If you’re a small business owner, you know the feeling. You’re staring at a big decision. Maybe it’s about launching a new product, hiring a key employee, or investing in a major piece of equipment. Your stomach is in knots. You lie awake at night running the numbers over and over in your head. You tell yourself, “I just need a little more information. Once I’m 100% sure, I’ll pull the trigger.”
Here’s a hard truth: if you’re waiting for 100% certainty, you have already made a decision. The decision is not to act. And in today’s fast-moving world, that decision to stall is often more costly than making the wrong choice.
There is a better way. It’s a concept used by successful leaders, from military generals to tech CEOs. It’s called the 70% Rule. The rule is simple: the best time to make a decision is when you have about 70% of the information you feel you need. If you wait for more, you’re waiting too long. Speed, more often than not, wins.
This article will break down why this rule is so powerful for small businesses. We’ll explore why our brains crave 100% certainty, why that’s a trap, and how you can start using the 70% rule to move faster, outmaneuver competitors, and build a stronger, more resilient company.
Part 1: The Myth of 100% and the Paralysis of Analysis
Why do we feel we need to be 100% sure before we decide? It’s built into our wiring. We’re afraid of failure, of losing money, of looking foolish. We believe that more information will protect us from these bad outcomes. This leads to what’s called “analysis paralysis.”
Analysis paralysis is exactly what it sounds like: you get so stuck analyzing every single detail, every possible outcome, that you become paralyzed. You can’t move forward. For a small business, this is deadly.
The Costs of Waiting for 100%:
You Miss Opportunities: The market doesn’t stand still. While you’re spending three months researching the perfect customer relationship management (CRM) software, your competitor launches a new marketing campaign and grabs your customers’ attention. The window for a great opportunity is often small. If you don’t jump through it quickly, it slams shut.
You Waste Precious Resources: Time, energy, and mental focus are your most valuable assets. Endlessly researching a decision consumes these resources without producing any results. That’s 40 hours you could have spent selling, improving your product, or building your team. The quest for perfect information has a very real cost.
You Let Fear Take Over: The longer you dwell on a decision, the bigger and scarier it becomes. Doubts multiply. What started as a simple choice between Option A and Option B becomes a monster of “what-ifs.” This stress drains your passion and can lead to burnout.
You Cede the Field to Competitors: Business is a game of moves and countermoves. The business that acts first sets the pace. They become the innovator, while you become the follower. Speed is a competitive advantage. Slowness is a surrender.
Think of it like this: imagine you’re driving a car on a cross-country trip. You have a map, but it’s not perfect. The 100% approach would be to stop at every intersection, get out of the car, and survey the land for miles ahead to be absolutely certain you’re on the right path. You’d never get there! The 70% approach is to use your map, check your compass, and keep driving. You might take a wrong turn occasionally, but you can correct it. And you’ll reach your destination long before the person who never left the first parking lot.
Part 2: Why 70% is the Sweet Spot for Smart Decisions
So, why 70%? Why not 50% or 90%? The 70% mark is the sweet spot. It’s the point where you have enough information to make an educated guess, but not so much that you’re bogged down by minor details that don’t change the big picture.
At 70% information, you understand the core problem, the main goals, the biggest risks, and the most likely outcomes. The remaining 30% is often made up of unknowns that are either unknowable beforehand or are small details that won’t fundamentally alter the success of your decision.
The Benefits of Deciding at 70%:
Speed Becomes Your Superpower: When you commit to deciding faster, you accelerate everything. You learn faster, you adapt faster, and you grow faster. You get feedback from the real world, which is infinitely more valuable than theoretical data. This creates a powerful cycle of action, learning, and improvement.
You Embrace a Learning Mindset: Making a decision at 70% forces you to accept that you might not be right. And that’s okay! This shifts your mindset from “I must be correct” to “Let’s try this and see what happens.” This is the mindset of an innovator. Every outcome, success or failure, is a data point that makes you smarter.
You Build Momentum: Action creates energy. Making a decisive move, even a small one, builds momentum in your business and your team. It creates a culture of empowerment and progress. People get excited about moving forward, rather than frustrated by standing still.
You Develop Better Judgment: You can’t learn to make good decisions by reading about them. You learn by making decisions, period. The more decisions you make, the better your intuition and judgment become. It’s like building a muscle. The 70% rule gives you the reps you need to become a master decision-maker.
A Small Business Example: The Website Redesign
Imagine you own a local bakery and know your website is outdated. You need a new one.
The 100% Approach: You spend six months researching every website platform. You interview 15 web designers. You create a 50-page document detailing every feature, from the exact shade of pink for the cupcake icon to the animation on the shopping cart. You are exhausted before you even start, and the project is stalled.
The 70% Approach: You know your main goals: the site must be easy to use on a phone, it must allow online orders, and it must show your bakery’s personality. Within two weeks, you research three top-rated platforms, get quotes from three designers with good portfolios, and pick one. You know you haven’t thought of everything, but you have a clear plan for the essentials. You launch the new site in two months. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge improvement. You immediately start getting more online orders, and you use customer feedback to make small tweaks over time.
Who is better off? The baker who acted at 70% has a working website, real customer data, and increased revenue. The one waiting for 100% has a folder full of notes and a website from 2012.
Part 3: How to Put the 70% Rule into Action Today
Understanding the rule is one thing. Applying it is another. It requires a shift in habits. Here is a practical, step-by-step guide to using the 70% rule in your business.
Step 1: Define the Decision and the “Must-Have” Outcome.
First, get crystal clear. What decision are you actually making? Write it down in one sentence. Then, ask: “What is the single most important outcome?” What must this decision accomplish? For the bakery, the outcome was: “Increase online orders.” This clarity prevents you from getting lost in less important details.
Step 2: Set a Time Limit for Research.
This is crucial. You must box in your research time. Decide in advance: “I will spend no more than one week gathering information on this.” Or one day, or one hour, depending on the size of the decision. When the timer goes off, your research phase is over. This forces you to focus on the most critical information and stops the endless cycle of “just one more article.”
Step 3: Identify the Vital 70%.
What information is absolutely necessary to make an educated decision? This usually includes:
Cost: What is the budget?
Core Requirements: What are the 2-3 things this solution must do? (e.g., mobile-friendly, online ordering).
Biggest Risk: What is the worst-case scenario? How can you minimize it?
The Alternative: What happens if you do nothing?
If you have clear answers to these questions, you are likely at 70%. The other details—the specific font, the minor features—are part of the 30% you will figure out later.
Step 4: Make the Call and Empower Your Team.
Once you hit your time limit and have your vital information, you must decide. Don’t hold a meeting to discuss holding another meeting. Make the call. Communicate it clearly to your team. Also, delegate smaller decisions to your employees using the same rule. Tell them, “You have the authority to solve customer complaints. You don’t need my approval for refunds under $100. Use your best judgment with 70% of the info.” This spreads a culture of speed throughout your organization.
Step 5: Build in Feedback Loops and Course Correct.
This is the most important step. Deciding at 70% does not mean you charge ahead blindly forever. It means you act quickly, but you also pay close attention to the results.
After you make your decision, set check-in points. Ask:
Is this working? Are we moving toward our goal?
What is the feedback from customers or employees?
What have we learned?
Based on this real-world feedback, you adjust. You course correct. This is how you nail down the remaining 30%. The decision is not a single, frozen event; it’s the beginning of a process of refinement.
Part 4: When is it Okay to Wait for More Than 70%?
The 70% rule is a powerful guideline, but it’s not a rigid law for every single situation. There are times when the stakes are so high that you need more information.
When to Slow Down:
Life-or-Death or Existential Threats: If a decision could literally put someone’s safety at risk or bankrupt your company, it’s wise to be more thorough. For example, choosing a new industrial machine for your factory requires more safety scrutiny than choosing a new brand of coffee for the breakroom.
Long-Term, Irreversible Commitments: Some decisions are very hard or expensive to undo. Signing a 10-year lease on a new building is a major commitment. While you shouldn’t analysis-paralyze, it’s reasonable to get closer to 90% certainty on such a huge decision.
When Core Values Are on the Line: If a potential decision goes against the core values of your company, it’s a red flag. Take the time to really think it through. For example, taking on an investor who offers a lot of money but wants you to cut corners on product quality might be a decision that requires deep reflection.
The key is to be intentional. Are you gathering more information for a truly valid, high-stakes reason? Or are you just hiding from the fear of being wrong? Be honest with yourself.
Conclusion: Win the Race by Starting Now
In the race of business, the tortoise and the hare story doesn’t always apply. Often, it’s the fastest hare that wins, as long as it’s paying attention and can adjust its path.
Waiting for perfect information is a luxury that small businesses cannot afford. The world is moving too fast. Your competitors are moving too fast. Your customers’ expectations are changing too fast.
The 70% rule is your strategy for winning in this environment. It’s about trading the false comfort of certainty for the real power of action. It’s about learning by doing, adapting on the fly, and building a business that is agile, resilient, and always moving forward.
So, look at your to-do list right now. What decision have you been putting off? Hiring that new person? Launching that new service? Calling that big client?
You probably have enough information. You’re likely at 70%. Don’t wait for 100%. Make the call. Speed wins. And your future, faster-moving business will thank you for it.
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Hi, I’m Heather.
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