Teaching This Fall, And Why Waiting on Better Numbers Slows You Down
I want to share something with you before we get into this.
This fall, I’ll be joining Wake Forest University as an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Entrepreneurship Program. It’s something I’ve spent years doing in practice, and now I get to bring it into the classroom in a more structured way. Preparing for that has reinforced something I see in businesses all the time.
Where Things Start to Slow Down
There’s a point in the year where things begin to settle in. You’ve closed a few cycles, reports are coming in more consistently, and there’s more to look at.
That’s usually when decisions start to slow down, not because the business is struggling, but because there’s now enough data to second guess what you’re seeing. An owner looks at the numbers and thinks, “Let’s wait one more month.” It sounds responsible, but it usually isn’t.
What’s Really Going On
At this stage, your numbers are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. They’re showing you what already happened.
But they often get used for something else. They’re expected to remove uncertainty, and when they don’t, it feels like something is missing. So the decision gets pushed.
Here’s the part that matters. Your numbers don’t remove uncertainty. They help you move forward with it. There is no version of your reports that gives you complete certainty, only a version that gives you enough understanding to take the next step.
What That Looks Like in Practice
I worked with an owner who was trying to decide whether to add capacity. The business was growing and the team was stretched, but the decision kept getting pushed.
Each month brought a slightly different set of numbers, and with it, a slightly different set of questions. The picture didn’t get clearer, it just changed. Meanwhile, the team stayed stretched and momentum slowed. Waiting feels safe, but it holds things in place.
What Teaching Forces You to Do
Preparing to teach has brought me back to something simple. If something can’t be explained clearly, it hasn’t been understood well enough yet. Students don’t need more data, they need to know what to do with it.
That’s no different in a business. If your numbers don’t lead you to a decision, they’re incomplete.
A Better Way to Use Them
At some point, the question has to change. Not “Do I have enough data yet?” but “What decision am I trying to make right now?”
Then look at your numbers through that lens. What actually changed, what hasn’t, and is that enough to take the next step? Not the final answer, just the next move.
Where This Usually Leads
Once you get comfortable moving with enough information, something shifts. Decisions get faster and momentum picks back up, not because the numbers changed, but because how you use them did.
Start There
If you’ve been waiting for your numbers to feel more complete before making a move, it may be time to look at what’s already there differently. You don’t need perfect information, you need enough to take the next step.
If you want to walk through that, you can start here:
https://nexagy.com/contact-us/