In my many years spent working in fundraising and nonprofit management, people were always trying to find reasons and predict why certain fundraisers or events did well and others didn’t. There were always so many variables that sometimes we could come up with some pretty good guesses, and other times we could only wonder at why people either turned out or didn’t, or we made money or didn’t. The same thing can happen in our home businesses—as we work to try to figure out what is working and what is not.
Sometimes, things completely out of our control can have an effect on our businesses—weather, holidays, other local events, the economy—these are all things that can affect our businesses without our realizing it. For example, if a sales event is held on a Saturday and it turns out to be the first really nice weekend in weeks weather-wise, sales will likely be down. Had the day been rainy and blustery, sales may have been more abundant.
If you are keeping a diary or log and making notations about your business operations and efforts, you might want to track any details you think might influence business. Then you can look back and try to make rhyme and reason out of what the cause and effect are of various elements. You might be able to see if it makes more sense to hold an event earlier or later, or if sending out a direct mail ad during a certain time of year really does result in increased sales or not.
It is important to not get too carried away with fussing and worrying over cause and effect, however. Sometimes, the more we study and try to influence outcomes, the more immobilized we can actually become. Try to keep an eye on the big picture and accept that sometimes things will unfold without any apparent reason—even in the business world!
See Also: When Is It Time To Call In The Experts? and Can We Ever Know What Other People Really Think?