Is perfection a good thing. Of course – but like too much of a good thing, it can also be harmful and actually hurt your chances of business success. Here's how …
One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome when building my business was accepting imperfection and moving forward anyway.
There's no doubt perfection is mandatory for some professions like accounting, dentistry or medicine. As one of your clients or patients, I would expect you to settle for nothing less than perfection when calculating my taxes or assessing my health.
But for the majority of business owners, perfection doesn't need to be as rigid, at least in certain areas ... let me explain.
If you have a product or service that could prove potentially harmful or fatal if not perfected prior to release, then by all means it should not be released until it has passed rigorous (or industry standard) testing and received the stamp of approval.
But in other areas of business like sending out regular communications, creating campaigns, or developing products and services that aren't potentially harmful, insisting on perfection can seriously hinder your success.
Look at Microsoft. Almost every year they release a new version of Windows. And the automotive industry ... every year there are new designs, added accessories and discontinued features.
There's no such thing as perfection with certain things -- only innovation. You begin with something then improve upon it.
Your product or service will evolve as your clients and customers offer feedback or request more of one thing, less of another or something different altogether.
In the case of creating promotional pieces, the results they generate will help you measure their level of success so you can go back to the drawing board to improve and expand.
Split testing is a great way to measure performance. Pick the winner of the split test, try to improve on it and test again.
I can't recall how many hours I wasted trying to have every "i" dotted and "t" crossed on my first web site. I spent more time worrying about grammar and sentence structure than whether or not it was making me money.
It was around that time my marketing coach told me, "You don't have to get it perfect. You just have to get it going." Every minute I spent focused on the minor details was time not focused on the big picture.
This may not be the most comforting advice, but it's true -- there will not be another time your product or service will be any worse than the first time you put it out there.
And once it's out and feedback begins to come in, you can begin the process of improving and perfecting.
Sit back and take a few moments to review the projects you're currently working on. If you can honestly say you're swimming in insignificant details, move past the need for perfection and just get it going.
2006 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source
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