Are You Delaying Opportunities?

Are you a delayer? (which is slightly different from a procrastinator…) 

A procrastinator is someone that puts off things that they know should be done in a timely manner, until the last minute.   

A delayer is someone who schedules something for later that could be done sooner. That can be costly to your business, and your self-esteem. Let me give you a (real life) example. A client just said yes to giving a talk to a group of people from an organisation they’ve recently got involved with. They’ve been given another chance to speak two weeks later, or two months later.  Which do you think they chose? Which would you choose? 
 
It would be easy to choose the two months down the line option. Don’t. Don’t let the voice in your head, the voice of ‘reason’ convince you to delay. Yes, the same group of people might see you again, so what?  If you really think it through, that’s a good thing; repetition of your message, reinforcement of your expert status and just the opportunity to share what you know in a slightly different way, to the same people having a different day.   

Delaying only means that you are hurting your opportunity to share what you know with people who need it.  

Instead, start to say YES to all the opportunities, and the sooner the better. Even if you are not ready, even if you have to write a new talk, even if you think they might not want to see you so soon. Don’t make that call, just show up and serve. Delaying hurts your potential to make impact and income. The delaying tactic is usually you making excuses for what you’ve not quite got in place (whether that’s systems or confidence). Saying yes will make you take action to put whatever is needed in place.  

As it turns out, this client ended up getting 3 talks booked – one now, one in two weeks AND one in two months. That’s 3 chances to get more work in, where they might only have had two.   

Where in your business are you currently putting off or delaying opportunity?