Over my years in business, there have been many occasions when I’ve waited far too long to do something as it wasn’t perfect, (in my eyes). Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never aimed at running a perfect business, just the right business for me, and the customers I’m aiming to serve.
With waiting for perfect timing though, I’ve lost out. I’ve lost to a competitor, I’ve lost customers, I’ve lost face, I’ve lost pride, and more often than not, I’ve lost money.
Sometimes we want to wait until it’s perfect business timing. What does that actually mean?
Well, in public relations terms, you set up situations and grand launches, and embargo information until it’s the perfect time to release information about your product, service, event, award, or whatever it is you want to shout about? So what happens if your news, which you’ve been promised coverage of on radio, TV and online media, gets shunted down the priority list when a live news story is more important than your story?
It happens. I’ll never forget when I was Project Director for a charity in Preston who had been awarded a massive national lottery grant. The day chosen to release this information, and share it with the world, there was a bomb attack in Manchester (30 miles away), which was obviously higher priority to report on, than our project. All that planning, smoozing, PR training for TV and radio with all of the key team members, was lost in the space of 30 seconds gratuitous activity. We had no-where to go, apart from share our story on a lesser scale with those closer to home.
Don’t wait until it’s perfect
I’ve recently been waiting for things to fall into place so I can get my website revamped. I know, I help others create their websites, and help them with ongoing website promotion, but I haven’t spent time getting mine up to date, looking beautiful and working well.
Well, for starters, I’d been waiting until I knew what I wanted to offer my clients. Then I was waiting to work out my new branding. Then I thought I’d wait until I had the money in the bank before committing my developer’s time to create the new website. All of those things felt important to me 6 weeks ago.
And then I started thinking. OK, so my website is one place for my customers to come for information. Even if I don’t like the look of what I’m presenting, if my words are the right words, I should still be sharing them shouldn’t I? So I started to knock down all my beliefs about what was perfect for me, my business, and my website.
If I was to wait for everything to fall into place, how long do you think I’d be waiting for to give the website a refresh? No, I don’t know either, but it certainly wouldn’t have been the 2 weeks I’ve taken to get everything sorted!
So, without really thinking about it, I got on and created the course I’d been wanting to deliver for a month or so, to help existing clients get their website working.
Guess what? I’m loving it, and nothing is perfect. The branding is all over the place as I explore options and see what clients like, (and work through the lovely Brand Saschka‘s free branding and marketing course). No-one seems to be bothered about what things look like, but they’re responding to my words. What I’m offering is what clients are wanting – that’s the important part. I’m still the same person and the business becomes trusted if we deliver what we say we’ll deliver, not because we look perfect, or say perfect things.
What does perfect business mean to you?
Perfect business, to me, means that I’m inspiring confidence in clients to make things happen in their business. Whether that’s through coaching, training or done for you work, perfect is doing the work to the high standard I expect of myself and my team.
When you think about the word perfect in relation to your business, what does that look like or feel like to you? Write it in the comments below, I’m intrigued, as we’ll all have different takes on what perfect means in relation to your business.
Are you holding back on something as it’s not perfect timing, or the perfect design hasn’t been found yet? Or are you happy when you put yourself out as perfect solution to your customers problems and solve them for them.
How good do you and your team feel when you’ve done a perfect job for a customer (offered the perfect product or service at the perfect price to help them with an issue they’d had)? Was that perfection tied up in all the pfaff we often believe we need to have in our business?
Don’t be perfect, be in business
I’ve worked with clients who wouldn’t even talk to their family and friends about their business idea as they didn’t believe it was perfect enough to be talked about.
I’ve worked with clients who told me they couldn’t go to networking events as their business cards weren’t ready yet.
OK. We all have our own different needs in our lives and businesses. But seriously? If you want your business to succeed, you need to be talking about it, even sharing ideas and seeing where they land, or doing market research in networking groups and ensuring you take everyone’s card and contact them straight away with your details.
Whether you agree with me or not on doing business because that’s what we do, rather than running a perfect business, I’d love to hear from you. Have you waited too long and the opportunity has passed your business by? Or have you spent so long getting the branding perfect for your business and now you’ve lost interest in your business altogether? (It happens, so don’t worry about it).
Reach out and let’s talk if you’re concerned you’re spending too long on achieving perfection and not enough on doing business and serving your customers.
Let’s be not perfect together, but enjoy what we’re doing in our lives and business. Agree?
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