Speed is important in business. Nearly a decade ago it was the topic of one of my newsletters, simply titled Speed. I love to go fast. My top driving speed is 145 MPH in a Ferrari 488 GTB at SpeedVegas and although they didn’t record top speeds, last August I drove a BMW M3 Competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (I know, that’s a lot of hyperlinks).
But today, I’m cautioning you to slow down. Let me give you three good examples of why you should do so.
- Last week, I attended a lunch time presentation where the topic was fraud prevention. One of the most meaningful things one can do to prevent fraud is to take the time to read carefully before you click on a link or act upon an email. There is a reason that fraudsters try to create a sense of urgency to act. They don’t want you to take the time notice that the domain extension has a letter out of place or that the email from your “boss” telling you to wire money immediately just seems to be worded a bit oddly. By the way, the other tip was an alphanumeric password with special symbols of at least 12 characters in length.
- Last month, someone in my world hurriedly made a payment to meet a deadline. Unfortunately, they didn’t call anyone “in the know” to verify the amount and the result was an overpayment. We’ll ultimately recover the overpaid amount as the money went to someone with whom we have a long term relationship, but pausing and double checking could have avoided the issue. In the follow up meeting as I dug to uncover the facts, I was asked, “What if we were late with the payment?”. “Good question”, I said, “what indeed would have happened?” A follow up phone call or email from the receiving party? Or we could have notified the other party that we’d be a day or two late. Either way, no real harm would have come from it. The better course would have been to pause, double check, and then proceed.
- Yesterday, I was writing an email to a board member of a not-for-profit I serve. I wanted to make two key points. After I wrote it, I asked my wife to read it before I hit send. I’m glad that I did. The first point was fine, but she suggested the second would be better handled via a phone call. I changed the email before sending. Had I not done so, it would have likely resulted in a lot of time spent on emails back and forth and probably a phone call anyway.
Bottom line, I think moving fast is important but not at the cost of needless mistakes. Sometimes going just a little bit slower is faster in the long run. Slow down.
If your business could benefit from fractional CFO services, I would welcome the chance to speak with you. Please give me a call at (314) 863-6637 or send an email to [email protected]
The archive of these monthly newsletters is posted at the Resources section of homza.com
your cash is flowing. know where.®
Ken Homza
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