Why Scaling a Business is About Progress, Not Perfection
How often do you procrastinate on something important because you are paralyzed by the need to achieve perfectionism? General George S. Patton once said, “a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” Patton’s point is this - achieving big goals, which often is the case when scaling a fast-growing D2C brand, is about putting good plans into action now, instead of pouring over the creation of a perfect plan that is never implemented.
Over and over again, I find that successful people in all walks of life aren’t perfect in their execution, they are prolific. They build a foundation of daily rituals - seemingly ordinary habits that, over time, create extraordinary results.
Last week I was listening to Chris Do’s The Futur podcast. He was interviewing serial entrepreneur and author Daniel Priestley. There was a point Daniel made that stuck out to me and continues to ring out over and over in my head: success results from creating a prolific (not a perfect) body of work.
He cited the Beatles as an example. The Beatles wrote over 200 songs during their career. That’s equivalent to 1 song every 2 weeks for 8 years. How many Beatles hits can you quickly recall? Far fewer than 200. The point is this – their body of work was prolific, and over time, a few perfect songs (their biggest hits) emerged.
So why do I bring this up? Because I want to encourage you today. Any big goals you aspire to achieve as you scale your fast-growing business can be done. Just get started, now!
You don’t need to start today with actions that are perfect. You just need to start. Focus on creating a small new habit that, over time, results in a prolific body of work.
For example–if you aspire to increase your sales by 50%, start with a small habit – work on marketing activities for 15 minutes every day. Increase the frequency of this habit each week, and eventually, you’ll have a prolific pipeline of new prospective customers. Before you know it, your goal will be achieved!
As another example–-if you want to write a book, start writing 100 words every morning before you start the rest of your day. This article is a few hundred words and it only took me 10 minutes to write!
Start with small habits that move you towards your dreams, and increase their frequency and length, a little bit at a time, over consecutive days, weeks, months, and years – and the result will be the life you’ve always dreamed of.
The point I’m making here is this: building a business that is truly meaningful and full of achieved dreams is about progress not perfection. Get started today with small habits that build towards your most meaningful goals. And don’t let “the perfect” stop you from starting to proliferate something that is good. If you add a little bit each day to your body of work in a meaningful area of your business, it will eventually become prolific. And, over time, within that prolific body of work, you will find little gems, your “hit songs,” that are the success you set out to achieve in the first place.
Also, don’t forget– another key to successfully scaling a fast-growing business is to have the right support on your team. One of the most valuable support roles for the founder/CEO of a fast-growing D2C brand is a CFO. If you don’t currently have a CFO on your team, I highly recommend getting one.
A great CFO will give you the financial and data-driven insights you need to make fast, effective business decisions with confidence.
If you don’t currently have the budget to afford a full-time CFO, contact Free to Grow CFO. We provide the outsourced, part-time CFO you need to scale your business without the full-time salary.
