When you have your own business it’s totally normal to want “things” to be done a certain way. That “way” is part of your brand and your values and it will be one of the reasons why your clients enjoy working with you.
BUT most business owners have certain “ways” of doing things that can severely damage their business.
These tendencies can significantly dent their growth potential.
You’ll know if you are affected by this condition if you answer “Yes” to any of these…
- You repeatedly tweak copy before using it.
- You put off doing “stuff” because you want to go back through it to make sure it’s just right.
- You delay launching new products or services because you haven’t dotted every “i” or crossed the “t”s.
Have I just described you? Are you suffering from a case of Perfection Paralysis?
I’ve never yet met a business owner without a reasonable control freak streak in them so it is normal to want to make sure whatever you do is up to your usual standard.
BUT when it gets to the point that you delay sending out new marketing material, or launching a new product/service, or even simply spend ages rereading every email before you send it, then you need to change.
At this stage your perfectionist tendencies are restricting your ability to grow your business.
To put this another way…your perfectionist steak is negatively affecting your bank balance.
The good news is there is a cure!
Now that you are aware of your condition you can immediately start to manage it, and it’s easier to do than you think.
Let’s take writing copy as an example. There is usually a significant improvement between the first draft you’ll do of an email campaign, for example, and the second draft. However the changes from that point onwards make less and less impact.
As they make less and less impact then there is less value in doing them.
We all have different writing styles so you might actually be spending ages tweaking something to the point you feel it’s perfect, but that doesn’t mean all your readers would have written it the same way.
Therefore all that extra time was wasted.
One more warning…perfectionist tendencies can also be a sign of comfort zone challenges.
It’s easy to allow yourself to keep rereading things as it delays you from having to step outside your comfort zone. Again this can be easily self-managed.
What perfectionist tendencies do you have?
How are they impacting on your business?
What action are you going to take to improve that situation today?
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