game in business and not building the foundations or not being willing to put in the work and time to leverage compound growth can be detrimental to your business’s long-term success. You are more likely to only be solving short term problems and adopting a firefighting approach to your business, for example making single sales at a sale as opposed to creating a sales process that will bring in regular sales.
Are you making decisions that might benefit you in the short term but are actually taking away from your long-term goals and vision.
For example, taking on a client at a reduced rate because it’s going to bring in more now is a short-term win
Bigger picture impact – taking up hours of availability at a cheaper rate rather than holding out to fill that capacity with a better client which will be more profitable.
Short-term gain – I won’t do my social media marketing because it will give me time back to make sure I can do all my client work – short term gain is time back.
Long term impact = not increasing visibility, not building a following for new clients, not generating new leads so when a client leaves, you can easily fill a space.
To achieve lasting success, it's essential to play the long game and build the foundations.
The Importance of Playing the Long Game
Playing the long game means thinking about your business’s future and investing time and effort into activities that may not bring immediate results but will benefit you in the long run. It’s about being willing to invest time and patience into doing the activities that will make a bigger impact, but may take longer to come to fruition.
If you want to grow your business and create sustainability however it’s crucial to stop chasing short-term success and start building your foundations. The longer you play the game, the better the rewards will be!
Taking steps now to set yourself up for longer-term success will pay off in the future. In order to do this however, you must have longer term goals in place. You need to know what you are working towards!
But do short-term wins have a place in business?
I believe they do. And not just financially.
👉 Small wins along the way help to build confidence
👉 Create momentum towards your long-term goals.
👉 Combat procrastination and improve focus
👉 Provide clarity and allow you to adjust your strategy – you can gain feedback
👉Small wins can create a compound effect – don’t underestimate the tiny victories, as they can have a significant impact on your business’s success.
👉 The problem lies however when you are focusing ONLY on the short-term wins.
The impact of short term wins can also depend where you are in your business. If you are starting out you might be focused on short wins to gain momentum, but gets to a point where you have to start moving into thinking longer term and bigger picture if you want to see change in your business.
It's essential to balance short-term wins with long-term goals. Success lies in achieving small wins, but small wins that will help lead to your long-term goals.
As a female entrepreneur therefore, it’s crucial to balance short-term wins with long-term goals in order to help your business thrive.
It’s unlikely that only making decisions that benefit you in the short term will be best decision for your business’s long-term growth. Small wins have their place and don’t forget to celebrate them along the way but playing the long game and building the foundations for your business will pay off in the future.
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