We live in a metrics-driven world. How many likes did that post get? How many followers do I have? How many readers joined my mailing list? How many mailing list subscribers have turned into clients? How many clients have referred new people?

As small business owners, we spend a lot of time counting things. We’ve been raised on the idea that “what gets measured gets done.” KPIs or bust. (If you’ve been fortunate enough to live blissfully free of corporate acronyms KPIs = Key Performance Indicators.)

Paying attention to the right numbers is necessary to running a business.

So what do you do with a flash of inspiration that doesn’t come with a ruler to measure it against?

What happens to the language you know will speak directly to your ideal clients but hasn't been tested against top-performing keywords?

How do you handle a program idea that appears out of thin air without reams of data or research in tow?

Do you ignore it? Or do you Frank Capra it?

That quote was last week’s Friday Inspiration, direct from Frank Capra, the director of classic movies including It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and many others.

And it’s a solid endorsement to not let those nudges go unheeded. They are a signal that may lead you to create something unexpected, unexplored and unrepresented in the world.

Play with that hunch. Give it some space to breathe and see what it turns into.

Maybe it’ll be something, maybe it won’t. Maybe it will freshen up your thinking about what you do and how you talk about it. Maybe it will just be a funny little idea that doesn’t stand a chance of panning out.

That’s okay.

All metrics all the time make our businesses, our words and, dare I say, our personalities* a little dull.

Leave some room for the hunch. You never know what you might end up creating.

Have any hunches tapped you on the shoulder lately? Tell me about it on the 423 Communication Facebook page (and “like” 423 while you’re there, because, metrics!)

*Okay, the personality thing is completely subjective and coming from the skewed perspective of someone who could easily convince herself to follow a sketchy hunch into a dark alley. For a long time, numbers and metrics were not my thing. At all. Residue of that anti-metric zealotry still pops up from time to time. I’m working on it.

Photo: DeathtoStockPhoto.com