What We Feel: Employees want. Customers want. Investors want. Board members want. Family wants. Keeping everyone aligned is hard. Keeping everyone happy is daunting.

In the beginning of your entrepreneurial venture, there are many competing priorities. Your employees, vendors, customers, and investors also have different interests, and it is common to have these interests in competition at all stages of the business. With more established businesses, however, existing policies and procedures, managed by a strong team, help to moderate these conflicts as part of company process. You don’t have that luxury yet—or the time or the resources to keep everyone’s interests in line all the time.

Your inclination, and certainly mine, was to conclude that it was unnecessary and time consuming—and probably impossible—to establish an overarching procedure for making decisions. Decisions both big and small were being made left and right under the assumption that whatever got decided was in the company’s best interest. It seemed like a reasonable assumption.

Don’t assume everyone is on the same page. Establish a succinct message from the start and continue to reinforce it with everyone you  encounter.

The only criteria for making decisions is what is in the best interest of the business. By establishing this principle, you set criteria for decision-making that everyone understands, and is expected to share. This will serve you well in a variety of situations, including employee compensation, vendor negotiations, or internal conflicts—whether it’s a disagreement between employees, a necessary disciplinary action, or an employee complaint of unfair treatment. When everyone has the best interest of the business at heart, the hard decisions will be a little easier to make.

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