It is summertime. The weather here in Jerusalem is baking, and just lends another excuse for some of my clients to procrastinate – well, they try to until they meet up with me.

Business coaching is fun, yet challenging. As a mentor, you meet up with all kinds of people in a fascinating variety of commercial practices. For all that, when it comes to putting things off – a.k.a. procrastination – there are three common subjects, which small business owners take on yet rarely seem able to pull off.

1) Budgets

How many times have I heard people say: “Yes, I will prepare a draft budget by next week”. And as 7 and then 14 days float by, you know that not too much as been added to a fairly empty excel spreadsheet. The reasons? Well, when you think about it, if you are not trained in finance, not that many people realise that budget preparation is a professional task. In addition, many confuse it with cash flow planning. (BTW, they are connected, but different).

However, as a business coach, what I know and my customers do not know is that budgets are designed to make business managers and owners think. They have to justify sales predictions, cost outcomes, salaries and more. That responsibility can be very frightening for people, a process they may want to delay handling.

2) Websites  

“Yup, I’ll write the content for our new site”, volunteers our brave CEO. He barely has enough time to plan the budget and now he also wants to write a few lines of wisdom.

If you look at many websites that have been released in the past year, the amount of wording is sharply curtailed compared to previous designs. The average reader has neither the time nor the patience for the carefully crafted sales-pitch.

However, even these relatively few lines have typically been reviewed repeatedly before approval. The content has to contain key words, sharp messages, emotion  and much more. 9 times out of 10, this is work for professional writers. And to admit that is not easy for a CEO, especially as it will also cost them money.

The irony is that the longer they leave it, the website is delayed. Thus sales are held back, and less money comes in. Dangerous cycle.

3) Manpower issues

Generally, most of us avoid confrontation. So when it comes down to talking sharply to, even firing, that problematic employee, we back away. We hope that things will improve, even without an initial caution.

So guess what happens? The worker carries on with the bad habits, and the problem becomes more entrenched. Back to the dangerous cycle, until disaster happens. Then we have a perfect excuse to strike….when it is too late!

As I wrote, it is summer time. In the past week or so, all of this has come up. My talented CEOs stall, fumbling away for excuses. And I am left trying to explain why their mumblings have the same meaning as an 8 year old pleading with his teacher that “I really did do my homework, but left it on the bus”.

What makes them change their habits? When I explain to them just how must their delaying tactics are costing them. They are literally throwing money down the sink.