We all know that aiming for perfection is important when you are doing the bookkeeping. Reconciling to the cent and making sure the numbers are right are some of the qualities of a great technician as Michael E Gerber refers to in the E Myth.
He also explains that if you run your business as a great technician then you will run yourself into the ground in the process, because the solution for all great technicians is to work harder and faster and longer. A manager, on the other hand thinks strategically. The following scenarios demonstrate his point.
You’re starting up your bookkeeping practice and you need business cards. You don’t have a snappy business name so you decide no marketing can be done until that’s resolved. You do some research and discover thousands of names have already been taken. Not so easy. You spend weeks (or months) brainstorming names with friends and family. This has to be perfect before you get started. Everything depends on it – you think.
Or, you’ve set a goal of filling your books in 12 months. After a short time of trying to come up with a snappy business name without success you make the strategic decision of getting business cards printed with your name and contact details on it. You tell family and friends that you’re open for business and you give them some business cards to hand out to business owners they know. You build a one-page website which is all about how you empower business owners around their finances and the systems you use to guarantee that. You join networking groups and hand out your business cards. You get your first few clients in the first month.
The latter scenario combines a powerful vision with a strategy to achieve it. Is your aim of marketing perfection getting in the way of marketing success?
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